Trumpet, trumpet section

This is the oldest surviving complete medieval trumpet. It was possibly used at sea for signalling ship-to-ship. The four sections could be dismantled for carrying. The bell and one section are made of sheet brass (copper-zinc alloy), the other sections of copper-zinc-tin alloy. A decorative flag or pennant may have hung from the hole in the rim of the bell. The trumpet was found with one straight section tucked inside the bell during archaeological monitoring of building works at Billingsgate (City of London) in 1984. It may have been dropped overboard from a ship on the river in the late 1300s.