Bronze lur Archives - Musark

Inspiring and interdisciplinary on Bornholm

Gjermund Kolltveit — Mon, 11 May 2026 16:12:00 +0000

Over the May Day weekend, I took part in a few intense days on Bornholm exploring sound in prehistory. Participants from Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Germany, and England were brought together for explorations and experiments with instruments, voice, and sound. The gathering was organised by Eva Fock through her project Sound of Antiquity. This was not a traditional conference where one person after another presents results, but a collective exploration and development of questions and ideas—an interdisciplinary meeting between researchers and musicians. It was very fruitful to meet new people and explore new ideas.

The first day, at the rock-carving site Madsebakke, was devoted to lurs. No fewer than five bronze lurs were in use, alongside other metal lurs and lurs made of wood. I myself brought a couple of my short lurs, which in Norway have traditionally been called ‘stuttlurer’ or ‘bjønnatuter’.

We investigated, among other things, different playing techniques, acoustic reflections in the landscape and vegetation, and the ritual use of the instruments—including the effect of dissonance and interference.

The second day focused on the human voice, at Rispebjerg—an archaeological area with ancient remains from the Stone Age and Iron Age. One of the themes we explored was Tacitus’ description of the Germanic peoples’ use of shields as voice amplifiers; another was ceramic jars used as voice maskers.

In addition, I was part of a small group that tested mouth bows, based on a Danish Mesolithic find from Mullerup (ca. 9000 BP). It is a quiet instrument and was probably not meant to entertain many listeners. It sounds better inwardly in the body of the person playing—like a meditative overtone instrument.

On the last day we were in Ekkodalen (the Echo Valley) in the middle of the island—one of the biggest tourist attractions, both because of the cliff faces that answer back and the beautiful scenery. We held a successful sound walk open to the public, with different stations along the trail in the valley. I also took part in acoustic measurements together with my colleague Julia Shpinitskaya.

Thanks to Eva Fock in Ears Wide Open for a wonderful initiative!

We are testing mouth bows – based on a Mesolithic find from Mullerup, Zealand. From left: Lars Kynde, Kiku Day and Eva Fock.

Sound walk in Ekkodalen

A rock carving from the Bronze Age, not unlike the decorative plate on a bronze lur.

Bronze lur quintet at the Madsebakke rock carving site

The German archaeologist Joachim Schween plays the bronze lur for TV2 Bornholm.

Acoustic measurements in Ekkodalen using the IR (impulse response) method, which involves popping a balloon and measuring the strength and direction of the reflection. Here, I have just popped a balloon whilst Julia Shpinitskaya is managing the sound recordings. (Photo: Eva Fock)

Performance on short lurs I made myself during a pop-up concert in the square in Rønne.

Bronze lurs were just visible behind the earthen mound. Were these instruments restricted from view, only to be seen in certain situations?

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New bronze lur replicas

Gjermund Kolltveit — Mon, 06 Apr 2015 13:23:47 +0000

The trombonists Jens Chr. Kloster and Gaute Vikdal has arranged, in collaboration with the bronze caster Peter Jensen in Copenhagen, the reconstruction of two playable bronze lurs. This is the first time anyone in modern times has succeeded in recreating this amazingly advanced craft process. The manufacturing process is called “lost wax method”. One element that makes casting of bronze lurs extraordinarily demanding is that the conical tube is incredibly thin-walled. You can read about the project of Kloster and Vikdal in this article on the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation’s website (Norwegian text). At this web page you can read a summary of my own bronze lur-article from 2013. You can also download, from the publisher, a pdf of the article.

Foto: Nationalmuseet, København

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Bronze lurs revisited

Gjermund Kolltveit — Sun, 08 Dec 2013 17:08:50 +0000

The magnificent lurs of the Scandinavian Bronze Age have got a lot of attention from archaeologists as well as musicologists, since their discovery in the end of the 18th century and onwards. My contribution to this research tradition is the article “The Ritual Significance of the Scandinavian Bronze Age Lurs: An Examination Based on Ethnographic Analogies”, which is now in print. It will be published in the volume Music and Ritual – Bridging Material and Living Cultures, by the Berlin-based Ekho Verlag. A PDF of the article will soon be available from the publisher.

Here is the abstract of the article:

The horns of the Scandinavian Bronze Age—the so called bronze lurs—were originally deposited in pairs as sacrifices, most of them in wetlands. It is commonly accepted that these instruments were used for ritual and cultic purposes. Based on the archaeological contexts of the finds, iconographical sources, and analogies drawn from different instrument traditions, the article discusses and re-examines the ritual significance of the bronze lurs and their sound. It also analyses the utility value of analogy, and discusses the meaning and usability of the concept of ritual, in connection with religion, performance and music. Other lip-vibrated aerophones from several continents might in various ways provide some parallels to bronze lurs. From archaeological sources the lurs could be compared to the bronze horns of Ireland. Other European ancient trumpets are less relevant analogies, but still important as comparative material. One plausible interpretation of the ritual use of bronze lurs is that they were part of calendar celebrations that worshipped the sun, and thus ensured cyclical renewal, continuity and cosmological order.

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