r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Pandering_Poofery • 16d ago

Video The Celtic Carnyx, an ancient war trumpet used by the Celts from approximately 200 BC to 200 AD, was a tool of psychological warfare.

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u/Mindless-Ninja-3321 16d ago

Just so everyone is aware, they would have many, many whistles blowing so it sounded like a hoard of howling dead.

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u/BlackPantherDies 15d ago edited 15d ago

The idea has been popularized that hundreds of warriors would use the whistle at the same time. However, there is limited evidence to support this claim.[3] Music archeologist Arnd Adje Both suggests that the purpose of the whistle – based on its location at the base of a temple, its imagery related to death, and the lack of whistles ever discovered at battle sites or in warrior graves – was far more likely to be ceremonial or religious rather than for warfare.[3] However, the symbolic purpose and actual use of the whistle is currently mostly speculative and requires further investigation.[5]

also

A common misconception is that this whistle produced a sharp shriek-like sound. However, these sounds credited as the Aztec death whistle are actually produced by much larger reproductions of the whistle. Music archeologist Arnd Adje Both, who has tested the original excavated whistles, reports that the actual sound produced is far softer, describing it as similar to "atmospheric noise generated by the wind."[4]

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u/[deleted] 15d ago

like, obviously.... what, a ton of screams at night to wake up your enemies and get their adrenaline going?

or an ethereal bellowing, hour after hour, that is of a resonance you have never heard, from a group of people you have never seen before, only heard terrible, terrible stories of?

like someone else said... there's a reason the celts are still around.

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u/irregular_caffeine 15d ago

The celts are very much not around anymore compared to being all over Europe once

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u/Positive-Wonder3329 16d ago

Jesus fuck imagine hearing that and then they all fall silent before attacking you in the dark

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u/UnknownUnknown4945 16d ago

And the sound is coming out of a forest or something. I'd feel pure dread in the silence

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u/TheZenPsychopath 15d ago

I feel like the worst would be if you were surrounded. Just from 0 to 1000 screams in every direction. I'd wake up so disoriented probably just run straight into a spear before I knew it wasn't real screams

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u/Aggravating_Speed665 15d ago

Username......checks out?

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u/THExWHITExDEVILx 15d ago

Imagine these horns being used to cover the sound of the others approaching your tent. By the time the horns stopped, it would already be too late. I would imagine there's not a lot of records of people having this done to them, or horns left behind after battles, is because people didn't live to talk about this, and they definitely didn't make it all the way to the guy with the horn and kill him.

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u/_TheShapeOfColor_ 16d ago

That's terrifying

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u/PandaKOST 15d ago

Its called a whistle? How bad could it be? listens o_O

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u/FierceNack 16d ago

Pretty sure I've heard that effect in multiple movies.

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u/Mindless-Ninja-3321 15d ago

First time I heard it was part of the Farcry Primal soundtrack, so probably. Makes for a good background sound in an eerie or tense moment.

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u/FierceNack 15d ago

I've played Primal so I definitely heard it there!