Winchester College possesses the ocarina below. Watch the short video and read the article below to learn about it, its discovery, and the people who made it.
Ocarinas are small wind instruments. Historically, they were important in Chinese and Mesoamerican culture. In China, they were a key component of their rich musical and dance traditions. European ocarinas were originally brought back from Mesoamerica. The word "ocarina" means "little goose" in the Bolognese dialect.
This ocarina was made in the Cocal Period (1000-1530 AD) and was discovered on the Bay Islands, off the coast of Honduras. Its beautiful design and functionality exemplify the skill of pre-Columbian potters: difficult techniques must have been mastered in order to make the object. It also offers a glimpse into their musical tradition.
Walter Guinness, Lord Moyne, was on a voyage on his yacht Rosaura in the Caribbean, when he stopped off on the Cayman Islands. The governor of the islands, Sir Allan Cardinall, an old Wykehamist, told him about possible artefacts on the Bay Islands. Moyne therefore began to dig, sending around 1000 items back to Britain. Sadly, the items were cleaned crudely with hoses, so all the polychrome decoration has washed off. Richard Feachem, a young archaeologist, studied the items in Cambridge, where they mostly remain today. You can see the ocarinas currently in Cambridge below. Around 70 artefacts were given to Cardinall, in gratitude for the tip-off, who in turn gave them to his former school.
The ocarina is currently on display in the Winchester College Treasury, and will eventually be able to be viewed alongside the rest of the College's ancient collections on the Winchester College Collections website.
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