The Trumpet of King Tutankhamen

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<!--The trumpet was called Snb in ancient Egypt.

<!--Two trumpets were discovered in the tomb of King Tutankhamen; one in the antechamber and one in the burial chamber. When we found them they were wrapped in reed mats. One is made of bronze and the other silver

<!--We have the bronze one displayed in the Egyptian museum. The silver one is out of the country

<!--The silver example was found in the antechamber of the tomb. It consists of a wooden core, tube and a bell that takes the shape of a lotus flower emblem of regeneration with a small silver band representing Amen Re and ra Hr Axty before Ptah. It has hieroglyphics giving names and epithets of the three deities and the cartouches of the king. The mouth piece is made of gold. This trumpet sufferes serious damage nowadays

<!--Two more types of musical instruments were found in the tomb of the king; the clapper and the sistra. The ancient Egyptian knew three types of musical instruments:

<!--Wind of blowing instruments such as the trumpets

<!--String instruments such as the harp

<!--Percussion instruments such as the sistrum, clappers

<!--Its sound was associated with the military activities as they normally started with sounding the horns or trumpets at the beginning of the wars or any military demonstrations. Scenes of trumpets represented on temples displayed the first line of soldiers of the army using them to announce the start of battles

<!--Its importance is that it is considered the only surviving sound of a wind instrument that we have heard from the time of ancient Egypt. It is considered one of the most fabulous and most important equipment found in the tomb of Tutankhamen as it creates the sound which we can hear like the ancient Egyptians ha heard thousands of years ago

<!--This one in front of us is made out of bronze consisting of two parts; the rod or the tube and the bell or the flare. It was found in the burial chamber. The bronze is in part over laid with gold, the mouth with a silver ring at the end fixed to the tube of the trumpet. Inside the trumpet there is a wooden stopper which is decorated with lotus flower painted in red and blue colors.

<!--This wooden stopper has three functions:

<!--It closes the tube to prevent the dust to enter inside the trumpet

<!--When covered with a cloth it could be used of r cleaning the inside of the bell itself

<!--To prevent the bell from being damaged and to retain its shape during storage as the bell was made out of a thin layer of bronze which could bend or break easily

<!--We have recordings for the sounds of the trumpet which are very unique as since their discovery the trumpets have been played on very few occasions considering their very bad condition. So it is very difficult to have such recordings nowadays

<!--There is a scene which is represented on the trumpet and it proves its association with military activities. This scene represents together with three gods ra Hr Axty, imn ra, pth. These gods were known later to be associated with the divisions of the army. By the time of Ramses II the army was divided into four divisions where these three gods headed each division and the fourth one was headed by god Seth

<!--The people in some nomes of Egypt didn’t like the sound of the trumpet thus they didn’t use it. Expecially in Busiris and Letopolis because they were cult centers of god Osiris and the sound of these horns reminded them with the braying of the donkey which was associated with god Seth the god of evil in ancient Egypt and the murderer of Osiris