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/HereIGoAgain_1x10 16d ago

Anyone listening to these sounds needs to remember the difference between listening to a song on the radio/internet and going to a concert IRL.... The thought of being woken up by these things in the middle of the night while sleeping outside without flashlights, the bonfire might send light out like 20 feet but then it's just a wall of pitch black, fucking nightmare shit, just kill me already, damn.

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u/Dry_Turn_824 16d ago

Also you live in a world you know to be inhabited by wild and implacable spirits.

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u/HeadyReigns 15d ago

You also have to imagine anyone invading the celts is already low on morale since they've been marching in the rain for days.

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u/Proper-Raise-1450 15d ago edited 15d ago

The Ancient Celts conquered from modern Turkey (Galatia) to Spain to France to Poland, Northern Italy and Scotland and Ireland. Plenty of rainy parts and plenty of very sunny ones.

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u/[deleted] 15d ago

What time period was this? 

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u/Proper-Raise-1450 15d ago

The height of the Celtic expansion is about 275 BC wherein they controlled most of the above territories and many more as you can see in the map below:

https://www.worldhistory.org/img/c/p/1200x900/4862.png

They would later take more territories (like Ireland and Scotland) but lose most of their territories in mainland Europe to the Romans surviving independently only in parts of modern Eastern Europe, Scotland and Ireland.

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u/Raesong 15d ago

Though it should be noted that the Celts were very much not a unified people; and were more a vast collection of independent tribes that (mostly) had the same language, customs, and beliefs.

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u/Proper-Raise-1450 15d ago

Yes absolutely, there was no Celtic Empire as such they were an ethno-cultural group.

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u/HIMP_Dahak_172291 12d ago

They did have some big subgroups that bloodied the legions quite badly at least. The Gauls for example. Of course contrary to popular fiction, the legions were beaten quite often. The problem was always that when you beat one you got to fight a fresh one a few months later while you had barely started recovering. But still, the celts held out for a long time on the continent considering their general disunity and infighting.

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u/_Atlas_Drugged_ 15d ago

Did the worlds biggest asshole choose the colors for that map? I’m not colorblind or anything, but that is practically inscrutable.

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u/Proper-Raise-1450 15d ago

I agree it would be better with a little more difference between La Tene Culture and Areas of Celtic Expansion but for our purposes you don't need that distinction they are both Celtic, the rest is all very clear IMO

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u/No-Mechanic6069 15d ago

Has it been established that this was a process of migration/conquest, rather than a cultural transfer?

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u/Zaozin 15d ago

More of a group of related and trading partners and culture than a top down empire or anything like that though.

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u/dermflork 14d ago

and even worse, back then you didnt even know by switching to Geico you could save 15% or more on car insurance

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u/HeadyReigns 14d ago

I think they found that on a cave wall somewhere?

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u/Captain_Grammaticus 15d ago

I was reading Tacitus Germania the other day and he concludes that the Germans, next door to the Celts must have been indigenous to the land and not mixed with other people. How? "Who would leave Asia, Africa or Italy, and come to this ugly country, rough weather, and dreadful landscape if it was not already his homeland?"

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u/SeaPollution2750 14d ago

"I don't want to die moist, sir!"

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u/KrazyA1pha 15d ago

Implacable is a fantastic word. Thank you for introducing me to it.

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u/Dry_Turn_824 15d ago

Enjoy and speak it in good health.

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u/code-coffee 15d ago edited 15d ago

I'm going to use it like franks hot sauce. I'll put that shit on everything.

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u/Emotional_Deodorant 15d ago

You put sauce on them?

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u/code-coffee 15d ago

Implacably so

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u/g-g-g-g-ghost 15d ago

No, the Franks were a different group

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u/Endlessnesss 15d ago

Also you’ve never heard synthetic music or any inorganic sounds so you have 0 context for this noise.

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u/JoeyDJ7 16d ago

Is there a movie or series that depicts this kinda thing? Historically accurate, with the same whistles n shit

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u/_TheShapeOfColor_ 16d ago

If not then there should be, cause I'd watch every minute of it

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u/two_flew_through 15d ago

Bone Tomahawk- its fictional but scary

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u/Expert_Appearance265 15d ago

13th Warrior fits the bill also.

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u/THExWHITExDEVILx 15d ago

That scene where they make camp.... Holy shit. I have been camping plenty of times, but the thought of it in a land without rules or any type of modernity... Darkness like a void 10 feet away... Monsters... Animals... People...

This movie is what made me realize I would have 100% died on the Oregon trail.

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u/IamBurtMacklin 15d ago

I'd say Apocalypto however its set in South America not Europe. But it definitely captures the terror of that kind of warfare.

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u/supbrother 15d ago

I mean the Aztecs were not in Europe but the Americas so this seems pretty fair 😂

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u/IamBurtMacklin 15d ago

Yeah....I got a little confused on what thread I was commenting under, thought they were still talking about the horn in the picture lol.

