What kind of musical instruments were used in ancient barbarian tribes?

Question

I am a member of a reenactment group in Romania, and we mostly do Roman, Dacian tribes and other barbarian tribes (allies of Dacians). Some other members including myself want to form a band, and be as historically accurate as possible. So what kind of musical instruments were used back then? I think we have the drums covered, and kind of know how they should be (with some animal skin, for example pork). But with other instruments, I'm completely lost on how it should look like, or if some sort of proto-guitar even existed. But, given the influence the Romans had in those parts of the world, can we assume that they could have used Roman instruments?

Answer 1

Fascinating question!

The Dacians left little-to-no records of their musical instruments, so most of what we know is based on a combination of later Roman writings about them as well as a few archaeological finds. One instrument was the carnyx, a "brass" instrument made of beaten bronze with an animal head for a bell (the specifics varied depending on whim).

While they were not specific to the Dacians, many ancients had bone flutes made from bird bones, so the Dacians likely had them too.

The closest thing to a guitar I could find was the "crwth", a lyre of the ancient Celts, but records are very thin on this one. They used animal gut for strings and wood for the resonator, so go sacrifice some sheep!