Tutankhamun's trumpets

The bronze trumpet was discovered in the tomb's antechamber in a large chest containing various military objects and walking sticks.

[1] The silver trumpet's bell is engraved with a whorl of sepals and calices representing a lotus flower and the praenomen and nomen of the king.

[1] Silent for over 3,000 years, the trumpets were sounded before a live audience of an estimated 150 million listeners through an international BBC broadcast aired on 16 April 1939.

[3][4][1] Rex Keating, who presented the 1939 broadcast, later claimed that during a rehearsal, the silver trumpet shattered, and Alfred Lucas, a member of Carter's team who had restored the finds, was so distressed he needed to go to the hospital.

It has been soldered lengthways with a "very skilfully brazed meander joint ... smoothed to a perfect finish", yet is "slightly rough" internally, indicating that (as might be expected in a ceremonial instrument) appearance was of greater value than acoustic performance.

[4] According to Al-Ahram, after its return Hala Hassan, curator of the Tutankhamun collection at the Egyptian Museum, claimed that it had "magical powers" and that "whenever someone blows into it, a war occurs".