A CURIOUS OBJECT AT THE SOCCER WORLD CUP 2010: THE VUZULELA

I have been always passionate about soccer and during my spare time I watch on TV the matches of the World soccer cup tournament that is broadcasted from South Africa.During the inauguration match, I have seen how all the supporters are extremely loud not because they use their voices to sing, but because they blow a plastic trumpet that reminds me about Rome and the ancient world.To have a better idea of how this object worked, I have decided to attach to this article a picture with the interior relief of the arch of Titus located in the Roman Forum in Rome.The arch of Titus is a dynastic monument that celebrates, through its inscription not only Titus but also his father Vespasian. The similarity of these two trumpets is really striking. As a matter of fact what the modern and the old trumpet have in common is the situation of euphory and joy: the relief of the arch of Titus shows the procession of the booty taken from Jerusalem to Rome during the wars of 69-79 AD. The relief shows on the left the transportation of the Jewish Menorah stolen by the Romans from the Second Temple. On the right, although some art historians identify them as lictors, some other scholar argue that these long trumpets are the Shofar, that were the silver oliphants used by the Jews to call the chiefs of the main tribes so that they could all gather inside the Temple.According to the Bible, the Shofar was also used to announce holidays and the Jubilee years.Trumpets like the Shofar were used also to sound the alarm in case of attack, although it didn't work to stop the invasion of Vespasian who was the governor of Judea before becoming the successor of Nero after the " longum annum" of the four emperors (69 AD).