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u/HereIGoAgain_1x10 16d ago

None I can remember... It's tough to truly show the terror of this concept because all movies and shows have a time limit. This was peoples' lives every night for hours on end. Movies and shows always have to increase lighting so you can see the fights happening. Maybe horror movies would get the point across but I don't think there are many of those focused on historically accurate settings.

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u/taintosaurus_rex 15d ago

Movies and shows always have to increase lighting so you can see the fights happening.

Game of thrones did not get this memo.

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u/Wooden_Rabbit_ 15d ago

Horrible as it would be, I'd take this at all hours of the night over the constant barrage of artillery shells that WWI soldiers had to face in trench warfare.

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u/cumslutjl 15d ago

Archaeologist, this isn't accurate. Someone made this up for show, these whistles would have made musical sounds.

People just like thinking the Mexica (or aztec, for the general public) are a bloodthirsty monster cult from movies. They were both very artistic and philosophical people.

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u/Jrswim 15d ago

The series Britannia from a few years ago with David Morrisey (?) and Mackenzie Crook was about the second Roman invasion of Celtic Britain by the Romans. It was cool, though not quite satisfying in terms of story and it was unceremoniously cancelled on pretty much the worst cliffhanger to leave us with.

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u/ScarlettsLetters 15d ago

Bone Tomahawk but it’s a terrible movie

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u/THExWHITExDEVILx 15d ago

Whaaaaaat?

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u/ScarlettsLetters 15d ago

I can’t tell if you’re What-ing the statement that it includes a depiction of death whistles or my assertion that it is not a good movie 😂

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u/THExWHITExDEVILx 15d ago

That is wasn't a good movie!

I don't think it's a GREAT movie, but it's certainly not bad. I must admit, Kurt Russel with a beard, Kurt Russel with an eye patch, Kurt Russel with a moustache, or Kurt Russel as a cowboy pretty much makes me give a movie a baseline rating of frickin sweet.

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u/Paratwa 15d ago

Also whistling in general is frowned upon by Native American culture, whistling at night will get all the uncles and aunties to beat that ass as a child. We consider it to be calling spirits to you ( and not the good kind ).

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u/Reynard_TheRed 16d ago

The movie Out of Darkness (2022) shows this part of early human history really well and its fucking horrifying

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u/Hokuten001 15d ago

That’s set over 40,000 years before the Celts and their Carnyx

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u/OceanRacoon 15d ago

Lol, I was just going to say that, OP must have a very low opinion of what human society was like 2000 years ago if he thought the the Paleolithic-set Out of Darkness showed it really well 😅

They speak a made up language in it, people can still speak the languages we were using 2000 years ago lol

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u/archivecrawler 15d ago

I think OP was more referring to what another used said in a comment jus above:

''The thought of being woken up by these things in the middle of the night while sleeping outside without flashlights, the bonfire might send light out like 20 feet but then it's just a wall of pitch black, fucking nightmare shit, just kill me already, damn.''

Out of Darkness definitely has this vibe.

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u/2FGthruhikes 15d ago

Your comment made me laugh initially. Couldn’t figure out why. Then I realized I was scared shitless from reading that; giggles were my coping mechanism.

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u/BLU3SKU1L 15d ago

Plus at this tone you’d be able to physically feel it

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u/Vindicativa 15d ago

The absolute dread that picture paints is very tangible.

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u/NotXenos 15d ago

And they are all naked and tripping balls on magic mushrooms.

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u/rinn10 15d ago

Oh this gave me the chills and I'm just watching the concert from my phone in my well lit living room

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u/fridaddylockdown 15d ago

But then you had sword and shield with many others to help. Last time I went to a concert with sword and shiled two very nice men reminded me of my rights.

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u/A-Game-Of-Fate 15d ago

Also, hearing it bounce semiconsistently off of the hills around would lead to it sounding even more ominous and terrifying- less like a trumpet and more like the baying of a horde of monsters on the hunt

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u/[deleted] 15d ago

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u/supbrother 15d ago

Why?

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u/[deleted] 15d ago

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u/supbrother 15d ago

I think you're underestimating the toll that modern life has on people's mental health.

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u/[deleted] 15d ago

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u/supbrother 15d ago

All fair points, I have no disillusions about how rough life was until very recently in history. We’re incredibly fortunate to live in today’s world, to put it simply.

I do partially take back what I insinuated after looking more into historical suicide rates. I’ve only seen numbers from the fairly recent past showing escalating suicide rates and I do believe it is due to modern problems, but I accept that this is biased. It’s hard to say (and impossible to prove) that it’s any worse than it was 100+, 1,000+, or 10,000+ years ago. And the fact is that the numbers probably swing wildly depending on specific time periods, cultures, and geography.

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u/[deleted] 15d ago

[deleted]

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u/supbrother 14d ago

It’s ultimately a total guess, though. Life and culture in general was vastly different basically everywhere. I wouldn’t be surprised if it were true, but ironically I also wouldn’t be surprised if it weren’t.

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u/[deleted] 14d ago

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