Tut's Trumpets

James Tappern plays Tut's trumpet for a 1939 radio broadcast

Two if the items found in the Pharaoh Tutankhamun's tomb were trumpets, one of silver and one of bronze. During the looting of the Cairo during the recent demonstrations the bronze trumpet was stolen. However, it was recently recovered in a bag on the Cairo Metro. 

With the trumpets back in the news, the BBC has published the article Recreating the sound of Tutankhamun's trumpets which recounts the time they were played for a 1939 BBC radio broadcast. They were fitted with a modern trumpet mouthpiece and bandsman James Tappern played a few notes on each instrument.

If you want to hear what they sound like, follow the above link to the BBC article. It contains a link to an audio of the broadcast and you can listen to the portion where both trumpets are played.  

(via Never Yet Melted which has a nice picture showing the carvings on the horn of one of the trumpets)