Cattle horn
locality is unknown, the first decade of the 20th century
beef horn
cutting, cleaning
length of the instrument = 35 cm
Et 14451
The Collection of Musical Instruments
The cattle horn is an aerophone whose hollow, upper, narrower section is cut and slightly notched. This part is used to blow the air in. The horn is slightly thinner and brighter on the bottom. It seems that some type of cattle was chained using this part. A small hole is drilled on the bottom so that the instrument could be hung.
The place where the instrument was made is not known. It was obtained for the Museum by Božidar Širola in 1944. The horn was used as a signalling instrument. It was most likely crafted by a shepherd. If the shepherds wanted to know if anyone was calling out to them or if a cart was approaching they turned the horn upside down and listened on it for the sounds in the distance. In this case the instrument was called an earpiece.
