alexandra villing]_for_whom_did_the_bell_toll_.pdf

For Whom Did the Bell Toll in Ancient Greece? Archaic and Classical Greek Bells at Sparta andBeyondAuthor(s): Alexandra VillingSource: The Annual of the British School at Athens, Vol. 97 (2002), pp. 223-295Published by: British School at AthensStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/30073190Accessed: 05/02/2010 08:06

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FOR WHOM DID THE BELL TOLL IN ANCIENT GREECE? ARCHAIC AND CLASSICAL GREEK BELLS

AT SPARTA AND BEYOND1

'The bell doth tollfor him that thinks it doth' John Donne, 1623

ANCIENT Greeks were not familiar with large bells of the kind that ring in our churches today. Smaller, portable bells, usually not much taller than about Io cm, were, however, a fairly widespread feature of ancient Greek life. These remain a virtually unstudied subject and their existence is largely unknown to many scholars.2 Even a study dedicated to the early history of

' I should like to thank the Director of the British School at Athens, David Blackman, for permission to study and publish the Spartan bells, and the director and staff of the Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities of Sparta, in particular Elena Zavvou, for their hospitality and help in locating and recording the bells. I especially acknowledge my gratitude for the receipt of a Hector and Elizabeth Catling bursary from the British School, which enabled me to extend and complete my research on this topic, as well as to all the staff and members of the British School, which provided a happy home throughout my research on bells. Over the years, I have also become indebted to many other individuals for their generous help or instructive comments: John Boardman, Philip Brize, Hector Catling, Richard Catling, John Curtis, Eleanor Dickey, Katerina Dourida, Susanne Ebbinghaus, Maria Effinger, Lesley Fitton, Stephen Hodkinson, Karin Hornig, Annette Hupfloher, Geralda Jurriaans-Helle, Nigel Kennell, Hermann Kienast, Christina Leypold, Michael Lipka, Stavros Paspalas, Richard Posamentir, Bodo Prekel, Rosa Proskynitopoulou, Stuart Rae, Jutta Stroszeck, Chikako Sugawara, Judith Swaddling, Frank Wascheck, and Dyfri Williams. I am further indebted to the staff of the British School at Athens, the Sparta Museum, the National Museum at Athens, the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities and the Department of the Ancient Near East of the British Museum, the Nationaal Beiaardmuseum in Asten (Netherlands), and the Bell Museums in Gescher and in Apolda in Germany, for the kind assistance rendered during my visits there, as well as to the audiences of a British School Upper House Seminar on 7 May 2001 and a Classical Archaeology Seminar in the Institute of Classical Studies, London, on 14 November 2001 for a stimulating discussion. Any remaining shortcomings are, of course, my own.

Dates are BC unless indicated otherwise. Special abbreviations: Bouzek, Bronzes = J. Bouzek, Graeco-Macedonian Bronzes

(Analysis and Chronology) (Prague, I974). Calmeyer, 'Glocke' = P. Calmeyer, in Reallexikon der

Assyriologie, iii (Berlin, 1969), 427-31, s.v. 'Glocke'. Cook, 'Gong' = A. B. Cook, 'The gong at Dodona', JHS

22 (1902), 5-28.

Dickins, 'Sparta 1907' = G. Dickins, 'Excavations at Sparta, 1907: the Hieron of Athena Chalkioikos', BSA 13 (1906-7), 137-54.

Dickins, 'Sparta 1908' = G. Dickins, 'Excavations at Sparta, 90o8: the Hieron of Athena Chalkioikos', BSA 14 (1907-8), 142-6.

Hickman, 'Zur Geschichte' = H. Hickman, 'Zur Geschichte der altagyptischen Glocke', Musik und Kirche, 30/2 (1951), 3-19.

Jantzen, Samos VIII = U. Jantzen, Samos VIII: diigyptische und orientalische Bronzen aus dem Heraion von Samos (Bonn, 1972).

M6bius, 'Glocken': H. M6bius, 'Kaukasische Glocken in Samos', in W. Schiering (ed.), Studia Varia (Wiesbaden, 1967), 1-13.

Morillot, Etude = L. Morillot, Etude sur l'emploi des clochettes chez les anciens et depuis le triomphe du christianisme (Dijon, 1888).

Pease, 'Bells' = A. S. Pease, 'Notes on some uses of bells among the Greeks and Romans', HSCP 15 (1904), 29-59.

Price, Bells and Man = P. Price, Bells and Man (Oxford, 1983). Simon, 'Ionia' = C. G. Simon, 'The Archaic Votive

Offerings and Cults of Ionia' (diss., University of California, Berkeley, UMI, Ann Arbor, 199o).

Spear, Treasury = N. Spear, A Treasury of Archaeological Bells (New York, 1978).

Trumpf-Lyritzaki, 'Glocke' = M. Trumpf-Lyritzaki, in Reallexikon fdr Antike und Christentum, xi (Stuttgart, I98I), 164-96, s.v. 'Glocke'.

Fr. = fragment; H. = height; W. = width; D. = diameter. 2 A good but brief summary of present knowledge about

ancient bells is given by Trumpf-Lyritzaki, 'Glocke', although this neglects the development of their shapes. Still well worth reading are Pease, 'Bells', and Cook, 'Gong', who provide in-depth discussions on the ancient meaning and usage of bells, superseding the earlier attempts by E. Esperandieu, DA V, 341-4, s.v. 'Tintinnabulum', and Morillot, Etude. Only the bells from Samos and their Near Eastern connections have been given a thorough archaeological analysis (see below nn. 96-7); otherwise, the most comprehensive survey of ancient bells in the archaeological record is found in Spear, Treasury, but little space is allocated to Greek bells.

224 ALEXANDRA VILLING

the bell claims that bell-finds are lacking from Greek sanctuary sites.3 This study is now 6o years old and much new material has been discovered since, but the statement was not true even at the time it was published, since as early as 1907/8 Guy Dickins had reported the find of bronze bells dedicated as votives to Athena in her sanctuary on the Spartan acropolis. These Spartan bells are-to my knowledge-the largest find of ancient bells from a single context ever made on Greek soil, as well as the earliest and richest find of bells with votive inscriptions. The present article gives these finds their long overdue publication and aims to open up a discussion on the typology and function of ancient Greek bells. What were ancient bells used for? Why do we find them in Sparta in such large numbers? What is their origin? How do they contribute to our knowledge of ancient Sparta, ancient Greece, and ancient Greek religion?

This chapter discusses both typological and functional questions. The introduction of the material in section I is followed (section II) by a survey of Spartan bells in the framework of the development of bells in ancient Greece, and (section III) by an assessment of the uses and meanings of ancient bells as gleaned from the sources, and in particular the possible function of bells in ancient Sparta.

I. THE BELLS OF SPARTA: THE EVIDENCE

Bells were found on the Spartan acropolis from the first season of the British excavations, as early as 1907, when Dickins began to excavate in the sanctuary of Athena Chalkioikos.4 Just how rich these finds were became clear by 1925, when A. M. Woodward announced that to date about forty bronze bells and even more terracotta bells had been found, the seasons 1924 and 1925 alone producing in total about eighty.5 Few, however, were ever presented to the public: three inscribed bronze bells were published in drawings between 1921 and 1925 (Br x, 8, 12: FIGS. 2-4), and of two further bronze bells (Br Io, 14: FIGS. 3, 4) only the votive inscriptions were published. Of these finds, research in the storerooms of the Sparta Museum has brought to light 34 bronze and 102 terracotta bells (or fragments thereof).

CATALOGUE

Inventory numbers, if given, are the inventory numbers of the Sparta Museum as far as they can be established (several bells and other objects are often catalogued under a single inventory number; terracotta bells listed under Inv. no. 3000 were found in the 1924-7 seasons). Weight is rounded to the nearest 5 g. Unless indicated otherwise, bells are unpublished. Clay colour is given according to the CEC colour chart.

A fairly comprehensive list of bells from Greek sanctuaries is given by Simon, 'Ionia', 289-96, but with hardly any discussion as to their development or meaning. Bouzek, Bronzes, 87-93, makes a first attempt at a typology of Greek bells. A brief but authoritative summary of bells in the Near East is given by Calmeyer, 'Glocke'. A number of authors have tackled the issue of Roman (see below, n. 28) and Egyptian bells (cf. the various contributions by H. Hickmann cited throughout the article, esp. id., 'Zur Geschichte').

3 J. Wiesner, 'Aus der Frithzeit der Glocke', Archivfiir Religionswissenschaft, 37 (1941-2), 46-51-

4 Dickins, 'Sparta 1907', I50, records that the principal finds in the upper stratum, i.e. in the second period of the sanctuary, Postgeometric, included 'a series of bronze bells, some inscribed with dedications to Athena', and that (p. 153) in 1907 a series of terracotta votive bells was also found, which were 'doubtless a cheap variety of the bronze type'. In the following year, Dickins, 'Sparta 1908', 142, 145, records that the only objects of interest were found in the SW corner of the E half of the sanctuary, among them three bronze bells.

5 BSA 26 (1923-5), 249, 273-

FOR WHOM DID THE BELL TOLL IN ANCIENT GREECE? 225

Parts Common handle types handle

top (apex/summit)

shoulder -

flank/wall -I

,clapper

rim

-foot

base/mouth

II I/-'- I -I

basket handle basket handle loop handle (arched) with upturned ends

Profile shapes

arch-and-loop angular handle handle

hemispherical dome-shaped conical cylindrical flaring rim truncated truncated (barrel-shaped) (tulip-shaped) cone pyramid

Base shapes

round square rectangular octagonal

FIG. I. Terminology of ancient Greek bells: shapes and parts.

Bronze bells Br I. Inv. no. 3278. H. (total) 7.4 cm, (body) 4.8 cm; D. 4.9 cm; Th. 0.4 cm; D. (hole) 0.45 cm; W. 190 g. High dome-shaped bell. Offset, thickened, concave rim. Originally with five long knob-shaped feet, now only two preserved. High arched handle with flat, leaf- shaped ends attached to shoulder. Segment of iron chain (figure-of-eight shape) linked to handle. Small round hole in top of bell from which iron clapper was once suspended; remains of small nail(?) preserved at side of hole. Upper part of clapper is short round bar with loop at the end, from which the elongated drop- shaped lower part is suspended. Dark bronze patina. Clapper much corroded, now glued to inside of bell. Incised inscription runs around bell above base-rim:

AOANAIANEOEKENEMHEAOKAEE2IANIEOEKE. Probably fifth century. Found in portico in I1924.

Published: JHS 44 (1924), 259 fig. 3; BSA 26 (1923-5), 270 fig. 5; BSA 30 (i928-30), 252 no. 5; A. Woodward, British School at Athens: Excavations at Sparta, 1924 (Pamphlet, autumn 1924), 11 fig. 7; P Price, Bells and Man (Oxford, 1983), 75; SEG xi. 663; LGPN IIIA.

142; T. A. Boring, Literacy in Ancient Sparta (Mnemosyne supp. 54; Leiden, 1979), III no. 157. Br 2. H. (total) 4.7 cm, (body) 2.9 cm; D. 3.4 cm; Th. 0.2-0.3 cm; D. (hole) 0.3 cm; W. 45 g. High dome- shaped bell. Offset, thickened, slightly convex rim, with short vertical lines incised at bottom and line of demarcation from body. High arched handle with flat, leaf-shaped ends attached to shoulder. Three knob- shaped feet. Round hole slightly below summit of bell, off to one side next to handle-end. Well-preserved surface, green patina. Br 3. H. (total) 5.5 cm, (body) 3.8 cm; D. 4.3 cm; Th.

0o.3-07 cm; D. (hole) o.15 cm; W. 8o g. High dome-

shaped bell. Offset, thickened, slightly convex rim. High arched handle merging into shoulder. Three knob-shaped feet. Round hole at top into which thin bronze wire (D. o.i cm) with thickened upper end is inserted, terminating in a loop (to which clapper must once have been attached). Surface very corroded, green-brown patina. Br 4. Inv. no. 2030.68. H. (total) 3.5 cm, (body) 2.9 cm; D. 3.2-3-3 cm; Th. 0.2-0.35 cm; D. (holes) 0.15


Br 1

Br 2

Br 3 Br 4

Br 5 Br 6

FIG. 2. Bronze bells from the sanctuary of Athena on the Spartan acropolis. Sparta, Museum (scale i : 2).


A) Br 7

f PAXA A/ E & E

Br 8 Br 9

AG/N

Br 10 Br 11

FIG. 3. Bronze bells from the sanctuary of Athena on the Spartan acropolis. Sparta, Museum (scale I : 2).


O

A/, t 1A C:. N-\ AIEOE EK K A/\I K PT P\

A /\f/A I>[X Br 12

Br 13

Br 14 Br 15

Br 16 Br 17 Br 18

Br 19 Br 20

FIG. 4. Bronze bells from the sanctuary of Athena on the Spartan acropolis. Sparta, Museum (scale I : 2).


cm each; W. 35 g. High dome-shaped bell with part of the wall broken off. Offset, thickened, concave rim. Two of originally three knob-shaped feet are preserved. Only the very ends of high arched handle merging into shoulder preserved. Two very small holes at the summit, from one of which small bronze nail is protruding. Inside, at the top and side of the wall, traces of corroded iron attest existence of iron clapper (once attached to bell with nail)-second nail possibly inside bell in lump of corroded metal. Much corroded, green-brown patina. Found in 1926. Br 5. H. (total) 4.8 cm, (body) 3 cm; D. 3.5 cm; Th. 0.3-0.5 cm; D. (hole) 0.1-0.3 cm; W. 65 g. Conical bell with rounded top. Offset rim, thickened and divided into one wide and two narrow ridges by grooves, now partly worn. High arched handle merging into shoulder. Two of originally three knob-shaped feet are preserved. Round hole slightly below top, set off to one side close to the handle. Surface corroded, green- brown patina. Br 6. Inv. no. 2016. H. (total) 6.8 cm, (body) 4.9 cm; D. 4.6 cm; Th. 0.3 cm; D. (hole) 0.35 cm; W. 145 g. High dome-shaped bell. Offset base-rim with three grooves. Three knob-shaped feet. High arched handle with upturned pointed ends. Hole in summit. Traces of corroded iron inside bell and near hole attest clapper. Green-brown patina. Br 7. Inv. no. 3279. H. (total) 7.7 cm, (body) 4 cm; D. 4-4 cm; Th. 0.4 cm; D. (hole) 0.25 cm; W 140 g. High dome-shaped bell. Offset, thickened, concave base- rim demarcated at top and bottom with small, diagonal incised lines. High arched handle with upturned pointed ends on shoulder. Three biconical feet. Flattened, drop-shaped iron clapper, now glued to the inside (upside down?). Dark bronze patina. Inscription above base-rim, below handle:

AI. Br 8. Inv. no. 2016. H. (total) 6.7 cm, (body) 4 cm; D. 3.8 cm; Th. 0.2 cm; D. (hole) 0.4 cm; W. 8o g. High conical/dome-shaped bell. Thickened concave rim, set off from body by groove. Four knob-shaped feet. High arched handle with short upturned, curled ends attached to shoulder. Hole at summit. Slight traces of corrosion inside bell suggest presence of iron clapper. Green patina, some brown patches. Inscribed in two rows in lower half of bell:

FEIAANAAOANAIAIIANEOEKE. Probably fifth or early fourth century. Found in 1907.

Published: BSA 24 (1919-21), 117-18 no. 66; CR 21

(1907), 12; REG 21 (1908), 173; IG v. i. 1509; LGPJVIIIA. 185; Boring, Literacy (as in Br I), Iii no. 144. Br 9. H. (total) 3.5 cm, (body) 3.1 cm; D. 2.7 cm; Th. 0.3 cm; D. (hole) 0.15-0.2 cm; W. 30 g. High conical/dome-shaped bell. Offset thickened rim consisting of wide convex band bordered by two narrow ridges. Remains of arched handle with slightly upturned ends attached to shoulder. Three knob-

shaped feet, one partly broken off. Round hole at summit, some traces of corroded metal inside bell. Surface somewhat corroded, brown-green patina. Br io. Inv. No. 3282. H. (total) 4.7 cm, (body) 3.1 cm; D. 3.2 cm; Th. 0.2 cm; D. (hole) 0.2 cm; W. 45 g. Conical bell with rounded top. Offset thickened rim with central groove. Three short feet. High arched handle with upturned pointed ends attached to shoulder. Hole at summit; second hole not pierced through (visible only from the inside). No traces of clapper. Inscribed above rim: AOA ('AOa[vaicat]- but no further letters can be discerned). Fifth century? Found in 1907.

Published: BSA 25 (1919-21), 118 no. 67 [not illustrated]; Boring, Literacy (as in Br x), III no. 146. Br 11. H. (total) 5.5 cm, (body) 4.5 cm; D. (max.) 6 cm (dented); Th. 0.4 cm; W 95 g. Conical/dome-shaped bell, now with dented mantle broken open on one side, part of wall missing. Offset thickened rim, consisting of two ridges. Of originally four knob- shaped feet one is preserved, one partly broken off. Once arched handle with upturned ends, remains of which are preserved on one side of shoulder. Small hole at the top now filled with corroded metal and bronze-nail, which on the inside holds a bronze figure-of-eight-shaped wire to which another figure- of-eight shaped wire is linked which in turn holds short iron clapper (of squarish shape). Surface very corroded, dark green and brown patina. Br 12. Inv. no. 3280. H. (total) 5.2 cm, (body) 4.0 cm; D. 4.4 cm; Th. 0.4 cm; W 95 g. High conical/dome-shaped bell. Offset, thickened rim with central groove. Three relatively long feet. Hole at summit now filled with corroded iron; corroded iron on inside attests existence of iron clapper. Green patina. Inscription covering most of wall: ANEEEKEKAAIKPATIAIAEANAIA (above, faint remains of further letters: A IA[IO ]AI). Found in 1924, apparently in trial trench W of portico.

Published: JHS 44 (1924), 259 fig- 3; BSA 30 (1928-30), 252 no. 5; A. Woodward, British School at Athens: Excavations at Sparta, 1924 (Pamphlet, autumn 1924), ii fig. 7, P. 13; LGPNIIIA. 228. Br 13. Inv. no. 2030.67. H. (total) 3.1 cm, (body) 2.4 cm; D. 2.6 cm; Th. 0.15-0.3 cm; D. (hole) 0.2 cm; W. 30 g. Conical bell with rounded top. Offset rim consisting of two ridges, the upper one with small vertical incised lines. Three relatively large feet. Very small round hole at top. Green and brown-reddish patina. Found in 1926. Br i4. H. (total body) 4.5 cm; D. 5.I cm; Th. 0.2-0.7 cm; D. (hole) 1.8 cm; W. 140 g. Dome-shaped bell. Offset convex rim. Probably once handle attached. Large hole at top, irregularly shaped (broken out). Surface very corroded, brown-green patina. Inscription very difficult to decipher, only letter clearly visible is A. Hondius and Woodward suggest


'AO]a[v]aLaLt 'xv4E[OEKc], but letters are not decipherable. Found in 1907.

