Brass instruments, only recently made of brass, and indisputably of ancient origin, enjoyed a greater diversity of usage than recent work has allowed. While some groups, such as the lurs, may have been sounded more or less in the modern manner, others, such as the Irish horns, were probably used differently -- as variable-tone-color instruments. Both these groups had deep roots in their home soil and were indigenously developed. Each evolved to a remarkably high degree individual characteristics that were unseen elsewhere at that time. They disappeared at the end of the Bronze Age and only now are experiments recreating them and their music. See 18-1076. -- AATA