Center for Catalysis

The time: about three thousand years ago.

The place: a stretch of wild Danish moorland.

Suddenly long, mournful musical notes fill the air. Two Bronze Age lurs are announcing a new set of religious ceremonies.

Side by side stood two lur-players, symmetric in every detail, the soft curves of the instruments swaying upwards and outwards at each side. The sonorous notes emphasised the solemn nature of the rites.

It is conceivable that the sound of the lur also accompanied the crackle of the funeral pyre when one of the tribe was cremated and laid to rest in the burial mound of his forefathers.

To the bronze Age artist lur-playing appeared as in the drawing above. Rock carvings were the contemporary, vividly stylistic artists' impressions of religious ceremonies, and are thus important if one hopes to appreciate the religious rites of those times --- even though only a small number of the carvings can be deciphered with any degree of certainty.

One thing however, is beyond doubt: the Sun played a central role in the fertility rites of the Bronze Age. It would also seem though that personified gods were also worshipped, and a female goddess appears to have been of great importance.

There is something both mystic and fascinating about these instruments. They suddenly appeared on historical stage, with no indication regarding their development or origin. The most common theory is that curved cow horns were the models on which lurs were developed, but proof is not conclusive. Another factor of interest is that the instruments are a Danish specialty since the great majority of all known lur 'finds' were made in the area affected by Danish Bronze Age culture as indicated in the chart.

Thirty-five lurs have been found in the present-day Denmark, although some of them exist only in fragment form. Four were found in Norway, 11 in Sweden, and five in northern Germany. And quite remarkably one lur has been discovered in Latvia on the eastern Baltic.

If their appearance is mystical, their disappearance is even more so. Without exception every single example of lurs has been recovered from a bog or marshland. Lakes and bogs were frequently regarded by the ancients as sacred places, and were often the scene of sacrificial offerings to the gods. The greater portion of all valuable finds from the late Bronze Age in Denmark were discovered in bogs, and were normally recovered during peat-digging operations. This is also true of the lurs, the first examples of which were found at the end of the 18th century. But there was no doubt that they had been laid to rest in ancient sacred bogs. Two lurs found at Lommelev were found in a bog together with two swords and a shield, all in bronze. Numerous pieces of bone in the bog indicated that sacrifices were a regular feature of the ancient landscape, along the edge of the bog. The Radbjerg lurs, too, were found in similar surroundings. Bones there were found to have stemmed from oxen, horses, sheep, swine, dogs, birds --- and humans.

It would appear that towards the close of the Bronze Age (about 500 B.C.) a decisive change occurred not only in the material culture by which Man was forced for various reasons to reject bronze as his most important metal in favor of iron, but also a simultaneous change of religion, demanding a clearing out of all objects belonging to the former bronze cult. But an ingrained respect for old traditions prevented the destruction of the former sacred objects --- and they were deposited in bogland all over Lower Scandinavia. Objects used in sacred ceremonies could not suddenly be given a common every-day place on the domestic scene --- religious respect was too great for that. This would explain why so many valuable items of Bronze Age culture came to be found in bogs.

The name "lur"

The name "lur" for these wind instruments is no older than the beginning of the last century, and arose from the interest created by romantic poets in the Nordic past. Archaeologists of that time obtained most of their main stream of knowledge from Saxo's History of Denmark (written in the 13th century) and from the Norse sagas. The sagas told frequently of warriors being urged into battle by the sound of the "lur". It was a simple step therefore to identify the latter instrument with the long bronze horns recovered from bogs all over the country. Only later was it realised that centuries separated the Bronze Age and the period of saga-writing, but the name was so well established that it defied efforts to change it. The Bronze Age wind instruments have thus been called "lurs" ever since --- even though the instrument of the saga was a woodwind.

Klange fra Danmark's Bronzealderlurer / Music Blown on Lurs From the Danish Bronze Age Thorkild Ramskou, Nationalmuseet.