BSA 24 (1919-2I), 118 no. 68 [not illustrated]; Boring, Literacy (as in Br x), III no. 146. Br 15. Inv. no. 3017. H. (total) 4.2 cm, (body) 2.3 cm; D. 2.3 cm; Th. 0.3-0.4 cm; D. (hole) 0.4 cm; W 40 g. Dome-shaped bell. Slightly convex offset rim. Integral thick, loop-shaped handle. Three feet. Hole of slightly irregular shape at top. Some traces of corroded metal on inside. Surface irregular, but well preserved, green- brown patina. Br 16. Inv. no. 2030.66. H. (total) 3.5 cm, (body) 2.0 cm; D. 1.8 cm; Th. 0.1-0.2 cm; D. (hole) 0.2 cm; W. 15 g. Dome-shaped bell. Offset rim demarcated from body by deep groove. Three knob-shaped feet. High arched handle attached to shoulder. Round hole at top. Found in 1926. Br 17. Inv. no. 2030.65. H. (total) 3.I1 cm, (body) 1.6 cm; D. 1.8 cm; Th. o.15-0.3 cm; D. (hole) 0.3 cm; W. 15 g. Dome-shaped bell. Offset rim, demarcated from body by groove. Thick high arched/loop-shaped handle on shoulder. Two of originally three feet are preserved. Round hole at top. Some traces of corrosion on inside walls. Dark green and brown- reddish patina. Found in 1926. Br x8. Inv. no. 3017. H. (total) 2.8 cm, (body) 1.8 cm; D. 1.8 cm; Th. o.i cm; D. (hole) 0.3 cm; W. Io g. Dome-shaped bell. Rim offset from body by groove. Thick low arched handle merging into shoulders. Three feet. Round hole slightly below top, set slightly to one side. Surface well-preserved, green patina. Found in 1926. Br xg. Inv. no. 3283. H. (total) 3.4 cm, (body) 2.2 cm; D. 2.2 cm; Th. 0.2 cm; W. 20 g. Dome-shaped bell. Offset rim, demarcated from body by narrow ridge. Thick, low arched handle. Three knob-shaped feet. Hole at top. No traces of clapper. Green patina. Found in 1924-7. Br 20. Inv. no. 3283. H. (total) 3.2 cm, (body) 2.2 cm; D. 2.1 cm; Th. 0.2 cm; W. 25 g. Dome-shaped bell. Thin, loop-shaped handle (very top broken off) at summit. Offset rim, demarcated from body by groove (cut after casting). Three feet (squarish and flattened). Small hole at top, two larger holes opposite each other at shoulder level. Flat, rectangular but slightly tapering corroded iron clapper now sticking to inside of wall. Dark bronze patina. Found in 1924-7. Br 21. Inv. no. 2030.69. H. (total) 4-4 cm, (body) 3.2 cm; D. 2.75 cm; Th. 0.25-0.3 cm; D. large hole 0.5 cm; small hole 0.2 cm (both irregularly shaped); W 45 g. High dome-shaped bell. Wall of irregular thickness. Pointed arched handle on shoulder. Hole in shoulder at one end of handle; smaller hole at opposite side. Green and brown patina. Found in I926. Br 22. Inv. no. 3283.5. H. (total) 2.7 cm, (body) 1.9 cm; D. 1.4-1.7 cm; D. (hole) 0.2-0.3 cm; Th. o.I cm;

W. io g. High conical/dome-shaped bell. Thin, high arched handle on shoulder. Small hole at top (filled with corroded metal); running down from channel- like groove (ending in another hole not pierced through ?). Traces of corroded iron inside attest existence of iron clapper. Green patina. Found 1924-7 (bell is marked 'Akrop. 1924-7'). Br 23. H. (total) 2.1 cm, (body) 1.4 cm; D. 1.8 cm; Th. 0o.1-0.15 cm; D. (hole) 0.3 cm; W. io g. Bell of irregular truncated cone shape, with straight sides and flattened top. High arched handle merging into shoulder. Irregularly shaped hole at top. Surface relatively well-preserved. Br 24. H. (total) 5.2 cm, (body) 3.3 cm; D. 2.3 cm; Th. 0.2 cm (much corroded); W. 40 g. High truncated conical/dome-shaped bell. Large hole at top. Low arched handle topped by flat disk and small loop. In hole, traces of wire with which clapper (now lost) was once attached. Apparently faint traces of horizontal incised lines around top and bottom edges of mantle. Surface much corroded, green-brown patina. Found on acropolis summit in layer 'xiv black' in 1927. Br 25. H. (total) 2.7 cm, (body) 2 cm; D. 2.8 cm; Th. 0.2-0.3 cm; D. (holes) 0.2 cm; W. 20 g. Hemispherical bell with fairly thin walls. Knob-shaped (?) handle, partly broken off at top of bell. Two round holes on shoulder opposite each other beside handle, probably once served to hold wire to which clapper could be attached, much corroded metal inside. Surface corroded, brown-green patina. Br 26. Inv. no. 2030.71. H. (total) 3.15 cm, (body) 2.9 cm; D. 3.4 cm; Th. 0.05 cm; D. (hole) 0.23 cm; W 15 g. Hemispherical/dome-shaped bell with half of the wall crushed inwards. Heavily corroded thin, sheet- like walls. Three flat feet integral to bell, one foot turned inwards. Small round hole at the top. Green and brown patina. Inscribed above rim: AEA. Found in 1926. Br 27. H. (total) 2.7 cm, (body) 2.1 cm; D. 1.9-3.4 cm; W. Io g. Hemispherical bell with thin, sheet-like walls. Walls much bent out of shape, broken into two parts, now glued, sections of lower part and top missing. Traces of small round hole at top appear to be visible. Two of originally three large, flat, rhomboid feet are preserved. Surface much corroded, green-brown patina. Br 28. H. (total) 2.3 cm, (body) 2 cm; D. 2.8 cm; Th. 0.1-o.15 cm; W 5 g. Hemispherical bell, top broken off. Thin wall, rim offset by groove (only partly preserved). One of originally three flat feet is preserved, bent inwards, one is partly preserved. Surface corroded. Br 29. Inv. no. 3018.4. H. (total) 2 cm, (body) 1.7 cm; D. 3.6 cm; Th. o.1 cm; D. (hole) 0.2 cm; W. io g. Very low, flattened hemispherical bell. Thin, sheet-like walls, three low, flat, angular feet (possibly originally


Br 21 Br 22 Br 23

Br 24 Br 25

Br 26 Br 27

Br 28 Br 29

Br 30 Br 31

Br 32 Br 33 Br 34

FIG. 5. Bronze bells from the sanctuary of Athena on the Spartan acropolis. Sparta, Museum (scale i : 2).


four?). Incised line above rim. Small, round hole at the top. Lower part on one side broken off, surface much corroded, green-brown patina. Found in 1926. Br 30o. H. (total = body) 1.7 cm; D. 2.9 cm; Th. o.I cm; D. (hole) 0.2 cm (but partly broken out further); W. less than 5 g. Hemispherical bell. About half of thin wall broken off, remainder broken in two (now glued). Two very slight incised grooves above rim. Surface somewhat corroded. Dark green patina. Br 3x. H. (total = body) 2.1 cm; D. 2.3 cm; Th. o.I-o.3 cm; D. (hole) 0.3 cm; W. 20 g. Truncated conical/dome- shaped bell with fairly vertical sides and flattened top; slightly irregular shape. Round hole at top. Surface fairly well preserved, green (and brown) patina. Br 32. H. (total = body) 2.2 cm; D. 2.3 cm; Th. 0.1-0.2 cm; D. (hole) o.I cm; W. 15 g. Dome-shaped bell. Slightly oval hole at top. Little corrosion, green- brown patina. Br 33. Inv. no. 2030.72. H. (total) 1.8 cm, (body) 1.85 cm; D. 2 cm; Th. o.i cm; W. less than 5 g. Truncated conical/dome-shaped bell, no traces of hole, handle or feet visible. Corroded, green patina. Found in 1926. Br 34. Inv. no. 2030.70. H. (total) 3 cm, (body) 3 cm; D. 2.7 cm; Th. 0.2-0.6 cm; D. (hole) 0.35 cm; W. 35 g. Dome-shaped bell with flaring rim and thick walls of irregular width. Round hole at the top appears filled with corroded metal-possibly also bronze nail. Green patina, surface with traces of filing. No traces of handle visible. Found in 1926.

Terracotta bells Tc x. H. (total) 4.3 cm, (body) 3.3 cm; D. 3.9 cm; D. (hole) o.6 cm. Dome-shaped bell with high, thick, slightly flattened handle. Large hole at top. Covered with thin slip fired (metallic) black and red. Hard, light orange (Dio) clay. Tc 2. Inv. no. 3000. H. 4.5 cm, (body) 3 cm; D. 4 cm; D. (hole) I cm. Dome-shaped bell with high handle. Reddish/orange/black slip both inside and outside. Hard, light orange (D9) clay with fine mica. Tc 3. Inv. no. 3000. H. 4.8 cm, (body) 3.6 cm; D. 4.1 cm; D. (hole) 0.9 cm. Dome-shaped bell with high handle. Hard, orange-red (Fio) clay with relatively little mica. 'A' marked faintly in ink on outside of bell. Tc 4. H. 4.1 cm, (body) 3 cm; D. 4.1 cm; D. (hole) 0.7 cm. Dome-shaped bell with low handle. Thin coating of slip. Hard, brown-orange (E 9) clay with small mica. Tc 5. Inv. no. 3000. H. 3.4 cm, (body) 3.4 cm; W. (pres.) 3 cm. Fr. of dome-shaped bell with hole at top. Soft, relatively coarse, orange-brown (E9-Dio) clay with abundant small mica. Tc 6. Inv. no. 3000. H. 3.8 cm, (body) 3.1 cm; D. 4.2 cm; D. (hole) 0.8 cm. Dome-shaped bell with low handle. Thin wash. Hard, brown-orange (D9) clay with abundant small mica. 'A' marked in ink on outside of bell.

Tc 7. Inv. no. 3000. H. 4-4 cm, (body) 3.1 cm; D. 4.6 cm; D. (hole) i cm. Dome-shaped bell with thick handle. Hard orange (E9-F9) clay with some mica. Tc 8. H. (total) 4.6 cm, (body) 3.4 cm; D. 4.5 cm; D. (hole) c. i cm. Dome-shaped bell with thick, slightly flattened handle. Large hole on top and small, broken out hole in one side. Covered with thin slip (black/red) inside and outside. Hard, orange (Dio) clay. Tc 9. Inv. no. 3000. H. 5-4 cm, (body) 4 cm; D. 5.2 cm; D. (hole) 0.9 cm. Dome-shaped bell with slightly flaring rim and high handle. Central hole at top. Hard, brown-grey (Ei i) clay with abundant mica. Tc io. Inv. no. 3000. H. 4.2 cm, (body) 2.9 cm; D. 4.3 cm; D. (hole) i.i cm. Dome-shaped bell with high handle. Hard, beige (Cio-Dio) clay with abundant mica. 'C' marked in ink on outside of bell. Tc 1. Inv. no. 2449. H. (pres.) 1.9 cm; W. (pres.) 4.7 cm; D. (hole) 1.7 cm. Upper part of bell with hole at top and low handle. Fairly soft beige-orange (C9-DIo) clay. Tc 12. Inv. no. 2449. H. (pres.) 2.9 cm; H. (pres.) (body) 2 cm; W. (pres.) 3.2 cm; D. (hole) 0.7 cm. Upper part of dome-shaped bell with hole at top and low handle. Fairly light and thin walled. Covered with very thin wash fired black in places. Hard, fine, orange-brown (E9-Io) clay with fine mica. Tc 13. Inv. no. 2449. H. (pres.) 3-5 cm, (body) 2.4 cm; W. (pres.) 3.6 cm; D. (hole) o.8 cm. Upper part of dome-shaped bell with hole at top and handle. Covered partly (parts of body, handle) with wash fired black to brown-red. Hard, beige-orange (E9-Fg) clay with much fine mica. Tc 14. Inv. no. 3000. H. 3.9 cm, (body) 2.9 cm; D. c.

4.5 cm, (hole) 0.7 cm. Dome-shaped bell with low handle and large hole at the top. Black-bluish slip inside and outside, but not on top of handle. Hard, orange-beige (Dio-II) clay with some mica. Tc 15. Inv. no. 3000. H. 4.7 cm, (body) 3.6 cm; W. (pres.) 3.1 cm; D. c. 4 cm. Fr. of conical bell with hole at top and handle. Black slip on outside and inside (3/4 up from rim). Hard, beige-orange (D9-Io) clay with some very fine mica. 'IL' marked in ink on outside of bell. Tc x6. Inv. no. 2449. H. 3-3 cm; W. (pres.) 2.9 cm; D. 4 cm; D. (hole) c. 1.3 cm. Fr. of thin-walled dome- shaped bell with hole at top. Covered with reddish- violet (somewhat 'metallic') slip. Hard, orange (E9) clay with mica. Tc 17. Inv. no. 3000. H. 4-4 cm, (body) '34 cm; D. 4.7 cm. Handmade bell of irregular dome-shape with high handle of irregular shape. No hole at top. Hard, orange (Fio) clay with abundant small mica. 'XII S. Drain A' marked in ink on inside of bell. Tc x8. Inv. no. 3000. H. 5-3 cm, (body) 5-3 cm; D. c. 6 cm; (hole) 0.7 cm. Thin-walled, dome-shaped bell with small hole at the top. Handle and large part of body broken off. Remains of handle preserved on one shoulder, while on the other the area where the


Tel Tc2 Tc3

Tc4 Tc5 Tc6

Tc7 Tc8

Tc9 Tc10

Tc 11 Tc 12 Tc 13

Tc 14 Tc 15 Tc 16

Tc 17 Te 18

FIG. 6. Terracotta bells from the sanctuary of Athena on the Spartan acropolis. Sparta, Museum (scale i : 3).


Tc19 Tc 20 Tc21

Tc 22 Tc 23 Tc 24

Tc 25 Tc 26 Tc 27

Tc 28 Tc 29 Tc 30

Tc 31 Tc 32 Tc 33

Tc 34 Tc 35

Tc 36



handle was attached is discernible. Surface polished. Three narrow and one wide stripe of lustrous black- blue glaze painted horizontally around body. Hard, fine, beige (C9) clay with some mica. Tc xg. Inv. no. 2449. H. (pres.) 4.3 cm, (body, pres.) 2.4 cm; W. (pres.) 2.9 cm; D. (hole) I cm. Upper part of thin- walled dome-shaped bell with hole at top and high handle. Top part (both inside and outside) covered with red-brown slip. Fairly hard, orange (E9) clay with mica. Tc 2o. Inv. no. 2449. H. (pres.) 2.6 cm; W. (pres.) 4 cm; D. (hole) o.8 cm. Upper part of dome-shaped bell with hole at top and handle (now broken off; remains preserved on shoulder). Upper part of outside wall (as well as inside of hole on inside wall) covered with black glaze; beginning of stripe of black glaze just above break on the inside wall. Hard, orange-beige (D9, core E9-F9) clay with mica. Te 2x. Inv. no. 2449. H. (pres.) 2.1 cm; W. (pres.) 3.8 cm; D. (hole) 1.4 cm. Upper part of large bell with large hole at top and handle (now broken off; remains preserved on shoulder). Upper part covered with black glaze (also to a certain point inside). Fairly hard, beige (D8) clay with very small mica.

Te 22. Inv. no. 3000. H. 3.6 cm, (body) 3.6 cm; W. (pres.) 2.5 cm. Fr. of thin-walled, dome-shaped bell with hole at top; remains of handle preserved on shoulder. Black glaze on outside and parts of inside wall. Hard, relatively fine, beige (C9) clay with little very fine mica. 'C' marked in ink on outside of bell. Tc 23. Inv. no. 2449. H. (pres.) 2.1 cm; W. (pres.) 2.9 cm; D. (hole) c. I cm. Fr. of upper part of dome- shaped bell with hole at top and handle (now broken off but part preserved on shoulder). Upper part of both outside and inside of wall covered with black- bluish glaze. Hard, fine, orange-beige (D9-Dio) clay with fine mica. Tc 24. Inv. no. 2449. H. (pres.) 2.5 cm; W. (pres.) 2.9 cm; D. (hole) c. 1.4 cm. Fr. of upper part of dome- shaped bell with relatively large hole at top and handle (now broken off; remains preserved on shoulder). Stripes of black (slightly metallic) glaze around body at top and above break. Hard, fine, brown (DII) clay with mica. Tc 25. Inv. no. 2449. H. (pres.) 3.1 cm; W (pres.) 5.5 cm; D. at top 4 cm; D. (hole) 1.6 cm. Top part of large bell with round hole at top. Remains of handle on both shoulders. Surface smoothed, two stripes of red- brown glaze around top and around body. Hard, beige-orange (D9-Dio) clay with fine mica. Tc 26. Inv. no. 2449. H. (pres.) 3.6 cm; W (pres.) 3.6 cm; D. (hole) c. I cm. Fr. of upper part of thin-walled dome-shaped bell with hole at top and handle (traces of attachment visible on shoulder). Top third (inside and outside) and lower part (inside and outside) covered with black glaze. Hard, fine, orange (DIo, core F9) clay with fine mica.

Te 27. Inv. no. 2449. H. 3.1 cm; W. (pres.) 3-5 cm; D. 4.6 cm; D. (hole) c. i cm. Fr. of thin-walled dome- shaped bell with hole at top. Lower quarter of bell inside and outside covered with red glaze, stripe of red glaze around top of bell on outside. Hard, fine, beige- orange clay (Dio) with very small mica. Tc 28. Inv. no. 2449. H. (pres.) 3 cm; W. (pres.) 3.8 cm; D. (hole) I.4 cm. Fr. of upper part of thin-walled, light, dome-shaped bell with hole at top and handle (now broken off; remains preserved). Upper quarter covered with red slip; red strip also inside and outside lower part above break. Fairly hard, beige-orange (D9, core F9) clay with mica.

