Sounds from the past

Recreating the sound of Tutankhamun's trumpets

Tutankhamun's trumpet was one of the rare artefacts stolen from the Cairo Museum during the recent uprising. The 3,000-year-old instrument is rarely played, but a 1939 BBC radio recording captured its haunting sound.

Among the "wonderful things" Howard Carter described as he peered by candlelight into the newly discovered tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922 were two trumpets, one silver and one bronze.

For more than 3,000 years they had lain, muted, in the Valley of the Kings, close to the mummy of the boy king. Found in different parts of Tutankhamun's tomb, both were decorated with depictions of Egyptian gods identified with military campaigns.

Both became exhibits at the Cairo museum, but when it was broken into during the recent uprising, the bronze instrument vanished. Luckily, the silver one was away on exhibition tour.

Egyptologists were already reeling from the loss of many of the country's antiquities, and many found the theft of one of the oldest surviving musical instruments in the world particularly poignant.

Fortunately the missing trumpet as well as other missing antiquities were found in a bag recently. If you want to hear the trumpets, played on BBC Radio in 1939, you can hear it by clicking on a player in the article. It's quite beautiful. I think the bronze one has a richer tone to it.