The images can be found in full-size here:




Home Page Quick Introduction Our Research The Group Lab Facilities Read More New Publications The Lurs Recent Changes	The Lurs The time: about three thousand years ago. The place: a stretch of wild Danish moorland. Suddenly long, mournful musical notes fill the air. Two Bronze Age lurs are announcing a new set of religious ceremonies. Side by side stood two lur-players, symmetric in every detail, the soft curves of the instruments swaying upwards and outwards at each side. The sonorous notes emphasised the solemn nature of the rites. It is conceivable that the sound of the lur also accompanied the crackle of the funeral pyre when one of the tribe was cremated and laid to rest in the burial mound of his forefathers. To the bronze Age artist lur-playing appeared as in the drawing above. Rock carvings were the contemporary, vividly stylistic artists' impressions of religious ceremonies, and are thus important if one hopes to appreciate the religious rites of those times --- even though only a small number of the carvings can be deciphered with any degree of certainty. One thing however, is beyond doubt: the Sun played a central role in the fertility rites of the Bronze Age. It would also seem though that personified gods were also worshipped, and a female goddess appears to have been of great importance. There is something both mystic and fascinating about these instruments. They suddenly appeared on historical stage, with no indication regarding their development or origin. The most common theory is that curved cow horns were the models on which lurs were developed, but proof is not conclusive. Another factor of interest is that the instruments are a Danish specialty since the great majority of all known lur 'finds' were made in the area affected by Danish Bronze Age culture as indicated in the chart. Thirty-five lurs have been found in the present-day Denmark, although some of them exist only in fragment form. Four were found in Norway, 11 in Sweden, and five in northern Germany. And quite remarkably one lur has been discovered in Latvia on the eastern Baltic. If their appearance is mystical, their disappearance is even more so. Without exception every single example of lurs has been recovered from a bog or marshland. Lakes and bogs were frequently regarded by the ancients as sacred places, and were often the scene of sacrificial offerings to the gods. The greater portion of all valuable finds from the late Bronze Age in Denmark were discovered in bogs, and were normally recovered during peat-digging operations. This is also true of the lurs, the first examples of which were found at the end of the 18th century. But there was no doubt that they had been laid to rest in ancient sacred bogs. Two lurs found at Lommelev were found in a bog together with two swords and a shield, all in bronze. Numerous pieces of bone in the bog indicated that sacrifices were a regular feature of the ancient landscape, along the edge of the bog. The Radbjerg lurs, too, were found in similar surroundings. Bones there were found to have stemmed from oxen, horses, sheep, swine, dogs, birds --- and humans. It would appear that towards the close of the Bronze Age (about 500 B.C.) a decisive change occurred not only in the material culture by which Man was forced for various reasons to reject bronze as his most important metal in favor of iron, but also a simultaneous change of religion, demanding a clearing out of all objects belonging to the former bronze cult. But an ingrained respect for old traditions prevented the destruction of the former sacred objects --- and they were deposited in bogland all over Lower Scandinavia. Objects used in sacred ceremonies could not suddenly be given a common every-day place on the domestic scene --- religious respect was too great for that. This would explain why so many valuable items of Bronze Age culture came to be found in bogs. The name "lur" The name "lur" for these wind instruments is no older than the beginning of the last century, and arose from the interest created by romantic poets in the Nordic past. Archaeologists of that time obtained most of their main stream of knowledge from Saxo's History of Denmark (written in the 13th century) and from the Norse sagas. The sagas told frequently of warriors being urged into battle by the sound of the "lur". It was a simple step therefore to identify the latter instrument with the long bronze horns recovered from bogs all over the country. Only later was it realised that centuries separated the Bronze Age and the period of saga-writing, but the name was so well established that it defied efforts to change it. The Bronze Age wind instruments have thus been called "lurs" ever since --- even though the instrument of the saga was a woodwind. Klange fra Danmark's Bronzealderlurer / Music Blown on Lurs From the Danish Bronze Age Thorkild Ramskou, Nationalmuseet. The images can be found in full-size here: http://www.chem.au.dk/~metcat/images/lur1.jpg, http://www.chem.au.dk/~metcat/images/lur2.jpg, and http://www.chem.au.dk/~metcat/images/map.png. Last edited on March 7, 2003 12:20.

The Lurs

The name "lur"