Te 29. Inv. no. 2449. H. 3.9 cm; W. (pres.) 4.5 cm; D. c. 4.6 cm; D. (hole) 1.4 cm. Fr. of dome-shaped bell with hole at top, handle (now broken off; remains on shoulder), and slightly inward turned rim. Top and bottom quarter of wall inside and outside covered with black glaze. Hard, fine, light, beige-orange (C9-D9, core D9) clay with fine mica. Glued together from two pieces. Tc 30o. Inv. no. 2449. H. (pres.) 3.2 cm; W. (pres.) 3.I cm; D. c. 5 cm. Fr. of lower part of thin-walled dome- shaped bell. Remains of handle at top just below break. Upper part below break covered with red glaze both inside and outside. Hard, orange (E9) clay with fine mica. Tc 31. Inv. no. 2449. H. (pres.) 3.6 cm; W. (pres.) 4.2 cm; D. 5.4 cm. Fr. of lower part of thin-walled bell. Upper part of outside below break covered with black-red glaze, smudge of red glaze at bottom of rim. Hard, orange (E9, core F9) clay with mica. Tc 32. Inv. no. 2449. H. 3.4 cm, (body) 3.4 cm; W. (pres.) 3.6 cm; D. 4.4 cm; D. (hole) o.8 cm. Fr. of wall of dome-shaped bell with hole at top and slightly flaring rim. Inside and on lower part of outside white slip, top third of outside wall covered with red slip. Hard, orange-brown (E9) clay with fine mica. Tc 33. Inv. no. 3000. H. 3.2 cm, (body) 3.2 cm; W. (pres.) 3-3 cm. Fr. of dome-shaped bell with wide black-glazed stripe on inside and outside. Burnt; grey (A8-9) clay with abundant fine mica. Tc 34. Inv. no. 2449. H. (pres.) 4 cm; W. (pres.) 2.3 cm; D. 4 cm. Fr. of lower part of wall of thin-walled bell. Traces of handle just below break. Lower part of wall inside and outside covered with black-reddish glaze. Hard, orange (Dio) clay with mica. Tc 35. Inv. no. 2449. H. 3-4 cm, (body) 3.4 cm; W. (pres.) 3.8 cm; D. 4.4 cm; D. (hole) 0.5 cm. Fr. of dome-shaped bell with hole at top; remains of handle on side of shoulder. Thin wash fired reddish on lower part of bell (both inside and outside). Hard, beige- brown (D9) clay with mica. Tc 36. Inv. no. 2449. H. 6.4 cm, (body) 6.4 cm; D. 9.6 cm, (hole) 4.1 cm. Large, thin-walled, dome-shaped bell with very large round hole at top. Remains of one


Tc 37 Tc 38

Tc 39 Tc 40

Tc 41 Tc 42 Tc 43

Tc 44

Tc 45

Tc 46 Tc 47 Tc 48

Tc49 Tc 50

Tc 51



end of handle preserved on shoulder. Stripe of thin reddish-brown slip around top and bottom edges, as well as on lower quarter of inside wall and on handle. Paint running down outside wall beside handle. Surface smoothed. Hard, beige-brown/orange (D9-io) clay with fine mica. Tc 37. Inv. no. 3000. H. 6.8 cm, (body) 6.8 cm; W. (pres.) 5.7 cm; D. c. 8 cm, (hole) I cm. Thin-walled, high, conical bell of which only c. one quarter is preserved. Handle broken off but remains of one end are preserved. Three horizontal red stripes of glaze encircling body. Hard, orange-brown (Dio-II) clay with abundant mica. 'A below cobbles' marked in ink on inside of bell. Tc 38. Inv. no. 2449. H. (pres.) 3 cm; W (pres.) 3.2 cm; D. 5.8 cm. Fr. of wall of dome-shaped bell with hole at top. Two horizontal stripes of red glaze around body. Hard, relatively fine, orange-beige (D9) clay with abundant small mica. Tc 39. Inv. no. 2449. H. 4-9 cm; W. (pres.) 4.6 cm; D. 6.2 cm. Fr. of large dome-shaped bell with hole and handle (now broken off; remains preserved on shoulder). Top third and bottom quarter covered with black-bluish glaze inside and outside. Hard, fine, beige-orange (C9, core Dio) clay with fine mica. Tc 40o. Inv. no. 2449. H. (pres.) 5.2; W (pres.) 4; D. (hole) 0.9 cm. Fr. of upper part of large, dome-shaped bell with hole at top; handle now broken off, remains preserved on shoulder. Top part of outside wall and inside hole covered with black glaze; black-glaze stripe also further down around body. Hard, fine, beige- orange (C8-D8) clay with fine mica. Tc 41. H. 4.6 cm, (body) 3.5 cm; D. 4.5 cm, (hole) I cm. Dome-shaped bell with offset, flaring rim and thick short handle. Large hole at top. Lower third of body glazed. Hard, orange (DIo) clay with abundant mica. Tc 42. Inv. no. 2449. H. 3-3 cm; W (pres.) 3.7 cm; D. 5 cm, (hole) at least 1.5 cm. Fr. of thin-walled dome- shaped bell with hole at top and flaring rim. Lower third covered with black-reddish-brown glaze. Fine, hard, orange-beige (Dg-io) clay with fine mica. Tc 43. Inv. no. 2449. H. (pres.) 3.8 cm; W. (pres.) 4.2 cm; D. 4.2 cm. Fr. of thin-walled conical bell with hole at top, handle (remains preserved) and slightly flaring rim. Horizontal stripe of red slip outside and inside around rim. Hard, beige-brown (D9, core E9) clay with mica. Tc 44. Inv. no. 2449. H. 6 cm, (body) 6 cm; D. 8.2 cm, (hole) 1.2 cm. Large conical bell with slightly flaring rim and round hole at top. Remains of handle on one side of shoulder, on other side place where handle was attached is still visible. Surface smoothed. Hard, beige-orange (D9-Io, E9 core) clay with fine mica. Tc 45. Inv. no. 2449. H. 4.3 cm, (body) 4.3 cm; D. 6.6 cm, (hole) 0.6 cm. Large conical bell with round hole at top and remains of handle on shoulder. Surface

smoothed, two red horizontal stripes around body. Hard, orange (E9, core F9) clay with fine mica. Glued from two joining frs; small piece of lower rim and handles missing. Tc 46. Inv. no. 3000. H. 3.9 cm, (body) 3.7 cm; D. 4.8 cm, (hole) 1.2 cm. Conical bell with slightly convex wall. Large hole at top. Surface smoothed, covered with thin slip; three horizontal reddish-black stripes painted on body. Handle and part of the top of one side missing. Hard, orange-beige (D9) clay with abundant small mica. Tc 47. Inv. no. 3000. H. (total) 5 cm, (body) 3.5 cm; D.

5.3 cm, (hole) i.i cm. Conical bell with thick handle. Three thin stripes of red glaze around body. Soft, light, orange (Dio-E9) clay with abundant mica. Tc 48. H. 5.2 cm, (body) 3.5 cm; D. 5-1-5.3 cm, (hole) 1.6 cm. Conical bell with large, flattened handle (with central groove along centre) and large hole at top. Two black/red stripes of slip around base and top of bell; handle and lower two thirds of inside covered with glaze. Hard, orange (D9-Io) clay. Tc 49. H. 4-4 cm, (body) 3.1 cm; D. 4.1 cm, (hole) 1.2 cm. Conical bell with slightly convex walls, large flattened handle and large hole at top. Two stripes of black/reddish slip around bottom and top of bell, with top part of handle left unpainted. Hard, beige- orange (C8-D8) clay with some mica. Tc 50. Inv. no. 3000. H. 6.8 cm, (body) 5 cm; W. (pres.) 5.4 cm; D. c. 5.8 cm, (hole) 1.5 cm. Large conical bell with high handle and large hole at top. Traces of red slip on handle, on outside and inside walls. Part of wall broken off. Hard, orange-brown (Dio) clay with abundant small mica. Tc 51. Inv. no. 2449. H. (pres.) 5.i cm, (body) 3.7 cm; W. (pres.) 2.8 cm; D. (hole) 1.2 cm. Top part of conical bell. Traces of brownish wash (?) on surface. Soft, orange-beige (D9, core E9) clay with mica. Tc 52. Inv. no. 2449. H. 4-9 cm, (body) 3.1 cm; W. (pres.) 3 cm. Fr. of thin-walled, light bell with hole at top and thick handle. Relatively coarse yet light orange-beige (D9, core F9) clay with mica. Tc 53. Inv. no. 2449. H. (pres.) 2.9 cm; W (pres.) 3.2 cm. Small fr. of fairly thin wall of bell with remains of handle. Tc 54. Inv. no. 2449. H. (pres.) 2.7 cm, (body) 2.7 cm; D. 4.1 cm, (hole) 0.5 cm. Conical bell with hole at top. Handle now broken off; remains on one side of shoulder, on the other traces of attachment. Soft, brown-orange (E9) clay with mica. Tc 55. Inv. no. 3000. H. 4.7 cm, (body) 3-5 cm; D. 4-9 cm, (hole) 0.9 cm. Conical bell with wide handle and large hole at top. Hard, brown-orange (Dio-EIo) clay with abundant mica. 'C' marked in ink on outside of bell. Tc 56. Inv. no. 3000. H. 5.2 cm, (body) 2.4 cm; D. 4.6 cm, (hole) 0.9 cm. Conical bell with high, thick handle


Tc 52 Tc 53 Tc 54

Tc 55 Tc 56 Tc 57

Tc 58 Tc 59 Tc 60

Tc 61 Tc 62 Tc 63

Tc 64 Tc 65 Tc 66

Tc 67 Tc 68 Tc 69



and large hole at top. Hard, brown-orange-grey (Dio-EIo) clay with abundant mica. 'E&S April 23, 24' marked in ink on outside of bell. Tc 57. Inv. no. 3000. H. 4.-9 cm, (body) 3-9 cm; D. 4.7 cm, (hole) I.I cm. Conical bell with offset, vertical rim. Large hole at top. High handle, half of which is missing. Hard brown (EI ) clay with abundant mica. 'G' marked in ink on outside of bell. Tc 58. Inv. no. 3000. H. 3.9 cm, (body) 3.1 cm; D. 4-5 cm, (hole) 0.9 cm. Conical bell with wide, low handle. Hard, orange-beige (D9-Io) clay of relatively fine consistency with abundant fine mica. 'G' marked in ink on outside of bell. Tc 59. Inv. no. 3000. H. 4 cm, (body) 2.8 cm; D. 4.1 cm, (hole) I.3 cm. Conical bell with thick handle of irregular shape. Hard, beige-orange (Dio) clay with abundant small mica. Tc 6o. Inv. no. 3000. H. 3.8 cm, (body) 3.8 cm; D.

3-9-4-4 cm, (hole) 0.7-0.9 cm. Conical irregularly dome-shaped bell with central hole at top. Handle now broken off; some remains on shoulder. Hard, beige-brown (C9-Dio) clay with abundant mica. Tc 6x. Inv. no. 3000. H. 5.8 cm, (body) 4-3 cm; W. (pres.) 5.4 cm; D. c. 6 cm, (hole) 1.6 cm. Conical/dome-shaped bell with large hole at top and high handle. Thin reddish wash on top third of wall and handle. Soft to medium, beige-orange (Dio) clay with abundant mica. Tc 62. Inv. no. 2449. H. 5 cm, (body) 4 cm; D. 4-3 cm, (hole) 0.5 cm. Elongated conical/dome-shaped bell with hole (slightly irregular shape) and high handle. Hard, beige-brown (D9-Io) clay with mica. Lower part of wall broken off. Tc 63. Inv. no. 3000. H. 4.5 cm, (body) 4.1 cm; D. 4.1 cm, (hole) 0.7 cm. Elongated conical/dome-shaped bell with slightly flaring rim. Hole at top, handle broken off except for small remains at one side of shoulder. Hard, orange-red (Eio-ii) clay with little' mica. Outside and lower two thirds of inside covered with brown-black-orange slip. 'A' marked in ink on outside of bell. Tc 64. Inv. no. 3000. H. 3.5 cm, (body) 3-5 cm; W. (pres.) 3.6 cm; D. c. 4-5 cm, (hole) 0.4 cm. Elongated conical/dome-shaped bell with slightly flaring rim and hole at top. Top half covered with thin red-orange slip. Fairly soft, medium to coarse, beige (Dio) clay. Tc 65. Inv. no. 2449. H. 3.3 cm, (body) 3.3 cm; D. c. 4 cm, (hole) o.8 cm. Handmade (?) elongated conical/dome-shaped bell with hole at top. Handle now broken off; remains preserved on one side of shoulder. Soft, orange-brown (E9-io) clay with mica. Tc 66. Inv. no. 2449. H. 5.i cm, (body) 4.1 cm; D. 3.8 cm, (hole) 0.7 cm. Elongated conical/dome-shaped bell (half broken off) with hole at top and flat, high handle. Covered with thin wash fired partly reddish,

partly black (particularly on inside). Hard, brown- orange (Dio, core grey) clay with mica. Tc 67. Inv. no. 2449. H. 3.6 cm, (body) 3.6 cm; W. (pres.) 3-5 cm; D. 4 cm, (hole) I cm. Fr. of elongated conical/dome-shaped bell with hole at top; remains of handle on side of shoulder. Smoothed surface. Hard, beige (D9, inside E9) clay with mica. Tc 68. Inv. no. 2449. H. 4.2 cm, (body) 4.2 cm; D. 4.2 cm, (hole) 0.5 cm. Elongated conical/dome-shaped bell with hole at top and remains of handle preserved on both sides of shoulder. Thin wash fired reddish- brown in places. Hard, beige-orange (Dio, core E9) clay with mica. Tc 69. Inv. no. 2449. H. (pres.) 4.7 cm; W. (pres.) 3.8 cm; D. at least 4.2 cm, (hole) 0.7 cm. Upper part of elongated conical/dome-shaped bell with hole at top and high, pointed handle. Hard brown-orange (D9-E9) clay with mica. Tc 70o. Inv. no. 2449. H. (pres.) 3-9 cm, (body) 2.3 cm; W. (pres.) 2.7 cm; D. (hole) 0.7 cm. Upper part of elongated conical/dome-shaped bell with hole at top and high, pointed, flattened handle. Hard, orange (DII-F9; surface Dio) clay with mica, covered with a wash fired partly grey (AII). Tc 71. Inv. no. 2449. H. (pres.) 3.1 cm, (body) 1.8 cm; W (pres.) 2.5 cm; D. (hole) 0.6 cm. Upper part of elongated conical/dome-shaped bell with hole at top and high handle. Hard, brown-orange (Dio) clay with mica. Tc 72. Inv. no. 2449. H. (pres.) 3.1 cm, (body) 1.9 cm; W. (pres.) 2.5 cm; D. (hole) 0.6 cm. Upper part of elongated conical/dome-shaped bell with hole at top and high, pointed, flattened handle. Hard, orange (E9-F9) clay with mica.

Te 73. Inv. no. 2449. H. (pres.) 3.9 cm, (body) 3 cm; W. (pres.) 2.9 cm; D. (hole) o.6 cm. Upper part of elongated conical/dome-shaped bell with hole at top and handle. Hard, orange beige (Dio-E9, core F9) clay with mica. Tc 74. Inv. no. 2449. H. (pres.) 4.1 cm; W. (pres.) 2.3 cm; D. at least 2.8 cm, (hole) o.6 cm. Upper part of elongated conical/dome-shaped bell with hole at top and high handle. Soft beige-brown (Dio) clay with mica. Tc 75. Inv. no. 2449. H. (pres.) 4.8 cm; W. (pres.) 3.3 cm; D. at least 4-4 cm, (hole) 0.7 cm. Upper part of elongated conical/dome-shaped bell with hole at top and high, pointed handle. Strip of glaze on lower part of bell. Hard, beige-brown-orange (C9-D9, inside F9) clay with mica. Tc 76. Inv. no. 3000. H. (pres.) 3.6 cm; W. (pres.) 3.9 cm; D. (hole) i.i cm. Upper part of roughly-made elongated conical/dome-shaped bell with hole at top and pointed handle, black wash inside and outside, but not on top of handle. Hard, orange (Dio-II) clay. Tc 77. Inv. no. 3000. H. (pres.) 3.8 cm; W. (pres.) 2.9 cm; D. (hole) i.i cm. Upper part of elongated conical/dome-


Tc 70 Tc 71 Tc 72

Tc 7S3 Tc 74 Tc 75

Tc 76 Tc 77 Tc 78

Tc 79 Tc 80 Tc 81

Tc 82 Tc 83 Tc 84

Tc 85 Tc 86 Tc 87

FIG. IO. Terracotta bells from the sanctuary of Athena on the Spartan acropolis. Sparta, Museum (scale I : 3).


shaped bell with hole at top and high handle. Soft, relatively coarse, beige-orange (E9) clay with abundant mica. 'xii S' marked in ink on inside of bell. Tc 78. Inv. no. 3000. H. (pres.) 5.2 cm; W. (pres.) 3.7 cm; D. (hole) I.i cm. Upper part of elongated conical/dome-shaped bell with hole at top and pointed handle. Black glaze inside and outside. Soft, coarse, orange-beige (E9) clay with some mica. Tc 79. Inv. no. 2449. H. (pres.) 3.5 cm; W. (pres.) 3.8 cm; D. at least 4.2 cm, (hole) o.8 cm. Upper part of elongated conical/dome-shaped bell with hole at top. Handle now broken off; remains preserved on both sides of the shoulder. Burnt; very hard, grey-brown (A9-Io) clay with mica covered with thin wash which is now grey-black (Ai i). Tc 8o. Inv. no. 2449. H. (pres.) 3-4 cm, (body) 2.2 cm; W. (pres.) 2.7 cm; D. (hole) I cm. Upper part of elongated conical/dome-shaped bell with hole at top and flattened handle. Fine, very light, beige-buff (D7-C7) clay with fine mica. Tc 8x. Inv. no. 3000. H. (pres.) 3.7 cm; W (pres.) 3.4 cm; D. (hole) o.6 cm. Top part of elongated conical/dome-shaped bell with hole at top and low handle. Hard, orange (E9-FIo) clay with abundant, very fine mica. 'xi-xii Black Track' marked in ink on inside of bell. Tc 82. Inv. no. 2449. H. (pres.) 3.6 cm, (body) 2.6 cm; W (pres.) 3.1 cm; D. (hole) 1.4 cm. Upper part of very thin-walled elongated conical/dome-shaped bell with large hole at top and flattened handle. Black-glazed inside and outside; handle only partly glazed. Fine, light, beige-brown (D9) clay with very fine mica. Tc 83. Inv. no. 2449. H. (pres.) 2.I cm; W. (pres.) 3.3 cm; D. (hole) o.6 cm. Upper part of thin-walled, elongated conical/dome-shaped bell with hole at top. Handle now broken off; remains preserved at both sides of shoulder. Fine, hard, orange (F9) clay with mica. Tc 84. Inv. no. 2449. H. (pres.) 3.7 cm; W (pres.) 3.8 cm; D. (hole) i cm. Upper part of elongated conical/dome-shaped bell with very large hole at top. Handle now broken off; remains preserved at both sides of shoulder. Relatively soft, orange (E9-F9) clay with mica. Covered with red wash inside and out. Tc 85. Inv. no. 3000. H. (pres.) 4 cm; W. (pres.) 3.6 cm; D. (hole) 0.9 cm. Elongated conical/dome-shaped bell with hole at top and high handle (mostly broken off). Upper half, including handle, covered with thick black glaze. Hard, brown (C9, core EII) clay with some fine mica. Tc 86. Inv. no. 2449. H. (pres.) 4.8 cm, (body) 3.2 cm; W. (pres.) 3.6 cm; D. (hole) I cm. Upper part of elongated conical/dome-shaped bell with hole at top and high flattened handle. Surface burnt to a dark grey (AII), with three now white horizontal stripes around body. Hard, grey (AIo-II) clay with mica.

Tc 87. Inv. no. 3000. H. (pres.) 2.5 cm; W. (pres.) 3-7 cm; D. (hole) 0.7 cm. Fr. of top part of thin-walled elongated conical/dome-shaped bell with stripes of black glaze. Fine, hard, beige-brown (C9) clay with some very fine mica. 'G' marked in ink on inside of bell. Tc 88. Inv. no. 2449. H. (pres.) 2.2 cm; W. (pres.) 4.6 cm; D. (hole) 1.2 cm. Upper part of bell with hole at top; remains of handle on both sides of shoulder. Very soft, beige-orange (D9-E9) clay with fine mica. In hole at top a small clay 'plug' was stuck which nearly filled the hole; the side pointing downwards into the inside of the bell was rounded off, the top side roughly flattened and finished flush with the top of the bell- remains of a clapper? Tc 89. Inv. no. 3000. H. (pres.) 2.1 cm; W. (pres.) 4.3 cm; D. (hole) i cm. Top part of bell with hole at top and handle (ends preserved on shoulders). Soft, beige- orange (D9) clay with some very fine mica. Tc go. Inv. no. 2449. H. (pres.) 3.4 cm, (body) 2.1 cm; W. (pres.) 3.I1 cm; D. (hole) 0.8 cm. Upper part of dome- shaped bell with hole at top and high, flattened handle. Burnt; hard, grey-brown (DI2, AIo-II at core) clay with mica; surface slip burnt to a dark grey (Aio-i i). Tc gx. Inv. no. 2449. H. (pres.) 3.6 cm, (body) 2 cm; W. (pres.) 3.6 cm; D. (hole) i.i cm. Upper part of fairly thin-walled dome-shaped bell with hole at top and flattened handle. Hard, relatively fine, orange clay (F9) with mica. Covered inside and outside with slip fired mostly red but also brown-black. Tc 92. Inv. no. 2449. H. (pres.) 2.9 cm, (body) 1.6 cm; W. (pres.) 3.1 cm; D. (hole) i.i cm. Upper part of dome-shaped bell with hole at top and handle. Relatively soft orange (E9-F8) clay with mica. Tc 93. Inv. no. 2449. H. (pres.) 2.1 cm; W. (pres.) 3.6 cm; D. (hole) o.8 cm. Upper part of dome-shaped bell. Handle now broken off; remains preserved on both shoulders. Covered inside and outside with thin wash fired reddish to black. Hard, brown-orange (DIo-E9) clay with mica. Tc 94. Inv. no. 300o. H. (pres.) 3.5 cm; W. (pres.) 3.3 cm; D. (hole) 0.7 cm. Upper part of bell with hole at top and high pointed handle, red slip inside and outside. Medium-soft, beige (D8) clay with abundant mica. 'xii S' marked in ink on inside of bell. Tc 95. Inv. no. 3000. H. (pres.) 3.6 cm; W. (pres.) 3.6 cm; D. (hole) 0.9 cm. Top part of bell with high handle. Red slip inside and out. Medium-soft, medium-coarse, orange (E9) clay with some mica. Tc 96. Inv. no. 2449. H. (pres.) 3.1 cm, (body) 1.9 cm; W. (pres.) 3 cm; D. (hole) c. I cm. Upper part of thin- walled, dome-shaped bell with hole at top and flattened handle. Covered inside and outside with wash fired red to black. Hard, orange (E9-F9) clay with mica.

