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The Brauron aulos

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 October 2013

J. G. Landels
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Extract

This ancient instrument, which is, for the student of Greek music, one of the most significant finds of recent years, came to light during excavations at Brauron, on the east coast of Attica, in August 1961. These excavations, under the direction of Dr. I. Papadimitriou (Director-General of the Greek Archaeological Service), are still in progress, and a full report has not yet been published: so far as this item is concerned, it was found in a sacred spring near the north-west corner of the ancient temple, along with a number of objects which are dated by Dr. Papadimitriou to the late sixth or early fifth century B.C. They were perhaps in situ, buried or hidden, when the Persians sacked the site during the Salamis campaign.

The find (item 1059 in the catalogue) comprises the two lower sections of an aulos: there is no apparent reason to doubt that they belong together. The central joint is of the usual type—spigot and socket—and at one end (A in the diagram) there is another socket for the attachment of the next section. At the other end (C in the diagram) there is no spigot or socket: as Hole V is manifestly a vent-hole (see below) this must have been the lower end of the instrument.

Type
Research Article
Information
Annual of the British School at Athens , Volume 58 , November 1963 , pp. 116 - 119
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1963

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References

1 I am deeply grateful to Dr. Papadimitriou for having personally shown my wife and myself over the Brauron site, and for allowing me to examine the aulos in detail, and publish my findings. He also supplied the photograph (Fig. 2).

2 A doctor friend tells me that the grooves are caused by the attachment of the principal muscles along two parallel strips; tension of the muscles causes two raised ridges to develop along the bone, leaving a groove between them.

3 The Greek Aulos (London, 1939).

4 In an article on ‘Fragments of musical instruments found in the Agora’, to appear in a future volume of Hesperia. The question is complicated by the fact that in many illustrations the player holds his wrists very low: the finger-holes must have been turned outwards, and the thumb-holes inwards from the vertical.

5 e.g. Richter, Red-figured Athenian Vases in the Metropolitan Museum, plate 11.

6 In particular, some of them have a very small lateral hole, for which no convincing explanation has been given.

7 The term ‘flute’, hallowed by long tradition, is strictly speaking a misnomer. The least erroneous translation is ‘reed pipe’.

8 I have so far experimented with four types of reed, three of which proved unsuitable for various reasons. The best results were obtained with a bassoon reed. A type which should be tried, but which I have not been able to obtain, is a miniature ‘beak’ mouthpiece of the clarinet type.

9 Cf. Pausanias ix. 12. 5–6; Athenaeus xiv. 631 E.

10 Cf. Schlesinger, op. cit. 411–20.

11 Harm. i. 17 (ed. Düring, p. 38): the order of the intervals is inverted. See Winnington-Ingram, , ‘Aristoxenus and the intervals of Greek Music’, CQ xxvi (1932) 195–208.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

12 I wish to thank Professor Winnington-Ingram for reading this article in proof and making a number of helpful suggestions.