Te 97. Inv. no. 2449. H. (pres.) 2.7 cm, (body) 1.2 cm; W. (pres.) 2.4 cm. Small fr. of upper part of dome-shaped


Tc 88 Tc 89 Tc 90

Tc 91 Tc 92 Tc 93

Tc 94 Tc 95 Tc 96

Tc 97 Tc 98 Tc 99

Tc 100

Tc 101 Tc 102

FIG. II. Terracotta bells from the sanctuary of Athena on the Spartan acropolis. Sparta, Museum (scale I : 3).


bell with fairly thin walls, hole at top and high, flattened (metallic black) and inside (reddish) of rim. Hard, handle. Hard beige-orange (E8, core F9) clay with mica. beige-orange clay (Dio) with fine mica. Tc 98. Inv. no. 3000. H. (pres.) 3.5 cm; W. (pres.) 3.6 Tc iox. Inv. no. 2449. H. (pres.) 2 cm; W. (pres.) 2.9 cm; D. (hole) o.8 cm. Top part of unglazed bell with cm; D. c. 5.4 cm. Fr. of lower part of thin-walled bell. handle and hole at top. Soft, relatively coarse, orange Lower part of inside and outside wall covered with (E9) clay with abundant small mica. reddish glaze. Hard, orange (E9) clay (relatively Tc 99. Inv. no. 3000. H. (pres.) 3.4 cm; W (pres.) 3.5 cm; coarse) with mica. D. (hole) o.6 cm. Upper part of bell with hole at top and Tc 102. Inv. no. 2449. H. (pres.) 2.1 cm; W. (pres.) 3 handle. Soft, orange (FIo) clay with abundant mica. cm. Fr. of lower part of wall of thin-walled bell with Tc ioo. Inv. no. 2449. H. (pres.) 2.6 cm; W. (pres.) 5.4 slightly flaring rim. Lower part of inside and outside cm; D. c. 11.2 cm. Fr. of lower part of large thin-walled wall covered with black glaze. Hard, orange (E9) clay bell. Horizontal stripe of glaze around outside with mica.

Unfortunately, it is difficult to reconstruct the original place of these objects within the sanctuary, or even within the stratigraphy of the excavations. Very few of the bells now in the storerooms can be pinned down to a precise findspot by identification with remarks in the excavation reports or diaries. From what we know it seems that both terracotta and bronze bells were found in all areas of the sanctuary, appearing among Dickins's finds in the sanctuary precinct itself, among the finds from the trenches dug under Woodward south of the precinct up to the back of the theatre (including the 'portico' and the smaller building which, it has been suggested, could have been the sanctuary of Athena Ergane and which appears to contain much debris from the sanctuary precinct) and further around the back of the theatre. For the purpose of dating, the sanctuary's stratigraphy is not particularly instructive, the site having suffered from levelling during the building of the Roman theatre and from Roman and later building activity.

It is clear, however, that the bells were dedicated to Athena, the goddess who (as Chalkioikos and Poliouchos) occupied the main shrine on the acropolis, since several of the bronze bells carry votive inscriptions to Athena.6 These inscriptions allow us also to date at least those bells into the Classical period. It also seems likely that the bells were mostly locally produced, given their sheer number (in comparison with other sites), the distinctive types used, and the fact that bronze working and pottery production are well attested for ancient Sparta.7

BRONZE BELLS

Shapes There are thirty-four bronze bells-some fragmentary-from the Spartan acropolis in the storerooms of the Sparta Museum.8 They come in a variety of sizes ranging from under 2 cm

6 The excavators identified what appeared to be the foundation of a temenos wall, a stoa, and a further small building; according to Pausanias (iii. 17. 2-18. 2) the sanctuary consisted of a temenos with an entrance area, a temple and a small building. The identification of the sanctuary with the excavated site is confirmed by numerous votive inscriptions as well as by stamped tiles. Other acropolis cults are attested by Pausanias (a sanctuary each of Athena Ergane, Zeus Kosmetas, the Muses, Aphrodite Areia, and Athena Ophthalmitis, as well as the grave of Tyndareos and a number of statues), but little has come to light in the excavations to suggest that more than a very small part of the finds could belong to any other cult than that of Athena. On the cult of Athena at Sparta, see further

below, section III. On Spartan Athena and Spartan cults in general, see most recently A. Hupfloher, Kulte im kaiserzeitlichen Sparta (Berlin, 2000), 195-201; A. C. Villing, 'Aspects of Athena in the Greek Polis: Sparta and Corinth', in A. B. Lloyd (ed.), What is a God? Studies in the Nature of Greek Divinity (London, 1997), 81-ioo. On Spartan topography cf. E. Kourinou, irdpvrj: Zvpo3oAf oM Vr talO rooypaqia rig (Athens, 2000).

7 On Spartan bronze-working, see most recently P. Cartledge, Spartan Reflections (London, 2001), 169-84; see also below, n. 215-

8 A thorough analysis of the small bronze fragments in the Sparta storerooms may bring to light more bell fragments, but is unlikely to reveal much more significant material.


to nearly 8 cm. The diameter is roughly in proportion, being in most cases only slightly less than the body height.9 All have a round cross-section. Most are either dome-shaped or conical with a rounded top, or somewhere in between (a table detailing the basic terminology with regard to bell shapes and parts is given in FIG. I). We can distinguish in particular a group of relatively high bells with a profiled thickened base rim and a high arched handle with upturned ends (Br 6-II, and quite possibly also 12; FIGS. 2-4), and bells with a simple arched handle (Br 1-5, 15-19: FIGS. 2, 4). A small group is made of thinner, sheet-like bronze and is characterized by an often almost hemispherical or flattened shape (Br 26-30: FIG. 5).

The majority of Spartan bells were clearly cast using the lost wax process, the common technique for ancient bronze bells, and most bronze objects in general.'o Most (two-thirds) have small feet attached to their lower rim-nineteen or twenty bells have three feet, two or three bells (Br 8, 11i, and possibly 29: FIGS. 2, 3, 5) have four, and one bell (Br i: FIG. 2) has five. These, as well as the handles, were either cast with the bells or attached separately, and some are now lost. Some handles consist of a round 'loop' (esp. Br 20: FIG. 5), but most are of an arched 'basket' shape with the ends either simply running into the bell's body, flattened into a leaf-shape (Br I, 2: FIG. 2), or turning upwards into little hooks or curls (Br 6-x2: FIGS. 2, 3). One bell also has a

highly unusual handle arrangement with a low basket handle surmounted by a loop (Br 24: FIG.

5). Not all bells have handles and feet preserved. Some may never have had any feet (Br 21-5, 3I-4: FIG. 5), and in a few cases there are also no visible traces of a handle (Br 3i-4: FIG. 5).

Almost all the bells have at least one hole at the top for the attachment of the clapper, which, where preserved, is invariably of iron. It consisted of a long drop-shaped baton hooked onto a chain or wire, which was attached to the bell with an iron or bronze wire or nail (see esp. Br I, 4 and ii: FIGS. 2, 3). There is thus no doubt as to the identification of these objects as bells." Most were obviously fully functional, produced in a material-bronze-well known to possess the best sound-producing qualities,'2 and with their varying shapes and weights probably producing a variety of sounds.

9 The ratio of body height (without handles/feet) to diameter mostly falls between 6 : 7 and 7 : 6. Against Price's claim (Bells and Man, p. xiii) that for bells of dome-conical shape across all times and cultures the average ratio of body height to diameter is 3 : 4, the Spartan bells appear quite tall. Only in the small group of Spartan bells made of thin, sheet-like bronze can the diameter be as much as twice the bell's height.

[o From Roman (?) Egypt, however, moulds for casting bells are preserved: H. Hickmann, Catalogue Gindral des Antiquitis igyptiennes du Musie du Caire: Instruments de musique (Cairo, 1949), 66-8.

" They conform on all counts to the modern definition of the bell (as given e.g. in the Encyclopaedia Britannica) as an open- mouthed, hollow vessel (of varying shape and varying material) that resounds when struck near the rim by an interior clapper or exterior hammer, mallet, or stick, producing a ringing sound. See e.g. Price, Bells and Man, pp. ix-xvi. Sometimes, related idiophones of different shapes are also called bells by some modern authors, but, for the sake of clarity, I prefer to adhere to the strict definition of the bell here, which differentiates it from the rattle (or crotal, jingle, pellet-bell, sleigh bell), a hollow spherical (or conical, ovoid, pear-shaped) vessel, with or without slits or other apertures in its body, which resounds when one or more pellets, which roll freely within it, strike against its interior. Also different is the gong, a stone slab

or flat metal plate that resounds when struck by a stick, mallet, or baton. Both these instruments work in a different way and produce a different sound from that of the bell.

'" Still today church bells are cast in bronze and clappers made of iron, which, over the centuries, has proven to be the best sound-producing combination: see W Ellerhorst, Handbuch der Glockenkunde (Weingarten, 1957), 77-8, 8o-I, 117. The sound a bell produces is determined essentially by the shape and thickness of its profile, its size, and its material; cf. e.g. A. Lehr, in Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, iii (2nd edn., Kassel, 1995), 1463-4 s.v. 'Glocken und Glockenspiele'; M. Schilling, Glocke- Gestalt, Klang und Zier (Dresden, 1987), 50-2; Ellerhorst, op. cit., 8o. The sound of ancient bells has been examined on a number of occasions. Egyptian bells in the Cairo Museum have had their tonal quality analysed, and quite a range of pitches was obtained (Hickmann, 'Zur Geschichte', 14-5)- Interestingly, bells found together in tombs in the Carpathian basin conformed to a certain harmony of sound; see K. Bakay, Scythian Rattles in the Carpathian Basin and their Eastern Connections (Budapest, 1971), 59-68. This seems to suggest that, just as it is of importance for shepherds in modern times that bells used for flocks of animals together produce a harmonious sound (ibid., 67), harmony of sound could also be a consideration for ancient bells. For the impact of cut-outs and slits on the sound of bells, see also below, n. 156.


Inscriptions Seven bells in total carry inscriptions.'3 This is a genuine rarity: most ancient bells do not have votive inscriptions,14 and I only know of one other Classical Greek inscribed bell, from the Theban Kabeirion, declared by its inscription to be a dedication to the Kabeiroi.'5 Of the Spartan bells, three are inscribed with full dedicatory inscriptions, which indicate that they were votive offerings by a man and two women-'EvtE8~KXhEg (Br I: FIG. 2),16 FELdCvct (or

FEtpdvct) (Br 8: FIG. 3)'7 and KaQLKpcriia (Br 12: FIG. 4)-to Athena ('Afctva'a). Three further bells carry an abbreviation, AOa (Br io, 26: FIGS. 3, 5) or A (Br 7: FIG. 3). On one badly preserved bell (Br x4: FIG. 4), there appears to have been a longer inscription, but now only an A is clearly visible. On the basis of the letterforms, the excavators dated the inscriptions-clearly Lakonian-to the fifth century. This assessment appears still to hold essentially true today, and we may assume that the inscribed bells probably date to the period between the second quarter of the fifth and the end of the fifth/beginning of the fourth century. A more precise dating is difficult to achieve because Lakonian script continued to use older letterforms alongside newer ones throughout the Classical period.'8 Those bells that are similar in shape to the inscribed ones are likely to be of a similar date, but earlier and later dates cannot be excluded.

TERRACOTTA BELLS

In contrast to the bronze bells, the Spartan terracotta bells were probably not quite as functional. They are mostly of more or less the same size as the bronze bells. Almost all are

'3 The inscriptions were probably added after casting. It is generally assumed that votive inscriptions were incised into bronze objects after casting, even though Schmaltz has made a case for at least some of the Kabeirion bronzes to have been inscribed into the wax model before casting: B. Schmaltz, Metallfiguren aus dem Kabirenheiligtum bei Theben (Das Kabirenheiligtum bei Theben, iv; Berlin, i980), 7-9. 14 An inscribed bell from the Museum Kircherianum, recorded only by B. de Montfaucon, L'Antiquite expliquee et representse en figures, iii/I (2nd edn., Paris, 1722), io6, pl. 55 supposedly carried the words 'meni chous artemis ephistion air', which was taken by Morillot, Etude, 6I 2 to be a votive inscription to Tyche, Athena, Artemis and Hephaistos. But, as has been shown already by Pease, 'Bells', 48-50, this interpretation is untenable. Otherwise, there is a Greek Hellenistic terracotta bell as well as Egyptian, Nubian, and Roman bells, particularly of the later Imperial period, with inscriptions. These identify the bells mostly as lucky charms (regarding seafaring, races, games), but also as magical objects or cultic instruments. See esp. A. M. Nagy, 'EYOI-AI EYTYXI', Bulletin du Mus&e Hongrois des Beaux-Arts, 76 (1992), 15-29, esp. 24-5, who gives a (incomplete) list of inscribed bells of the Roman period. Hickmann, 'Zur Geschichte', 18, mentions an Egyptian bell with a votive inscription to the crocodile-god Sobek with the plea for life by the dedicant Dje- ho (Teos). An even rarer phenomenon in ancient Greece are bells with figural decoration: the terracotta bells of the Late Archaic Attic 'Swan Group' carry rows of schematically drawn swans (see below, n. 52). Contrast this with Egyptian bronze bells decorated with plastic heads of animal-headed gods or Meroitic bells depicting scenes of war (cf. Hickmann, ibid., 3-4, 9-II; A. Hermann, 'Magische Glocken aus Meroe', Zeitschrift fur dgyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde, 93 (I966), 79-89), a 3rd-c. Roman bronze bell from Alba Fucens with

representations of Mercury, Fortuna, and Hecate surrounded by magical signs (Nagy, ibid., 24 no. 9 with n. 38), or a Late Roman bell representing gladiators (Nagy, ibid., passim).

'5 On this bell see below, n. 41. Cf. also what appears to be a Roman bell inscribed 'Kabirio': Nagy (n. 14), 25 no. 18 (CIL xiii. 3. 2, 1oo27. 255).

'6 For the name, see LGPNIIIA. 142. '7 This name is without known parallel; Woodward (BSA

24 (1919-21), ii8) suggested that the fourth letter in the name, although clearly shaped like a delta, was in fact intended to be a rho, and the resulting name 'FEtpdvta' could be a local version of the name 'Eirene'. This has been followed most recently by the editors of LPGNIIIA. i85. '8 For Lakonian script, see Jeffery, LSAG2, 183-202; ead., 'The development of Laconian lettering: a reconsideration', BSA 83 (1988), 179-81. On the basis ofJeffery's assessment, the delta on Br i is of pre-4th-c. date, the epsilon with its vertical stroke prolonged below the bottom cross-stroke of Br I and 8 is an Archaic feature that was in use certainly until the end of the 5th c., while the 'regular' E of Br 12 appears only from the second quarter of the 5th c. The digamma of Br 8 persisted at least as long as the Archaic epsilon type, as did the crossed theta of Br x, io, 12, and 26, which can be found in various versions. The dotted theta of Br 8 is a later, Classical feature, but does not need to be post-400, as Woodward (BSA 24 (1919-21), 118) had suggested (cf. LSAGO, 191). The four-stroke sigma is of the shape that became common after the mid-5th c., but on Br I it is reversed-and thus perhaps still in the earlier 'free-style' Lakonian tradition for the sigma-shape. The inscribed bells thus all appear to belong into the Classical period, but a more precise dating is made impossible by the combination of earlier and later traits occurring together in one and the same inscription.


wheel-made (only very few are handmade, e.g. Tc 17: FIG. 6), although generally not particularly carefully. The majority are very simple, often badly fired, of basic conical or dome- shape, with a body height of between 3 and 5 cm and a simple basket handle above the open top. Shapes range from rounded, squat types (well-preserved, e.g. Tc 1-4, 6-xo: FIG. 6) to more conical types (e.g. Tc 48-5o, 55-9: FIGS. 8, 9), to higher, narrower types (e.g. Tc 62-3, 66-8: FIG 9), often with the top part of the bell turning into a narrow, straight, funnel-like tube, and sometimes with the lower rim flaring outwards, creating a kind of 'tulip' shape. Many are undecorated, but many are also painted, mostly featuring horizontal bands around the base and top or covering the whole body (e.g. Tc 18-49: FIGS. 6-9). It is difficult to imagine that many of the thick-walled, irregularly made, and badly-fired bells would ever have been effective at producing sound, but the more carefully-made and better-fired thin-walled bells-often glazed or striped-were clearly better suited for ringing (e.g. Tc I8-43, 71-8: FIGS. 6-8, io).

No clappers were found with any of the bells, but at other sites, clappers (usually clay pellets attached with a string) have occasionally been found with similar terracotta bells; examples are a bell from an early fifth-century grave in the Kerameikos,'9 a bell from Halai,20 Archaic Cypriot bells,"' and a sixth-century bell from Babylon.2 These finds also effectively refute an interpretation of such objects as thymiaterion lids.23 The larger and more carefully produced Spartan terracotta bells, at least, would have produced a sound with a clapper, although it would have been far inferior to that of a bronze bell.24 The sound of terracotta bells would not have carried far, thus rendering them more or less useless for signalling purposes, and they would have been highly breakable, thus hardly suitable for heavy-duty use. It therefore seems likely that the terracotta bells functioned as cheaper imitations and substitutes for bronze bells, for the purpose of dedication.25 They can thus be compared to miniature pottery, miniature weapons, or animal figurines used as votive offerings, or to the terracotta jewellery sometimes found in graves.

II. SPARTAN BELLS AND THEIR PLACE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF

BELLS IN ANCIENT GREECE

The Spartan bells are not an entirely unique phenomenon. Bells are found across all regions of ancient Greece, from the islands to the Peloponnese, Attica, central and northern Greece, in a variety of contexts: sanctuaries, graves and houses. Still, they are on the whole few and far between; in most cases only one or two bells come from each location. Few are given a secure date through their context, often leaving them adrift between the Geometric and the Roman or even later periods, a problem aggravated by the fact that many types survived for a long period of time.

19 U. Knigge, Kerameikos, ix: Der Siidhiigel (Berlin, 1976), 96 no. 36. 4-6, pl. 47.

2o Hesp. 11 (1942), 406-7 no. vii d, fig. 8. 21 Cf. most recently V. Karageorghis, The Coroplastic Art of

Ancient Cyprus, vi: The Cypro-Archaic Period: Monsters, Animals and Miscellanea (Nicosia, 1996), 88. See also below.

22 Berlin, Vorderasiatisches Museum VA Bab 1177. E. Klingel-Brandt, Reise in das alte Babylon (3rd edn., Leipzig, 1977), i1o-11, fig. 49; S. A. Rashid (ed.), Musikgeschichte in Bildern II: Musik des Altertums, ii: Mesopotamien (Leipzig, 1984), fig. 131.

23 As advocated esp. by J. Schafer, Hellenistische Keramik aus

Pergamon (Pergamenische Forschungen, 2; Berlin, 1968), 107-8.

24 Terracotta bells are also found occasionally in other cultures (cf. e.g. H. Schlichting, Glockenmuseum Apolda. Eine kleine Kulturgeschichte der Glocke (Apolda, no year), iio), although mostly we cannot be sure how functional they were. From ancient Egypt, faience bells are known (e.g. Hickmann (n. io), 65-6 nos. 69605, 69606, 69608, 69279). Porcelain bells, produced in Europe since the i8th c., were even installed as chimes in the Frauenkirche in Meissen in 1929. Cf. Ellerhorst (n. 12), 8; Schlichting, ibid., 70-1.

25 As already recognized by Dickins, 'Sparta 1907', 153.


The question of typology To date, the typological development of ancient Greek bells remains largely obscure. Only Jan Bouzek has attempted a grouping, although he mixes criteria related to origin, basic shape, and aspects of decoration 6--he distinguishes Caucasian bells imported into Greece, Greek bells in openwork, simple conical and rounded bells, and bells with a rhomboid or pentagonal suspension loop.

For bells of periods and regions with more abundant evidence, the situation looks better: For the rich corpus of ancient Egyptian bells, Hickmann devised a systematic typology based on Emery's typology of Nubian bells.27 His criteria for the grouping are first the basic body (cross-section/base) shape, then size and profile shape. Hickmann thus distinguishes a large number of types, unrivalled in scope by Greek or Roman bells. Roman bells, too, have been grouped into types on the basis of their mantle and base- shape; a recent summery by Fliigel distinguishes cylindrical, hemispherical, conical and flattened conical as well as square-based pyramidal bronze bells (with or without globular feet), in addition to iron bells.28 A general typology of bells from all cultures and ages has also been attempted by Price.29

The present article will not try to force the Greek material into a tight typological corset (FIG. I is merely an illustration of the terminology relating to basic shapes and parts of ancient bells, not a typology). However, in the following it will become apparent that in Greece, too, certain groups of shapes can be distinguished, some more popular than others, and a chronological development of certain features may be observed.30

Bronze bells with feet: a Classical Lakonian affair? The majority of the Spartan bronze bells, as we have seen, are characterized by a circular base, a conical or dome-shaped mantle with offset rim, a high arched handle often clearly set off from the bell's body, and the presence of small 'feet' on the lower rim. This constitutes a fairly uniform and particularly Lakonian type:3' The closest parallels come from the Spartan Menelaion,32 from a

26 Bouzek, Bronzes, 87-93. 27 H. Hickmann, in E Blume (ed.), Die Musik in Geschichte

und Gegenwart, v (Kassel, 1956), 274-5 = a modification of his earlier typology in id., 1949 (n. io), 37-40. Cf. also W. B. Emery, The Royal Tombs of Ballana and Quostol, i (Cairo, 1938), 262-71 with fig. 94. Bells were produced in Egypt at least from the 23rd dynasty onwards.

28 Ch. Fltigel, Die rdmischen Bronzegefafie von Kempten- Cambodunum (Cambodunumforschungen, 5; Kallmiinz, 1993), 99-103, pls. 33-4. For earlier detailed treatments of Roman bells, see esp. V Galliazzo, Bronzi Romani del Museo Civico di Treviso (Rome, i979), 157-8; W. Nowakowski, 'Metallglocken aus der r6mischen Kaiserzeit im europaischen Barbarikum', Archaeologia Polona, 27 (1988), 69-146, esp. 73-81.

29 Price, Bells and Man, pp. ix-xiii. 30 In addition to the bells discussed in this article, we

may also note the existence of stemmed bell-pendants which are found especially in Northern Greece: a stem ending in a bell-shaped body with three rings at its lower edge with clappers attached: cf. I. Kilian-Dirlmeier, Anhiinger in Griechenland (PBF I1. 2; Munich, 1979), 45-8, pls. 18-9. They are obviously not really bells, although mixed types seem to exist; cf. e.g. a small conical bell with a slit in

its side and a stick-like handle from the sanctuary of Artemis Enodia in Pherai: K. Kilian, Fibeln in Thessalien von der mykenischen bis zur archaischen Zeit (PBF 14. 2; Munich, 1975), 179, pl. 78. 71.

3' See, however, another bronze bell (H. 3.3 cm) of low dome-shape, with a loop-handle and a square-shaped clapper that is attached to the bell by a wire strung through two opposite holes in the bell's mantle. It is said to have been found in a 5th-c. child's grave in Messenia, together with a terracotta doll. It was once in the Scheurleer Collection, The Hague, bought from Rhousopoulos of Athens in 1904, and is now in Amsterdam, Allard Pierson Museum inv. 634 (C. W. L. Scheurleer, Catalogus eener Verzameling Egyptische, Grieksche, Romeinsche en andere Oudheiden ('s-Gravenhage, 1909), 103 no. I68 [not illustrated]; Bulletin van Antieke Beschaving, 3. 2 (Dec. 1928) 11, fig. 6). It might attest the existence of an additional bell type for Classical Messenia, as well as another context-child burials-in which bells were used.

32 Sparta, Museum, from the Menelaion, dome-shaped bronze bell, with thickened base-rim, three feet and low knob at top, found with Lakonian III-V and later pottery. A. J. B. Wace, BSA 15 (1908-9), 148, pl. 8. 25; Simon, 'Ionia', 290 no. 7.


FIG. 12. Bronze bell from sanctuary of Apollo Korynthos at Longa, Messenia. Athens, NM X 18845

(scale i : 2).

rural sanctuary (of Artemis?) at perioicic Aigiai,33 and from the sanctuary of Apollo Korynthos at Longa in Messenia (FIG. 12).34 Unfortunately, there is little dating evidence from Longa35 or Aigiai;36 finds date from the eighth or seventh century respectively into Roman or Byzantine times. At the Menelaion at least, a terminus post quem of around 580 is provided by pottery.

The resemblances of those bells to the bells dedicated to Athena are manifold: the Menelaion and Aigiai bells with their dome-shaped mantle, offset rim and feet are particularly close to bells such as Br 1-4, 6 (FIG. 2) and particularly 2o (FIG. 5), with whom the Aigiai bell also shares the loop-handle. The bell from Messenian Longa (FIG. 12) resembles rather the higher, conical shapes, and finds a particularly close parallel in Br 8 (FIG. 3), which has the same type of upward-curving, curled handle-ends, which frequently accompany this mantle shape. It therefore seems highly likely that they were produced in the same workshop circles and at around the same time as their cousins dedicated to Athena.

As regards their context, however, there seems to be little common ground. All three bells were found in sanctuaries, but in rather different ones. In the sanctuary at Korynthos, which belonged to a war-like Apollo, Athena may have had a subsidiary cult, so the bell could at least theoretically have belonged to her cult.37 At the Menelaion it is Helen and Menelaos who were worshipped, while the rural sanctuary of Aigiai has been linked to a cult of Artemis and a local hero (Timagenes), on account of the character of the votive offerings (notably kourotrophoi) and an inscription. In the latter two sanctuaries terracotta bells38 were also found, confirming that the bells were indeed votive offerings and not chance finds.

It is thus clear that the majority of the Spartan bells belonged to a type also found elsewhere in the region, and that bells of this type could be dedicated in a variety of sanctuaries-albeit

33 Gythion, Museum, from Aigiai, rural sanctuary of Artemis (?). H. 4 cm, D. 3 cm. High dome-shaped bronze bell, with thickened base-rim, four feet, round loop-handle, two small holes for attachment of clapper, 5th/4th c. (?). Z. Bonias, Eva AypoTtK Iep6d ort Atytg Aa(co)viag (Athens, 1998), 212 no. 548, pl. 62. 548.

34 Athens, NM X 18845. From Longa, sanctuary of Apollo Korynthos. H. 6.7 cm, (body) 4-9 cm, D. 4-9 cm. High, rounded conical shape, with thickened base-rim, four feet,

arched handle with upwards-curled ends (both curls now lost), small hole for clapper attachment at summit, 5th/4th c. (?). A. Delt. 2 (1916), 93 no. 25, fig. 33; Simon, 'Ionia', 290 no. 8

35 See most recently M. L. Zunino, Hiera Messeniaka (Udine, 1997), 168-77.

36 Bonias (n. 33)- 37 See Zunino (n. 35)- 38 Bonias (n. 33), 154-5 nos. 205-6, pl. 30.


FIG. 13. Bronze bell from child's grave in Olbia (0. 1912.95). Drawing after V M. Skudnova, Arkhailesk" nekropol Olvii (Leningrad, 1988), III no. 167. 3 (scale I : 2).

FIG. 14. Bronze bell from Theban Kabeirion. London, BM GR 1893.12-21.I. Drawing by Kate

Morton (scale I : 2).

in far lesser numbers than on the Spartan acropolis. Together with the fact that no bells appear among the rich votive offerings of the Amyklaion (only a crotal of uncertain date is attributed to this site)39 or of Artemis Orthia, this suggests that bells did indeed play a special, although not exclusive, role in connection with Athena's Spartan sanctuary.

Dome-shaped bells beyond Lakonia: distant relatives? Once we look beyond the sphere of Spartan influence, the picture changes yet again, broadening both with regard to types and uses. Although clearly distinctive in many ways, Spartan bells thus emerge as not entirely unique in the Greek world.

A striking bell from Olbia (FIG. I3),40 for example, features the basic dome-shaped body and the handle-loops found on some of the Spartan bells, although it lacks the feet and features unusual incised lines and an unparalleled diamond atop its handle. It was found in a late- sixth-century child's grave, so might be slightly earlier than the dated Spartan bells.

Much closer to home is the dome-shaped bell from the Theban Kabeirion (FIG. 14),41 to my knowledge the only other Classical Greek bell carrying a votive inscription, this time to the Theban Kabeiroi. Typologically, it is quite close to many of the Spartan bells: in addition to sharing the basic shape and thickened, profiled rim it also has the same arched handle ending in leaf-shaped attachments as on Spartan bells Br i and 2 (FIG. 2). Another supposedly Boiotian dome-shaped bell (FIG. 15)42 even features small feet, although otherwise, notably

39 According to the Museum records, the crotal in the National Museum at Athens (inv. 8403) comes from Tsountas's excavations at the Amyklaion in 1890, although A. De Ridder, Catalogue des Bronzes d'Athines de la Sociiti archeologique d'Athines (Paris, 1894), 126 no. 673 had listed it with unknown provenance. Tsountas's excavations cut across a wide range of periods; cf. PAE 1890, 36-7; Arch. Eph. 1892, 1-26.

40 Olbia (0. I912.95), from Olbia, child's grave. H. 8.9. High, dome-shaped bronze bell with two horizontal incised grooves around lower rim, high arched handle with upward- curled ends, and small diamond-shaped knob atop, late 6th c. V. M. Skudnova, Arkhaileski" nekropol Olvii (Leningrad, 1988), IiI no. 167.3.

4' London, BM GR 1893.12-21.1, from Theban Kabeirion. H. 5-5 cm, D. 4.4 cm, high conical/dome-shaped bronze bell with thickened, double-ridged rim, high arched handle

ending in ivy-leaf-shaped attachments, very small hole at top for attachment of clapper. Inscribed (three lines of dotted characters): IIvplag KapipoL Kmicl nai l. 4th c. (?). P. Wolters and G. Bruns, Das Kabirenheiligtum bei Theben, i (Berlin, 1940), 41-2 no. 49; H. B. Walters, Catalogue of the Bronzes in the British Museum (London, 1899), 48 no. 318; Spear, Treasury, 163 fig. 195; Simon, 'Ionia', 290 no. ii. Cf. also M. Daumas, Cabiriaca: Recherches sur l'iconographie du culte des Cabires (Paris, 1998), 42.

42 Athens, NM 8401. Bought in 1889, supposedly from Boiotia. H. 6.6 cm, D. 4.7 cm, high, dome-shaped bronze bell with thickened rim, high loop-like handle, four feet, incised zigzag line above base, small, cylindrical bronze clapper hanging inside bell on chain made up of two figure- of-eight shaped wires attached to short wire through hole at bell's summit. De Ridder (n. 39), 126 no. 670; PAE 1889, 71.


FIG. 15. Bronze bell allegedly from Boiotia. Athens, NM 8401 (scale I : 2).

with its incised zigzag decoration around the lower rim, it is rather different from the Spartan bells. Unfortunately, no further context is known for this bell, making it difficult to establish its place of production and date, but it does open up the possibility of dome-shaped bells with feet being known also outside Lakonia and Messenia; a further bell with feet is known from Perachora (FIG. 23; see below).43

Clay bells from Cyprus to Boiotia Boiotia is, in fact, very similar to Lakonia not only as regards Classical bronze bells but also terracotta bells, being the Greek region with the highest incidence of clay bells. The Theban Kabeirion, for example, in addition to yielding a bronze bell, also supplied a number of terracotta bells, reflecting the situation encountered on the Spartan acropolis, the Menelaion, and Aigiai. In addition, terracotta bells served as votive offerings at Boiotian Eutresis (sanctuary of Demeter?), and were deposited in Boiotian graves, a usage unparalleled to date in Lakonia. Clay bells in sanctuary and funerary contexts are also occasionally attested elsewhere, outside Boiotia and Lakonia, but this is a rarer occurrence. The picture that emerges from this evidence anchors the Lakonian bells firmly in the development of Archaic and Classical terracotta bells.

Exactly when and where the history of the clay bell begins is difficult to determine. Minoan 'sheep-bells', if indeed they are bells at all, are clearly an isolated phenomenon,44 and whether the Boiotian bell-shaped idols could be considered an early form of bell is disputable.45 The earliest actual examples of terracotta bells within the Mediterranean area are apparently Cypriot, which is particularly interesting in view of the fact that Cyprus also

43 For Roman bells of a similar type from the area of

Augusta Raurica, see below, n. 74. 44 In Knossos, Arthur Evans found a number of small

terracotta objects in MM I deposits, of truncated conical shape, with a loop, horn-like projections and two small holes at the top that could have served for the attachment of a clapper. There are also some doubled examples, and in one case a bull's head appears between them: A. Evans, PM i. 175, fig. 124; A. Lehr, The Art of the Carillon in the Low Countries

(Tielt, I991), 25 with fig. 33. Cf. also O. Seewald, Beitrdge zur Kenntnis der steinzeitlichen Musikinstrumente Europas (Vienna,

1934), 128; B. P. Aign, 'Die Geschichte der Musikinstrumente des agaischen Raumes bis um 700 vor Christus' (Diss. Frankfurt, 1963), 50-1. Most recent scholarship, however, tends to discount an interpretation as bells: C. E. Morris and A. A. D. Peatfield, 'Minoan sheep bells: form and function', in FHesrpay va roy Z' ALEOvor6d KprlroAoytKcor vvE6piov, A.2 (Chania, 1990), 29-37. Other scholars have noted the existence of vaguely similar bells (?) in Austria and in the Romanian Tordos culture: Seewald, op. cit. 127-31, pls. 5-8.

45 e.g. Lehr (n. 44), 25 fig. 34.


a b

FIG. 16 (a) Terracotta bell from Sparta, Menelaion. Menelaion inv. P 7545. Drawing E. Catling (scale I : 3). (b) Terracotta bell from Sparta, Menelaion. Menelaion inv. P 7237. Drawing E. Catling (scale i : 3).

yielded some very early bronze bells, mediating between the ancient Near East and Greece (discussed below). Cypriot terracotta bells are dome-shaped with a perforated knob at the top, and are mostly decorated with horizontal stripes or sometimes left undecorated, but there are also examples with other kinds of decoration, with arched handles,46 or with handles terminating in monkey, bull, goat and especially bird heads.47 They were deposited in graves (later also in sanctuaries) on Cyprus from the later eighth century onwards (CA I), and at least one of them is certain to have come from a child's burial. Typologically, the bells with arched handles are not so far removed from the later Greek examples, but this could also just be coincidental. Since a Near Eastern origin for terracotta bells seems not very likely-they appear to have enjoyed relatively little popularity there48-one might consider the possibility that they evolved independently in Cyprus and Greece as copies of bronze bells.

In Greece proper, terracotta bells begin to appear in the sixth century, at least judging from the evidence provided by context. Interestingly, the first examples are fragments of two terracotta bells from Hector Catling's excavations in the Spartan Menelaion, dating to the first half of the sixth century, one hemispherical and one cylindrical (FIG. 16),49 thus attesting terracotta bells as votive offerings in a Spartan environment already at this early date. They sit somewhat awkwardly with the acropolis bells, the cylindrical bell with its straight, vertical sides in particular appearing unusual-cf., however, Tc 44, 45 (FIG. 8)-while the hemispherical bell seems closer to the dome-shaped and sometimes nearly hemispherical bells such as Tc I-12 (FIG. 6). This might suggest that the majority of the acropolis bells are later than the Menelaion bells.

46 With a height ranging between 5.8 and 9.5 (or possibly 13-4) cm, they are distinctly larger than most of the Spartan bells. A catalogue of finds is given by Karageorghis, Coroplastic Art (n. 21), 88. Add to this a bell in New York, Metropolitan Museum inv. 74-51.960 (V. Karageorghis, Ancient Art from Cyprus: The Cesnola Collection in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, 2000), 149-51 no. 234). A number of fragments of terracotta bells were also found in and around the sanctuary of Aphrodite at Amathus: A. Hermary, Amathonte V Les figurines en terre-cuite archai'ques et classiques/Les sculptures en pierre (Athens, 2000), 58-9 nos. 312-22, pl. 22. The 'thymiaterion lid' found at the same site might in fact also be a large bell (H. 13.4 cm, D. 15 cm): ibid., 6o no. 330, pl. 23.

47 Karageorghis, Coroplastic Art (n. 21), 19-20 no. E(d)i, pl. 9. Io; 35 no.J 39, pl. 20. Io; 37 no. K 15, pl. 21. 12; 55-6 nos. S(e)6o-6, pl. 33. o0-16. Add to this an unpublished bell in the Allard Pierson Museum in Amsterdam, inv. I1.935, of

bichrome V Ware and dating to the CA II period. I thank GeraldaJurriaans-Helle for information on this bell.

48 At least one terracotta bell is known from Babylon. It is of simple conical shape with a clapper and has been dated to the 6th c.: see above, n. 22.

49 Inv. P 7237, from Menelaion, Jio level 7, H. (pres.) 2.9 cm, D. (max.) 6 cm. Three fragments from convex upper part of terracotta bell, stumps of strap handle preserved, round hole in flat top. Poorly fashioned, matt black paint inside and out. Grey clay. Inv. P 7545, from Menelaion, JIo/KIo level 15, upper part of body and half of vertical handle, almost cylindrical body with hole in flat top; strap handle, light, brown clay. Both bells are from the lower fill of the Great Pit, in which the vast majority of the finds belong to Lakonian I-III. I warmly thank Hector Catling and Richard Catling for this information and for permission to include the two bells in this chapter.


FIG. 17. Two terracotta bells from a child burial in the Athenian Kerameikos (HW 45) (scale I : 3).

Outside Sparta, the earliest bells from a dated context come from Athens. Here, three terracotta bells were found in a child's grave in the Athenian Kerameikos, dated by context to the early fifth century (FIG. 17). One of them is rather unusual, both in shape (large flat handle) and decoration (it is covered by a white slip with red stripes);50 the other two are decorated with birds and clearly are the product of an Attic pottery workshop ('Swan- group'), but in shape they quite closely match the simple, dome-shaped Spartan bells.5' Further bells of this group and dating to the same period are known from Athens52- Kerameikos, Acropolis, and Agora-most featuring the figural decoration that appears to be essentially an Athenian feature, while other regions confined themselves to banded decoration, or none at all.

Regarding shapes, the Athenian bells comprise a range of variations-including a rare early flaring rim-but it appears that a simple dome-shape is the most characteristic. One fine, banded bell from the Agora also displays an inward-curving lower rim,53 faintly reminiscent of Spartan bell Tc I8 (FIG. 6), although, with its funnel-shaped top, it is clearly not of the same shape and quite possibly later.54 Two early banded bells from Isthmia share with the Agora bell the wide, low shape, although they are somewhat more conical. One of these is from the Archaic temple deposit, and the other from the east temenos dump, which contained mostly Archaic and some fifth-century finds.55

Later securely dated bells come from Boiotia. Here, the earliest dated examples are from the Thespian Polyandrion (pre-424). By comparison with the earlier bells, they are somewhat more elongated, feature a slight 'funnel' neck like many of the Spartan bells, and are decorated with simple stripes.56 Closely related are bells from various other sites across Boiotia, for example, from the necropolis at Halai (child's grave, first half fourth century), Eutresis (sanctuary of Demeter?), the Kabeirion, and Thebes-e.g. three bells from a mid-

50 Knigge (n. i9), 96 no. 6, pl. 47. A similar bell appears to have been found in an early-5th-c. child's grave near Plato's Academy: Ergon 1958, io fig. 6.

5' Knigge (n. 19), 96 nos. 36. 4-5, pl. 47. 52 Bells decorated with swans: from late-6th/early-5th-c.

grave unearthed recently in the Kerameikos region (L. Parlama and N. C. Stampolidis (eds), The City Beneath the City (Athens, 2000), 318 no. 324); from Athenian Acropolis (B. Graef and E. Langlotz, Die antiken Vasen von der Akropolis zu Athen (Berlin, ig9o9), pl. 112 no. 2652); with thickened, profiled lower rim (A. Hundt and K. Peters, Greifswalder Antiken (Berlin, i96i), pl. 10.130). Bell from Athenian Agora, decorated with row of ivy leaves, with flaring rim, dated to around 480: B. A. Sparkes and L. Talcott, Black and Plain Pottery of the 6th, 5th and 4th Centuries BC. The

Athenian Agora, xii (Princeton, 1970), 184, 332 no. 1366, pl. 44-1366.

53 Sparkes and Talcott, ibid., no. 1365, pl. 44-1365. An almost identical bell is now in the Warsaw Museum (inv. 199331. CVA Warsaw 6, pl. io. 8); and a similar bell in the Chalkis Museum (Coll. Oikonomou 2835)-

54 Better parallels, albeit undated, are two banded bells supposedly from Boiotia: Spear, Treasury, 161 fig. 190; CVA Reading i, pl. i8. 6.

55 O0. Broneer, Hesp. 24 (1955), 133 no. 16, pl. 51 d; id., Hesp. 28 (1959), 335 no. 8, pl. 70 h.

56 D. U. Schilardi, 'The Thespian Polyandrion (424 BC): The Excavations and Finds from a Thespian State Burial' (Ph.D. diss., Princeton University; UMI, 1977), 426-4, 174-5 nos. 425-7, pl. 55-


FIG. 18. Four terracotta bells from Thebes. London, BM GR 1865.7-20.26(i)-(4). Drawing by Kate Morton (scale i : 3).

FIG. 19. Terracotta bell. British School at Athens, Museum, inv. no. A 44 (scale I : 3).

fourth-century grave, and four previously unpublished bells in the British Museum (FIG. 18).57 They are mostly banded (some, e.g. at Eutresis, are also undecorated), and their shape ranges from dome-shaped to elongated conical or dome-shaped, often with a funnel-like narrow top and-in the fourth century-a slightly flaring rim. These shapes find many parallels in bells of uncertain provenance in museums across the world, including a previously unpublished bell in the Museum of the British School at Athens (FIG. 19).58 More importantly, their shapes are also

57 Halai: H. Goldman and E Jones, Hesp. 11 (1942), 400, 406-7 no. vii. d, fig. 8. Eutresis: H. Goldman, Excavations at Eutresis in Boeotia (Cambridge, Mass., 1931), 263-4, fig. 320. 2. Kabeirion: Wolters and Bruns (n. 41), 93, pl. 19.8, 43. 12-13; K. Braun and T. Haevernick, Bemalte Keramik und Glas aus dem Kabirenheiligtum bei Theben (Das Kabirenheiligtum bei Theben, iv; Berlin, 1981), 34-6, 61 nos. 283-4, pl. 19-5, 9-1o. (remains of at least eight bells, the largest about 18 cm in height, the smallest 7 cm, one with ivy-wreath and zig-zag decoration). Theban grave: N. Pharaklas, A. Delt. 1968, Chron. pl. i65. Uniquely, the bells from this grave feature a triangular cut-out at the lower rim, just like some Samian and Kuban bells discussed below. The four bells in the British Museum, inv. GR 1865-7-20.26(I)-(4), are recorded with Thebes as their provenance, but there is no further information as to their findspot or context. They are all wheelmade, have buff-coloured (beige-brown-orange) clay, are decorated with black-brown stripes of glaze, and are of roughly similar shape and dimensions: (I) H. 8.3 cm, D. 6.8 cm; (2) H. 8.2 cm, D. 6 cm; (3) H. 7.1 cm, D. 5.6 cm; (4) H. 6.1 cm, D. 5.3

cm. 58 British School at Athens, Museum inv. no. A 44; unknown

provenance. H. 6.7 cm, H. (body) 4.6 cm, D. 5.6 cm, (hole) 1.4 cm, conical/dome-shaped terracotta bell with hole at top and high handle, decorated with one narrow and two wide

horizontal bands of streaky, black-to-reddish/brown glaze, partly flaked off. Hard, light, buff (7-5 YR-7/4) clay. Further terracotta bells in museums: Dome shape: Geneva, inv. H. 177.1888 (CVA Geneva 2, pl. 84- 9). Dome shape, three stripes: Berlin, private collection (U. Gehrig (ed.), Antikenmuseum Berlin, Staatliche Museen PreufPischer Kulturbesitz: Antiken aus Berliner Pnivatbesitz (Berlin, 1975), no. 113); Erlangen, inv. I 399b (CVA Erlangen I, pl. 32. 2); Spear, Treasury, 161 fig. 191. Dome shape, four stripes: Universitat des Saarlandes, Antikensammlung, inv. 35 (K. Braun, Katalog der Antikensammlung des 1 Institutsjiir Klassische Archiologie der Universitdt des Saarlandes (Mihnsee, 1998), 14 no. 33, pl. 14. 1). Conical/dome shape, two wider stripes and two thinner stripes: Erlangen, inv. I 399a (CVA Erlangen I, pl. 32. I). Elongated dome shape, two stripes: Heidelberg, inv. 184 (CVA Heidelberg I, pl. 29. 6). Elongated dome shape, three stripes: Frankfurt, inv. P 406 (CVA Frankfurt 4, pl. 45. 9; A. Hillert, 'Ein bootisches Votivglockchen', Stddel-Jahrbuch 15 (1995), 291-2); Cambridge, inv. 67 (CVA Cambridge i, pl. i. 9). Elongated dome shape, three wide stripes: Kiel, inv. B64 (CVA Kiel 1, pl. 4. 6). Elongated dome shape, flaring rim, three stripes: Geneva, inv. H. 171.1888 (CVA Geneva 2, pl. 84. io); Tubingen, inv. S./Io 1252 (CVA Tubingen I, pl. 48. io). Elongated dome shape, flaring rim, whitish slip, red stripe: Kiel, inv. B 65 (CVA Kiel i, pl. 4. 7).


close to many of the bells from Sparta, although the latter are often less carefully made and decorated than the Boiotian bells. Very close to many acropolis bells are also two bells from Lakonian Aigiai (undecorated, dome-shaped with 'funnel'-neck), but these are not securely dated.59

Spartan bells thus appear to conform to the general development of shapes of bells in Boiotia and other Greek regions, and-based on comparison with dated examples-appear to date mostly into the Classical period. In the Hellenistic and later periods, terracotta bells are exceedingly rare across Greece, and also appear to cease at Sparta.6o

Having yielded both bronze and terracotta bells, Boiotia thus has much in common with Sparta regarding the popularity of bells as well as their shapes and decorations. Still, there are far fewer bells found in the Kabeirion and other Boiotian sanctuaries than on the Spartan acropolis, and terracotta bells appear also in graves, a use which is as yet unattested in the Peloponnese.

Small hemispherical bronze bells in the East, North, and West: more distant relatives? Elsewhere in Greece, it becomes more difficult to locate bells similar to those from Sparta. The excavations at Olynthos yielded a number of small bells of simple low dome or hemispherical shape from a domestic context, probably predating the middle of the fourth century (FIG. 20).61 Made of thin bronze and quite small (between c. 2 and 3'/2 cm), they often feature incised horizontal lines on the mantle, and the handle usually takes the form of a pierced projection at the top. Although clearly different to all of the Spartan bells, they can nevertheless be compared to the second group (Br 26-3o: FIG. 5), the smaller and hemispherical bells made of thin, sheet-like bronze. Similar small and more or less hemispherical bells are also occasionally found elsewhere: On the Chalkidike, for example, the basic shape reaches down into Late Antiquity,62 but we also find it at Classical Al Mina (level 3; FIG. 2I),63-where the very simple shape resembles that of the Spartan bell Br 30 (FIG. 5)-and in the West, in the sanctuary of Demeter Malophoros at Selinous.64

59 Bonias (n. 33), 154-5, nos. 205-6, pl. 30. 6o Hellenistic examples are known from Pergamon, Kyme

and Myrina: see Schitfer (n. 23), 107-8, fig. 9, pls. 46, 49. On his misinterpretation of bells as lids, see above, n. 23. A

Roman-period inscribed terracotta bell is illustrated by Spear, Treasury, 162-3, figs. 192-4.

6' Thessaloniki, Museum, from Olynthos: ten small bronze bells, some with iron clappers, all of rounded shape, hemispherical to dome-shaped. Pre-348(?). D. M. Robinson, Excavations at Olynthus, x: Metal and minor miscellaneous finds (Baltimore, 1941), 518-20, nos. 2609-18, pl. 167; Bouzek, Bronzes, 91 no. C3.2.

62 Cf. a bell from a Late Roman grave of a small child at Limori, Epanomi: Th. N. Pazaras, AEMTh ii (1997), 484, 493 fig. 19. 24. 2. One small hemispherical bell (H. 3.3 cm) in the Stathatos Collection, with incised lines and a small hook at the summit to which a thin ring is attached, has no datable context; Bouzek considers it to be 'most probably of a sixth-fifth century date' for no discernible reason. P. Amandry, Collection Hiline Stathatos, i: Les bijoux antiques (Strasbourg, 1953), 62 no. 167, pl. 26. 167; Bouzek, Bronzes, 91 no. C3.1.

63 Hemispherical bronze bell (D. 3 cm) with three incised lines above the lower edge, iron clapper, and twisted wire for a handle: C. L. Woolley, JHS 58 (1938), 147 fig. 25, 166 no. MNN.34 (a further bell is mentioned but not published). With its wire handle arrangement it closely resembles the bell from the Malophoros sanctuary, but also the bell from the Macedonian grave mentioned above (n. 62), which is almost a millennium later in date.

64 E. Gabrici, Mon. Linc. 32 (1927), 358, 360 fig. 154 b; Simon, 'Ionia', 290 no. 14. No secure date for this bell is provided by its context, yet this is a case where the dangers of dating bells based on vague comparisons are particularly obvious: the incised concentric circles on its mantle are

paralleled equally on a flat hemispherical bell assigned to first-millennium Iran (0. W. Muscarella, Bronze and Iron: Ancient Near Eastern Artifacts in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, 1988), 280-I, nos. 382-4) and on a bell from 2nd/3rd-c. AD (or later) Poland (T. Malinowski, Przeglqd Archeologiczny, 47 (1999), 49 fig. 4. 4), demonstrating the

possible wide range of certain shapes and features across time and space.


FIG. 20. Bronze bells from Olynthos, Thessaloniki, Museum. Drawings after D. M. Robinson, Excavations at Olynthus, x: Metal and Minor Miscellaneous Finds (Baltimore,

1941), pl. 167 (scale I :2).

FIG. 21. Bronze bell from Al Mina. After C. L. Woolley, JHS 58 (1938),

147 fig. 25 (scale I : 2).

FIG. 22. Bronze bell from the

Argive Heraion. Drawing after Ch. Waldstein, The Argive Heraeum, ii (Boston,

1905), pl. 92 .-1556 (scale I : 2).

The problems of dating are further illustrated by a small dome-shaped bell, with incised horizontal lines and a loop handle, from the Argive Heraion (FIG. 22).65 According to Waldstein, a terminus ante quem of 423 holds true for all or at least most bronze finds from the Heraion, and Bouzek takes the two bells from the site (for the other bell, see below) to be of Archaic date. However, given that human activity on the site is attested through to the Roman period, such a dating is not definite, even if it may appear likely. The simple shape of the bell is paralleled in a number of bells across regions and periods, certainly from the Hellenistic period onwards.66 The basic body shape of these bells is not dissimilar to the Spartan bells, but the handle type is rare in Spartan bells (Br 20: FIG. 4; but cf. also the Aigiai bell), and none feature incised horizontal lines in quite the same way.

Smallish, thin-walled, hemispherical, and dome-shaped bells are thus attested in a wide range of locations and across a wide range of dates, albeit not necessarily before the Classical period. Their precise use is not indicated by their context, but in some cases, given their light weight, they may well have functioned as personal ornaments. Small bells of various shapes, particularly ones made of precious metal, are attested as part of jewellery from an early period

65 From the Argive Heraion. H. 1.95 cm. Small, dome- shaped, almost hemispherical bronze bell with four thin horizontal grooves above base and three on upper third of bell, small loop-handle. Date uncertain (Waldstein: pre-423; Bouzek: Archaic). Ch. Waldstein, The Argive Heraeum, ii (Boston, 1905), 264 no. 1556, pl. 92; Bouzek, Bronzes, 91 no. C2.I, 88 fig. 26. 2 (incorrect drawing).

66 e.g. bronze bell (H. 3 cm) with integral loop-shaped handle from the Chalkidike, dating uncertain (Amandry

(n. 62), pl. 26. 167 a; Bouzek, Bronzes, 91 no. C2.2: 'apparently Archaic'); large (H. 8 cm) dome-shaped bronze bell with loop-handle and incised horizontal line above the base, from hypostyle stoa on the edge of Apollo's sanctuary on Delos (W. Deonna, Delos XVIII: Le mobilier ddlien (Paris, 1938), 325 no. BI200, pl. 92 no. 816, Simon, 'Ionia', 289 no. 3); Scythian 3rd-c. bronze bells (Spear, Treasury, 123 fig. 132); Roman bronze bell from Lake Nemi (ibid., fig. 224).


onwards,67 serving both as decorative ornaments and amulets,68 although this usage seems to be confined largely to the East Greek world and the Greeks' Eastern neighbours. Whether such a function could also apply to some of the Spartan bells is debatable; large and heavy bronze bells, at least, are highly unlikely to have been part of decorative jewellery, although an amuletic function cannot be excluded.

Nothing to do with Classical Greece?: rectangular-based bells It has been suggested above that dome-shaped bells with 'feet' are a particular Lakonian phenomenon. There is, however, also a type of bell on a square or rectangular base with small 'feet' at the corners that is occasionally found on Greek soil. What is the relationship of this bell type to the Spartan bells? Bouzek69 considered it Archaic, and also Simon70 in his overview of bells as votive offerings claimed with regard to both round and square-based bells that 'the typical Archaic bronze bell often has three or four small 'feet' around its base'. However, it is not certain whether any of the Spartan bells with feet are, in fact, Archaic, and there are also many doubts regarding the square-based bells' dating.

67 Possibly the earliest attestations are small bronze bells (?) attached to needles and necklaces found in burials dated to the 15th-i4th c. in Tshitahevi, Bordshomi valley, Georgia: I. Gambaschidze et al. (eds), Georgien: Schdtze aus dem Land des Goldenen Vlies (Bochum, 2001), 293 no 127, 296-7 nos 133-4; A. Miron and W. Orthmann (eds), Unterwegs zum Goldenen Vlies: Archiiologische Funde aus Georgien (Saarbrticken), 1995, 264 no. 175. Cf. also the small gold bells (1.I-I.6 cm high) found in the Pasargadai treasure, which date back to the fourth century: D. Stronach, Pasargadae (Oxford, 1978), 170 no. 10, 206-7 fig. 88. 21-3, pl. 153 a, b; B. Musche, Vorderasiatischer Schmuck von den Anfdngen bis zur Zeit der Achaemeniden (Leiden, 1992), 276 no. 1.8, pl. io6; cf. also small bells from the Persepolis and Oxus treasures and from Sardis: E. F. Schmidt, Persepolis, ii (Chicago, 1957), pls. 44.22, 45.30; 0. M. Dalton, The Treasure of the Oxus (3rd edn.; London, 1964), 39-40 nos. 150-5, pl. xxi. 150-2; C. D. Curtis, Sardis XIII: Jewelry and Gold Work (Rome, 1925), 22 no. 43, pl. 3- Similar in shape (long, truncated cones) to some of these, but without the horizontal ribbing of the walls, are

precious metal bell-pendants from Ephesos which may well be earlier in date: D. G. Hogarth, Excavations at Ephesus (London, 1908), 106-7, pl. 7. 14, 17. Apparently of the same type but of bronze is a small bell-shaped pendant from the harbour sanctuary at Emporio on Chios, which belongs into the late 7th c. (period IV): J. Boardman, Excavations in Chios 1952-1955: Greek Emporio (BSA supp. vol. 6; London, 1967), 227 no. 408, fig. 149. The Chian sanctuary of Apollo Phanaios has also yielded two small and apparently clapperless bells, at least one of which may well have been a part of jewellery: W. Lamb, BSA 35 (1934-5), 151, pl. 32. 9, 19. The same was probably the case with the very small clapperless bronze bell from the sanctuary of Demeter at Taucheira (Tocra): J. Boardman and J. Hayes, Excavations at Tocra 1963-1965: The Archaic Deposits II and Later Deposits (BSA supp. vol. io;

London, 1973), 78 fig. 34, 82 no. F121. In Ptolemaic Egypt, too, small bells of precious material were known; cf. Hickmann (n. 27), 269-70, fig. 6. Whether the small object identified by the excavators as a repouss6 bronze bell (H. 1.4 cm, incised horizontal lines) from the Corycian cave (dedicated to Pan and the Nymphs) above Delphi is a bell cannot be decided: BCH supp. vol. 9 (1984), 275 no. 59, fig. 31- 59. Note that the cave of Pan in Vari also supposedly contained two bronze bells, which are mentioned but not illustrated in AJA 7 (1903), 334.

68 Small bells could have been worn on necklaces, bracelets, or perhaps on earrings. More unusual is probably a use on frontlets, which is attested in 7th/6th-c. graves in Nubian Sanam (near Napata) that contained small bell- shaped bronze pendants hanging from plain bronze frontlets as well as from earrings: E L. Griffith, LAAA 10

(1923), 120-I, 129, pls. 25. 7, 40. 9. For bells as jewellery in general see E. Porada, 'Of deer, bells and pomegranates', Irania Antiqua, 7 (1995), 99-120; Trumpf-Lyritzaki, 'Glocke', 172. Bell-shaped pendants somewhat reminiscent of

pomegranates are also found attached to an Archaic metal belt (?) from a grave on Cyprus (F H. Marshall, Catalogue of the Jewellery, Greek, Etruscan and Roman, in the Department of Antiquities, British Museum (London, 1911), 163 no. 1576, pl. 26), and it has been suggested that they could also have been attached to clothing (see below, n. 245). For a small Roman gold bell (H. 1.6 cm, now lost) an apotropaic function is explicitly attested through its Greek inscription: TOI OMMAIIN YHOTETAFMAI, 'I am subject to evil eyes' (cf. Cook, 'Gong', 18; Nagy (n. 14) 24 no. 3), while a gold bell (H. 3.5 cm) from late-4th-c. AD Syria is more likely a love charm, being inscribed r6v oE p(Xoovrcc tpLtXL: A. Greifenhagen, Schmuckarbeiten in Edelmetall, Fundgruppen: Staatliche Museen PreuJtischer Kulturbesitz, Antikenabteilung, Berlin

(Berlin, 1970), 75, fig. 6o. 7, pl. 55. 4, 6. 69 Bouzek, Bronzes, 9. 70 Simon, 'Ionia', 293.


FIG. 23. Bronze bell from Perachora, sanctuary of Hera Limenia. Drawing after

H. Payne, Perachora, i (Oxford, 1940), pl. 83. 15 (scale I : 2).

FIG. 24. Bronze bell from the Argive Heraion. Drawing after Ch. Waldstein, The Argive Heraeum, ii (Boston, 1905), pl.

126.2257 (scale I : 2).

The main evidence for the latter type's suspected Archaic dating is a bell from the temenos of Hera Limenia at Perachora (FIG. 23),7' a site that has yielded significant Archaic finds, although later activities are also attested, so that the dating cannot be considered certain.72 Being of small size and made of thin, sheet-like metal, the bell most resembles the second group of Spartan bells, except for its square base. A square base is, in fact, a feature not found in any of the Spartan bells and in few other early Greek bells. Among the earliest examples is a tall and narrow bell from Samos believed to be an Archaic Caucasian import.73 This is, however, very different from the common type of square-based bell that is abundant across Europe, the Mediterranean and Black Sea area especially under the Roman Empire:74 a pyramidal bell often with small globular feet at the corners and frequently with a handle in the shape of a flat, angular loop with a round hole, although round loops are also attested. Some such bells from Northern Italy and Etruria are believed to date from the sixth to the fourth century BC,75 but most of the evidence is Roman Imperial, or at the earliest Hellenistic.76

7' From Perachora, sanctuary of Hera Limenia. H. 3 cm. Conical/truncated pyramid-shaped bell on a square base, four small feet, clapper, handle-ring at top broken off. Dating uncertain. H. Payne, Perachora, i (Oxford, 1940), 183, pl. 82. 15; Bouzek, Bronzes, 88 fig. 26. I, p. 93; Simon, 'lonia', 289 no. 5.

72 The stratigraphy of the site is not quite clear; according to Payne, the temenos of Hera Limenia yielded finds of Archaic to post-Classical date, and even a Roman house was found on the site. Cf. also B. Menadier, 'The Sixth Century BC Temple and the Sanctuary and Cult of Hera Akraia, Perachora' (Ph.D. diss., University of Cincinnati; UMI, 1995), esp. 105-14.

73 Jantzen, Samos VIII, 8I no. B 493, pl. 79. Mobius considers another bell, B 627, of slightly rectangular shape, to be a Caucasian import, based on comparisons with bells of Phaskou and the 6th/5th c. Kazbek treasure: Mdbius, 'Glocken', 5, pl. 2. 10, 12. Cf. also P. Calmeyer, Zeitschriftufir Assyriologie und vorderasiatische Archiiologie, 63 (1973), 130-3, esp. 130. On the Kazbek treasure, see I. Gagoshidse, 'Der Kasbek-Schatz', in Miron and Orthmann (n. 67), 163-4.

74 See most recently Flagel (n. 28), 99; W. Nowakowski, 'Import czy imitacja? Br4zowe dzwonki ze "skarbu z Miezigorje" na tle znalezisk z Europy Wschodniej', Archaeologia. Rocznik Instytutu historii kultury materialnej Polskiej

akademii nauk, 38 (1987), 99-123; Galliazzo (n. 28), I58 (group B). For Black Sea material from Late Scythian graves, see Del Mille al Mille. Tesori e popoli del mar Nero (Milan, 1995), 118 nos. 69-71. Note that round-based bells with feet are also attested in Roman times: cf. e.g. examples from Augusta Raurica (Kaiseraugst in Switzerland): Price, Bells and Man, 76 (with fig.).

75 See most recently E Jurgeit, Die etruskischen und italischen Bronzen sowie Gegenstdnde aus Eisen, Blei und Leder im Badischen Landesmuseum Karlsruhe (Pisa and Rome, 1999), 229-30 nos. 372-7, pl. 112. As evidence for an early dating of her unprovenanced bells she cites finds from Marzabotto believed to belong to the sixth to the fourth century (G. Muffatti, St. Etr. 39 (I971), 284-5 nos. 787-90, pl. 6o a. I, 2, 5, ii; the dating hinges on Muffatti's general dating of the bronze finds from this site to this period) and a piece from Vetulonia in Grosseto, which is cited by 0. Wikander, Medelhavsmuseet. Bulletin, I8 (1983), 34-

76 Rashid (n. 22), 154, illustrates square-based bells supposedly dating from the Parthian period, 2nd c. Be. In Egypt, too, square-based bells became common in the Roman period, yet some may date back to Ptolemaic times: H. Hickmann, 'Zur Geschichte der altagyptischen Glocke', Musik und Kirche, 2 (195I), 3-19, esp. 4-


FIG. 25. Bronze bell from Olympia. Olympia inv. 8405. After A. Furtwangler, Olympia, iv: Die Bronzen und die iibrigen kleineren Funde von

Olympia (Berlin, 1890), pl. 66.1170 (scale i : 2).

FIG. 26. Bronze bell from Samos, Heraion. Vathy Museum, Samos inv. B 1972. Drawing after P Isler, Samos

IV: Das archaische Nordtor und seine Umgebung im Heraion von Samos (Bonn,

1978), pl. 40 (scale I : 2).

This characteristic pyramidal shape is also known from Greece: one example is a bell from the Argive Heraion (FIG. 24).77 A bronze staple is soldered to the underside of the bell's summit for attachment of the clapper, as is common for this type. As with the other (small dome-shaped) bell from this site discussed above (FIG. 22), its precise dating is uncertain; most finds from the site are Archaic or Classical, but we cannot be certain about the date of each individual object without a concrete context. A similar uncertainty is attached to square- based bells from the Marmaria sanctuary at Delphi (with globular feet at the base corners)78 and from Olympia, where a number of bells (as yet mostly unpublished) of this type have been found, of various sizes and from different contexts. A particularly splendid specimen (FIG. 25), with small, knob-shaped feet at the corners and a flat rhomboid handle with a circular hole, was published by Furtwingler, who considered it Roman.79 Bouzek, by contrast, dates it to the Archaic period along with the Perachora bell,80 but this is entirely conjectural and rather improbable, especially given that among the several other bronze bells of the same shape found at Olympia one is attested to come from a Byzantine grave (inv. 4171).81

On balance, it thus seems likely that the type of square-based bell with globular feet at the corners is essentially a Roman type that does not necessarily predate the Hellenistic period. As for the Perachora bell, which is of a different, more unusual shape, it is impossible to ascertain a date without further contextual evidence, and it cannot be excluded that it dates back to the Archaic or Classical period.

77 Preserved H. 6.2 cm. Waldstein (n. 65), 299 no. 2257, pl. 136. 2257; Simon, 'Ionia', 289 no. 5.

78 H. 6 cm. P. Perdrizet, Fouilles de Delphes, v: Monuments figuris. Petits bronzes, terres-cuites, antiquitis diverses (Paris, 1908), 121-2 no. 657, fig. 449; Simon, 'Ionia', 290 no. 12. Simon wrongly catalogues this bell as an offering to Apollo or another deity; if anything it should have been an offering to Athena or one of the other deities worshipped in the Marmaria sanctuary.

79 Olympia, inv. 8405. A. Furtwangler, Olympia IV Die Bronzen und die iibrigen kleineren Funde von Olympia (Berlin,

1890), 156, pl. 66.1170. The fact that the bell was found 'west of the Byzantine church' leaves all options open as to its date and original usage; Simon's listing of the bell as a votive offering to Zeus or some other deity (Simon, 'Ionia', 290 no. 9) is thus as unsubstantiated as is Bouzek's claim regarding its date.

8o Bouzek, Bronzes, 93 no. D. 2.1. 8' Furtwangler, ibid., 156. Additionally, several bronze bells

of rounded shape with a square or loop handle were found in various locations at Olympia.


Nothing to do with Classical Greece?: bells with angular handles

Intimately related to the issue of the square-based bells, and equally complex, is the question of the angular handle. This is a common feature in Roman bells, both for rectangular and round-based bells. The particular shape of the Argive Heraion bell's handle is often used for Roman round-based bells of cylindrical or tulip-shape,82 but there are also rectangular-based examples which resemble the Argive bell quite closely.83 Other variations of angular handles have, however, been found on a few bells that, through context, are dated to earlier periods, which means that the presence of an angular handle in itself- although clearly ubiquitous in the Roman period-cannot be taken unchecked as an indication for a late date.

The most significant of these84 is a bell found in the sanctuary of Hera at Samos, site of the second-largest find of bronze bells in Greece after the Spartan acropolis (and for this reason to be discussed in more detail later on). Quite a number of bells with angular handles have been found here and for most no date can be discerned (Gehrig suspects them to be Roman Imperial),85 but one has been found together with objects of the sixth to the fourth century in a context with a terminus ante quem of the mid-third century (FIG. 26).86 Even earlier is a bell from the Phrygian city of Boiazk6y, from the layer Buiyikkale I, dated to between 650 and 500,87 which has led Andreas Furtwingler to suspect that the Samian example was imported from the East.88 However, the Phrygian example is rather roughly made and irregular, with an only vaguely angular handle, clearly different to the Samian piece and hardly a convincing prototype.

A further-undated-bell with an angular handle from Samos had been suspected by MObius to be an Eastern import, on the basis of comparison with a Scythian bell from Kamunta with an angular handle.89 Again, the bell is quite different in shape from the Samian example, but Scythia is indeed an area where bells with angular handles are attested quite early; at least one example, a conical bell, seems to date back to the early third century.90 A differently shaped angular handle occurs on a stray find from the Chauchitza cemetery (FIG. 27), a dome-shaped bell with pairs of horizontal incised lines, which has been suspected to come from a disturbed early grave but could equally be much later.9' Like the square base shape, angular handles may thus be a feature that goes back to the Early Hellenistic, if not the

82 Cf. e.g. the examples assembled by Flugel (n. 28) on pl. 33. On Greek soil, they were found e.g. in a Roman villa rustica in Toumba, Thessaloniki: K. Soueref and K. Havela, AEMTh 12 (1998), 216 fig. 12.

83 Cf. e.g. Nowakowski (n. 74), 105, pl. II. 6. 84 Cf. also a rectangular-based bell dated between the 3rd

and Ist cc. from Lake Nemi in Italy: Spear, Treasury, 183 fig. 225. 85 U. Gehrig, 'Die geometrischen Bronzen aus dem

Heraion von Samos' (Diss. Hamburg, 1964), 91. These as yet unpublished bells belong to a number of different types: conical/dome-shaped reminiscent of truncated cone (B 626, B 632); with slightly flaring rim, the common Roman 'tulip- shape' (B 629, B 1346); and more or less hemispherical with incised horizontal lines and flattened angular handle (B 630, B 631, B 633, B6 34, B 636, unclear whether from Heraion; B 887, very corroded). One bell, B 2192, is more dome- shaped than hemispherical, and of another bell only the top part with the angular handle is preserved (B 179). The range of shapes and sizes is not dissimilar to that encountered at Olympia.

86 Vathy Museum, Samos inv. B 1972. H. (pres.) 4.8 cm. P. Isler, Samos

IV: Das archaische Nordtor und seine Umgebung im

Heraion von Samos (Bonn, 1978), 40 no. 32, pl. 40. 87 R. M. Boehmer, Boazkoy-HattuSa VII: Die Ileinfunde von

Bog-azkdy (Berlin, 1972), 70 no. 176, pl. 10. 176 88 A. E. Furtwingler, AM 96 (i98i), 85-6 with n. 57. Isler

(n. 86) had considered it Archaic. 89 Vathy, Museum, Samos B 626. H. 4-5 cm, D. 3.2 cm.

MObius, 'Glocken', 5, pl. 3. 3. Bell from Kamunta: ibid., pl. 3. 5. 9o Spear, Treasury, 123 fig. 133- 9' London, BM GR 1919.11-19.26. H. 3.2 cm. Dome-

shaped bronze bell with flat rhomboid suspension loop with circular hole, circular base, and decoration consisting of three groups of two horizontal lines each at even intervals on the wall. E. A. Gardner and S. Casson, BSA 23 (i918-I9), 38, pl. 7; Bouzek, Bronzes, 91 no. DI.I. A further bell (?) with angular suspension loop was found in Pella and does not predate the Hellenistic period: Ch. Makaronas, A. Delt. 19 (1964) Chr. 340, pl. 396 P; Bouzek, Bronzes, 91 no. DI.3-


FIG. 27. Bronze bell from Chauchitza. London, BM GR 1919.11-19.26. Drawing by Kate Morton (scale I : 2).

Classical or an even earlier period, although it becomes common only in Roman Imperial times, and is attested into the Byzantine period.92

To summarize up to this point: round-based bells with feet appear to be mostly a phenomenon of the Classical period, centred on Lakonia and Messenia and linked to local sanctuaries, but without being confined to a single deity's worship. A singular, undated specimen is also known from Boiotia, where a good parallel for the simple dome-shaped Spartan bells with arched handle is also attested in the Classical period. Boiotia also provides the best parallels for the Spartan terracotta bells; as in Sparta, they are found in Classical sanctuaries, but also in graves, as yet unattested in Sparta. Small, thin-walled hemispherical to dome-shaped bells, although different in detail to the small, thin-walled Spartan bells, are attested for the Classical period at Olynthos and elsewhere. Bells with square or rectangular bases and bells with angular handles are known from several Greek sites and may go back to the Classical, possibly even the Archaic period, but are securely attested only later; no examples are as yet known from Sparta. Find contexts of bells are diverse, with sanctuaries the most common for both bronze and terracotta bells, but terracotta bells especially are also found in graves, and at Olynthos Classical bronze bells are attested in houses.

Spartan bells form groups that have been shown to be distinct yet not isolated from other bells of Classical and later Greece. What about the earlier history of the bell, though? Few of the bells considered so far have been found to securely predate the Classical period. Investigation of the bell's early history takes us to the Eastern parts of the Mediterranean and beyond: ex oriente tinnitus.

East Greece, Cyprus, Thessaly and Aigina: Early Greek bells and the East In the Greek world, bells are found for the first time around or just before 700, on Cyprus and Samos, where they appear in dated burial and sanctuary contexts. Early bells also come from Miletos, Thessaly and Aigina, for example. For many of these, good parallels can be found in the Near East and in many cases they even appear to be Eastern 'imports'.

Like many other kinds of metalwork, bells had been known in the East long before they made their appearance in Greece. The earliest bronze bells were probably produced in China, where from about 1400oo BC a great variety of bells, both with and without clappers, are known, including horse bells and musical chimes.93 From China, the bell may have spread westwards, via the silk

92 A bell from Sardis, for example, for which the excavators suggest a Byzantine date, is a particularly good parallel for the Samian bell B 626: J. C. Waldbaum, Metalwork from Sardis: The Finds through 1974 (Cambridge, Mass., 1983), 43 no. 98, pl. 8. A more conical bell with pentagonal loop and incised horizontal lines is securely dated to the late 6th-early 7th c. AD: ibid., 43 no. 100, pl. 8.

93 For a summary, see most recently M. Gimm, in Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, iii (2nd edn., Kassel, 1995), 1422-30; cf. also Lehr (n. 44), 11-21; Spear, Treasury, 27-46. Small bells with clapper were here apparently used for accompanying rituals, as attachment to chariots and boats and as dog- and horse-bells.


FIG. 28. Bronze bell from Samos, Heraion. Vathy Museum, Samos inv. B 474. Drawing afterJantzen, Samos VIII, pl. 8o (scale i : 2).

FIG. 29. Bronze bell from Pherai. Athens, NM 16705 (scale I : 2).

routes, unless we assume it was independently developed in several areas.94 At any rate, during what in Greece is the Late Geometric and Archaic periods, a large variety of bells are attested around the Caucasus, north-western Iran, Urartu, Syria, and Mesopotamia, as well as Egypt. They are small in size (rarely more than Io cm), usually plain in appearance, and of rounded cylindrical or dome shape; all appear to be of the clapper type. Primarily, they formed part of horses' harnesses, as is indicated, e.g., by Assyrian reliefs (FIG. 42), or Scythian and Nubian burials.95

It is from these regions that bells were first imported into Greece, and then apparently imitated, as recognized by previous scholarship.96 The finds of Samos take centre stage in this process; they not only comprise both Near Eastern and Caucasian bells and locally produced specimens, but also constitute the second-largest find of bells in a Greek sanctuary after Sparta, and we must consider whether this is entirely coincidental.

Samos and the East: Urartu Of the approximately thirty bronze bells found in the Heraion of Samos, perhaps the most spectacular discovery is a bell of the distinctive Urartian facetted 'pagoda' type, discussed in detail by Muscarella and others.97 This type is usually of octagonal shape, often has square cut-outs, horizontal divisions and an offset 'dome-like' top area with a rosette or other moulding and a smallish round loop set on a low platform. Attested in its homeland in a variety of versions and numerous examples, several of which bear the names of kings and are thus datable from around 800 onwards, it puts in an appearance at Samos in the shape of bell B 474 (FIG. 28)-a very rare case of an Urartian artefact on

94 Cf. e.g. Spear, Treasury, 13-15; Wiesner (n. 3) suspected a distribution of the bell in the Near East and Europe via Iranian horsemen, but Calmeyer, 'Glocke', 430, argues for a more complex development with origins in Urartu, Eastern Anatolia, Mesopotamia, or Egypt.

95 See below n. 147, 151, and 154. 96 Mobius, 'Glocken', Jantzen, Samos VIII with review by

Calmeyer (n. 73); 0. W. Muscarella, 'Urartian Bells and Samos', Journal of the Ancient Near Eastern Society of Columbia University, Io (1978), 61-6; for Geometric bells, see Gehrig (n. 85). See also Bouzek, Bronzes, 84 fig. 25. 1-8, 89-91 nos. AI-Io; 91 nos. CI-3, 139 fig. 44 5-6; 89 no.

AII, 39 fig. 44. 7. The article by X. Grichine, 'Au sujet des cloches

caucasiennes A Samos', Bedi K'art'lisa, 41 (i983), 298-301, is a mere summary in French of Mobius's list of Caucasian bells with a few additional comments.

97 See esp. Muscarella (n. 96); id. (n. 64), 427-8 no. 575. Cf.

also E. Ozgen, 'The Urartian Bronze Collection at the University Museum: The Urartian Armor' (Ph.D. diss., University of Pennsylvania; UMI, Ann Arbor, 1979), 159-63- Add to Muscarella's list three further 'pagoda' bells: L. Van den Berghe and L. De Meyer, Urartu: Een vergeten cultuur uit het bergland Armenie (exhibition catalogue; Ghent, 1982-3), 152 no. 75, 153 no. 77; R. Bisione, SMEA 34 (1994), 123-4 no. 14, fig. 7 (note also no. 15, fig. 7).


FIG. 30o. Three bronze bells from Samos, Heraion. Vathy Museum, Samos inv. B 262, B 263, B 1189. Drawings after Mobius, 'Glocken', pl. 2. 7-8; U. Gehrig, 'Die Geometrischen Bronzen aus dem Heraion von Samos' (Diss. Hamburg,

1964), pl. 16. I 3 (scale 1:2).

Greek soil.98 A simplified heptagonal version was found at Thessalian Pherai (FIG. 29); Muscarella considers it to be a copy of an Urartian bell, perhaps the result of contacts between Macedonia and Samos.99

Samos, Cyprus, and the Caucasus: early conical bells More frequent on Samos-yet also more problematic-than Urartian bells are bells for which a Caucasian or Transcaucasian origin or inspiration can be suspected.

Of these, probably the earliest are three bells (B 262, B 263, B 1189; FIG. 30) of simple, conical shape with a ring-like handle, which must date from before around 670.-1o Mobius believed them to be of Caucasian production, while Gehrig considered them locally made. Local production was also considered by Walter for another similar Samian bell (B 1225) of

early date (from well G, filled between 7Io and 640/30), which was in turn taken to be Caucasian by Jantzen.'O' One further conical bell, with a long slit in its side (B 627) was unanimously held to be Caucasian by Jantzen, Mobius and Calmeyer.'02 Finally, for another bell related in shape but from an undated context (B 628), which Mobius had considered early and Caucasian, Gehrig suggested an Imperial Roman date. Yet conical bells are not a common Roman type, and there is no reason to assume any of the Samian examples need be this late.'03 The shape is, in fact, not uncommon from the Archaic period

98 Jantzen, Samos VIII, 81 no. B 474, pl. 80. Attested are the names of Menua (2 bells) and Argishti (3 bells): Muscarella 1978 (n. 96). But see Ozgen (n. 97), who identifies different inscriptions (including 2 of Sarduri) on some of the same bells.

99 Athens NM 16705, from Pherai. H. 5.1 cm, D. 2.8 cm.

'Pagoda'-shaped heptagonal bronze bell with loop-handle set on disk-base, openwork lower body, inside bronze-bar for

suspension of clapper (lost), dark brown patina. Muscarella (n. 96), 65-6, fig. 12; Spear, Treasury, 157-9, fig. 185; Bouzek, Bronzes, 91 no. BI. Perhaps another bell from Samos (B 2092), which is of simple conical shape yet features an offset cap and a loop-handle and has a terminus ante quem of 630/620 (A. E. Furtwangler, AM 96 (1981), 84-7, 134 no. 1/6, pl. 19. 2), is the result of a similar adaptation-compare the Urartian bells with several ribs just below the handle: Muscarella,

ibid., fig. 3; van de Berge and de Meyer (n. 97), 150-I nos. 68-71.

,oo Gehrig (n. 85), 8 nos. 39-41, PP I13, 91-2, pl. 16. i-3. Mobius, 'Glocken', 6, pl. 2. 7-8.

o"' H. Walter and K. Vierneisel, AM 73 (1958), 23, Beil. 56. 3;Jantzen, Samos VIII, 82, no. B 1225, pl. 79.

102 Ibid., no. B 627, pl. 8o; MObius, 'Glocken', pl. 2. 10.

Calmeyer (n. 73), 130. Also another Samian bell (B 1604), of simple dome shape, attributed byJantzen, ibid., no. B 1604, pl. 79, to the Kuban area, is taken by Calmeyer to be Caucasian.

103 There are, however, late attestations of this shape elsewhere. Cf. e.g. a bell from Visigothic Spain, 5th/6th c. AD: Spear, Treasury, 189 fig. 233. For a conical bell with a separately-made suspension loop and incised horizontal lines from Sardis, for which a Byzantine date has been suggested, see Waldbaum (n. 92), 43 no. 96, pl. 8.


FIG. 3I. Bronze bell from Samos, Heraion. Vathy Museum, Samos inv. B 271. Drawing afterJantzen, Samos

VIII, pl. 80o (scale I : 2).

FIG. 32. Bronze bell from Idalion. After The Swedish Cyprus Expedition, ii

(Stockholm, 1935), pl. 179. II (scale I : 2).

FIG. 33. Bronze bell from Pherai. Athens, NM 16704. Drawing after

Spear, Treasury, 158 fig. 186 (scale I : 2).

onwards both north and south of the Caucasus, in Iran and the Kuban area.1'4 The triangular cut-outs around the base of one of the Samian bells (B 262) seem to suggest at least inspiration, if not import from this area, for which cut-outs are characteristic.Xo5 Possibly an early import is also a narrow conical bell with a loop-handle, slit at the side and triangular cut-out from Aigina; it resembles Samian B 627 in general shape and slit, as well as B 1225 in shape.o6

Also Caucasian or perhaps of Caucasian inspiration is another Samian conical bell with two rows of cut-out triangles in its walls (B 271; FIG. 31), for which the find context provides a terminus ante quem of 570. It finds its closest parallels in Caucasian bell and rattle types that may go back to early in the first millennium.'07 A related bell with three rows of cut-out triangles comes from the sanctuary of Athena at Idalion, Cyprus (FIG. 32), and another simple conical bell from a grave at Amathus, of Archaic or later date.08 In Greece, the shape is rare; a

'04 Cf. the early Iranian and Luristan bells listed by P. Calmeyer, Datierbare Bronzen aus Luristan und Kirmanshah (Berlin, 1969), 111-I12, and the bell from the Kuban given as a comparison by Mobius, 'Glocken', pl. 2. II. Cf. also Spear, Treasury, 129 fig. 144-5, for Scythian bells from Hungary. The characteristic horse-topped bells of the South Caspian Sea area (?), too, display a straight conical outline; see Muscarella (n. 64), 89-91 no. 150. On conical bells, see also P. Moorey, A Catalogue of the Ancient Persian Bronzes in the Ashmolean Museum (Oxford, 1971), 138, and most recently, on Cimmerian and Scythian bells and rattles, A. Ivantchik, Kimmerier und Skythen (Moscow, 2001), esp. 218-25.

105 See Muscarella (n. 64), and also below. ,o6 M. Maass and I. Kilian-Dirlmeier, AA 1998, 102-3 no.

55, fig. Ig. A further bell of this shape is mentioned by A. Furtwangler, Aigina: Das Heiligtum der Aphaia (Munich, 1906), 419 no. 186. High straight-sided conical bells also appear to be a feature of the Punic-Iberian circle, which might suggest Phoenician transfer from the East; see a bronze bell dated to the 3rd c. from Carthage (S. Moscati (ed.), I Fenici (Milan, 1988), 634 no. 299), and bells from Mallorca dated between the 5th and 3rd c. (cf. Spear, Treasury, 177 fig. 213); on the latter, see also below, n. 272.

'7, '7Jantzen, Samos VIII, 8I no. B 271, pl. 80; MObius, 'Glocken', pl. 3. I. Cf. MObius, 'Glocken', pl. 3. 4, 6-8, Io-II (varying shapes: dome-shaped, conical, concave-conical); Spear, Treasury, fig. 130 (Sarmatian, Ist-2nd c. AD), fig. 134 (pole-top rattle, Scythian, late 5th c.). For conical rattles, see J. Rimmer, Ancient Musical Instruments of Western Asia in the Department of Western Asiatic Antiquities, The British Museum (London, 1969), pl. 19 c; Muscarella (n. 64), 442 no. 588. On openwork rattles of the European Early Iron Age in general, see esp. J. Bouzek, 'Openwork 'bird-cage' bronzes', in J. Boardman, M. A. Brown, and T. G. E. Powell (eds), The European Community in Later Prehistory: Studies in Honour of C. E C. Hawkes (London, 1971), 77-1o4-

wo8 Bell from Idalion: Conical bronze bell (H. 3.8 cm) with concave sides with openwork (three rows of triangles) and loop- handle, from Archaic/Classical sanctuary of Athena-Anat at Idalion (from disturbed layer). The Swedish Cyprus Expedition, ii (Stockholm, 1935), 553 no. 784, pl. 179.11. Bell from Amathus: M.-J. Chavane, La nicropole d'Amathonte, Tombes IIO-385 IV Les petits objets (Nicosia, 1990), 46 no. 382, pls. 12, 22. Several later Cypriot bronze bells, from the Cesnola Collection, are now in the Metropolitan Museum, New York: G. M. A. Richter, The Metropolitan Museum ofArt-Greek, Etruscan and Roman Bronzes (New York, 1915), 463- 4 nos. 1835-1840.


FIG. 34. Bronze bell from Tanagra, Athens, NM 17386 (scale i : 2).

relatively low conical bell from Thessalian Pherai with incised horizontal lines cannot be dated precisely (FIG. 33).'09 A Caucasian connection is attested also by a further bell, from the West Necropolis of Samos,"o dated by context to around the mid-sixth century: it belongs to a type characterized by a cylindrical shape, vertical ribs, and an arched handle, which is otherwise attested in the area of the Caucasus and the Kuban."' Less certain, by contrast, is the Caucasian origin of a Samian bell"2 with offset, grooved dome-like top, a type to date unknown in the Caucasus/Near East, but now paralleled by a number of examples from elsewhere, including one from Tanagra (FIG. 34).113

The picture provided by these bells fits in well with the picture presented by other early bronze objects in the Heraion, which, from the Geometric period onwards, consist of both Eastern and Greek imports as well as locally manufactured, albeit sometimes foreign-inspired, objects."4

o09 Athens, NM 16704, from Pherai. H. 3.5 cm, D. 3.5 cm. Conical bronze bell, three incised horizontal lines on mantle, small flat handle with small round hole (drilled after casting), on either side of which are two holes in the apex for suspension of clapper. Date uncertain. Spear, Treasury, 158 fig. 186; Bouzek, Bronzes, 91 no. CI.4. A highly unusual wide-mouthed conical bronze bell found in the Archaic sanctuary of Aphrodite Oikous at Miletos (inv. Z 94.63-9) is due to be published by H. Eiwanger-Donder, whom I thank for information on it. Note also a conical bell from Lanuvium (A. M. Woodward, PBSR Ii (1929), 129 fig. 37- 55, 133 no. 56), which appears, however, to be of much later date.

1o Mobius, 'Glocken', 1-2, pl. I. 1-2; Jantzen, Samos VIII, 83; P Gercke and W. Lowe (eds), Samos-die Kasseler Grabung 1894 (Kassel, 1996), 76.

"' Cf. Mobius, 'Glocken', 1-4, pls. I. 5-7, 2. i-3; Spear, Treasury, i15 fig. I24-6.

112 Samos B 146: Jantzen, Samos VIII, 8i Nr. B 146, pl. 89; Mobius, 'Glocken', pl. 3.2. It is dated by context to before 570, with Gehrig (n. 85), 91 suggesting a late-7th-c. date. Mobius and Jantzen had suspected it to be a Caucasian hybrid, combining elements of bell and openwork jingle.

113 Athens, NM 17386, from Papagergopoulou's excavations at Tanagra in 1876. H. 6.7 cm, D. 3.6 cm. Conical/dome-shaped bronze bell with offset cap with vertical grooves ending in circular impressions, groups of horizontal incised lines around lower part of bell, large loop- shaped handle; inside loop for attachment of iron clapper, of which corroded remains are preserved; date uncertain. De Ridder (n. 39), 126 no. 671. Two further close parallels are known: a bell once in the i8th-c. collection of the Count of Biscari (M. Fitta, Spiele und Spielzeug in der Antike (Stuttgart, 1998), 51 fig. 73), and one published without mention of provenance or whereabouts by Schilling (n. 12),

fig. 519, P. 347 no. 519. Schilling describes it as a 'Roman bronze bell from a horse's harness or cart' without giving reasons for this assessment. A distant relative of this type of bell is found in a small bronze bell in Olympia (inv. Br 11929). The origin of this distinctive bell type, for the time being, remains a mystery.

"4 See Ph. Brize, 'Archaische Bronzevotive aus dem Heraion von Samos', in G. Bartoloni (ed.), Anathema: Regime delle offerte e vita dei santuari nel Mediterraneo antico. Atti del Convegno Internazionale, 15-18 giugno 1989 = Scienze dell'Antichita, 3/4 (Rome, 1989/90), 317-26, esp. 318-20.


FIG. 35. Bronze bell from Samos, Heraion. Vathy Museum, Samos inv. B 2091. Photograph copyright

DAI Athens, neg. no. 77/1489 (scale i : 2).

FIG. 36. Bronze bell from Samos, Heraion. Vathy Museum, Samos inv. B Iog93. Photograph copyright DAI Athens, neg.

nos. 93/1955, 93/1957 (scale I :2).

Samos and Nimrud: an Assyrian bell in Sparta? None of the early bell types discussed so far is attested at Sparta. However, there is an intriguing case of a possible Samian/Near Eastern connection: Among the Spartan bells there is one (Br 24: FIG. 5) that is truly singular in its body shape and handle arrangement; it has no feet, a more or less cylindrical to conical body with a large opening at the top, above which sits an arch topped by a suspension loop. This handle arrangement, unparalleled in any other Greek or Roman bell, is found, however, on two bells from Samos (B 2091, B I193)."5 Both are early: one of them (B 2091; FIG. 35) is dated by context to before 630/20, the other (B 1093; FIG. 36) to before 640. One of them (B 2091) is dome-shaped with a thickened lower rim, a small hole in the apex, and a narrow slit in its mantle. The other (B 1093) is far closer to the Spartan bell, being of tall cylindrical/conical shape with a wide opening at the top. Jantzen considered it to be from the Kuban region,"6 but the handle arrangement is not attested there. In fact, bells from Nimrud, centre of the Assyrian kingdom, provide by far the best parallels for this shape.

Here, a storage chamber of the North-West Palace yielded around eighty probably locally made eighth century bronze bells with iron clappers."7 About thirty of them, of cylindrical to truncated cone shape, have an 'arch-and-loop' handle (FIG. 37). The Spartan bell is closely related in shape to these, but there are also differences. The majority (although probably not all) of the Nimrud bells, for example, had an iron clapper that originally hung from a horizontal bar riveted within the upper part of the crown, a feature clearly missing from the Spartan bell, where a bronze wire is still visible and is likely to have held the clapper. The flat disk or ring between arch and loop is equally not paralleled in any of the Nimrud bells, even

115 B 209: H. 8.4 cm, D. 6.5 cm; A. E. Furtwangler, AM 96 (1981), 84-7, 134 no. 1/7, pl. 19. i. B 1093: H. 6 cm; D. 2.6 cm;Jantzen, Samos VIII, 83 no. B 1093, pl. 79.

"6Jantzen, Samos VIII, 83. "7 Local manufacture seems likely, not least due to the fact

that a further bell of this type was found by Mallowan in trench PD5 on the acropolis of Nimrud, and is confirmed by

the high lead content of the bells (I am grateful to John Curtis for this information). Only a few of the Nimrud bells have been published to date; see most recently J. E. Curtis and J. E. Reade (eds), Art and Empire: Treasures from Assyria in the British Museum (London, 1995), 166-7 nos. 159-65. Cf. also Spear, Treasury, 99-104 with figs. 94, 96-io8; Rimmer (n. 107), 37-9, pl. 20.


ca b

C d

FIG. 37. Bronze bells from Nimrud, NW Palace. London, BM ANE NI9o, NI84, NI79, NI61. Photograph copyright British Museum (scale I : 2).

though other Near Eastern bells occasionally feature a 'base' between ring-handle and apex, e.g., the Urartian 'pagoda' bells (such as FIG. 28), and also some bells from Samos (B 2580: FIG.

38; see also below). Also, the Spartan bell appears to have a slight engraved line both above the base rim and underneath the top opening, but this is difficult to ascertain due to the bell's poor state of preservation.

But these differences are not any more marked than the differences between the Samian and the Nimrud bells,"8 and it would not seem impossible that our bell somehow found its way to Sparta from the East, perhaps via Samos, surprising as this might be."9

Caucasus, Assyria, Babylon, Lydia and Samos: dome-shaped bells and arched handles between East and West Further links between Sparta, Samos, and the Near East emerge with regard to three common features of the Spartan bells, which have not been frequently encountered in the bells

"8 The Samian bell B Io93 is quite similar in shape to the Nimrud bells, while B 2o9I is more removed. The latter's dome-shape and thickened lower base are paralleled in other bells from Nimrud (e.g. London, BM Ni59: Rimmer (n. 107), pl. 19 a), as pointed out already by A. E. Furtwangler, AM 96 (I98i), 86, but not in connection with this type of handle; the same is true for the slit which both Samian bells share: an instance of Samian imitation, or simply a different (later?) version of the Nimrud bells?

"9 This Spartan bell (Br 24) is actually one of the few

explicitly identified (by a label attached to the bell and a note and drawing on a loose-leaf catalogue of finds inserted into the excavation diary, no. 24 in the BSA archive) as a stratified find: it was found in 1927 in the 'black layer' of area xiv, which is identified in the excavation diary (p. 323) as the 'NE corner of E pit', located at the back of the cave to the N of the small buildings; this black layer also contained architectural terracottas, including part of an acroterion with toothed border and painted scales, but it is probably not an undisturbed Archaic layer.


FIG. 38. Bronze bell from Samos, Heraion. Vathy Museum, Samos inv. B 2580. Photograph copyright DAI Athens, neg.

no. 84/536 (scale I : 2).

discussed so far: the dome shape, the profiled rim, and the high, arched handle. All three are found in a number of Samian bells, and ultimately find parallels further east."'2

The high dome-shape, which is a characteristic of many and especially the most carefully produced Spartan bells as well as some other Late Archaic and Classical Greek bells (e.g., those from Olbia (FIG. 13) and Boiotia (FIGS. 13, 14)), finds close parallels among some of the Samian bells. One such bell-with an arch-and-loop-handle and a slit in its side-has already been mentioned earlier (B 2091; FIG. 35) and its similarity to Nimrud bells pointed out. On Assyrian reliefs, too, domed bells with loop-handles were popular in the seventh century, worn by horses and other animals (e.g. FIG. 42). We find dome-shaped bells moreover in Urartian art 2I and there are also later representations on the Persian Apadana reliefs (FIG. 43, see below) and actual examples found at Persepolis.'22

Dome-shaped bells used primarily as horse-bells are thus well attested, particularly in Assyria from the eighth century onwards. Perhaps one of the Samian dome-shaped bells (FIG. 38),123 with loop-handle and thickened rim, was just such a horse-bell, since its handle is completely worn through. Whether it could have been imported is, however, not altogether clear. This fairly plain bell has two features that are not very common in Near Eastern bells. One is its loop-handle on a 'base': a similar arrangement has been observed in the Spartan bell Br 24 (FIG. 5), but is otherwise quite rare'24-we find it, for example, on the distinctive Urartian 'pagoda' shaped bells (FIG. 28). The other feature is the thickened rim, sometimes found on Assyrian bells, although not usually this pronounced. We encounter it again in Cyprus, on one of two late-eighth-century dome-shaped bells from a grave in Salamis, which

120 Of the c. 20 bells known to him when writing Samos VIII, Jantzen (pp. 81-3), mostly following Mobius, considered seven to be imported ('Caucasian') and the rest Greek, because of their more 'taut and severe' shape. They remain mostly unpublished, but will be included in a study by Philip Brize on the votive offerings of the Heraion. I should like to thank Dr Philip Brize and Dr Hermann Kienast for allowing me to discuss some of them here.

121' e.g. the bells from Alishar, Muscarella 1978 (n. 96), figs. 3, 4.

122 e.g. Spear, Treasury, 65 fig. 36. 123 Vathy Museum, Samos B 2580, from Heraion, SE

temenos (found in 1984). H. 6.6 cm, D. 4.7 cm, high dome- shaped bell with thickened, rounded base rim, round loop- handle on oval 'cushion' at apex, two holes for attachment of clapper opposite each other at about three quarters of the body's height. Handle completely worn through.

124 Cf. a bell supposedly from Lake Urmia, Iran: Spear, Treasury, 94 fig. 91.


FIG. 39. Bronze bell from Samos, Heraion. Vathy Museum, Samos inv. B 1125. Photograph copyright DAI

Athens, neg. nos. 88/684, 88/689 (scale i : 2).

formed part of a horse's harness.125 On the whole, for both the Samian and the Cypriot dome- shaped bells, Near Eastern inspiration (or even manufacture) seems likely.

A similar complex situation is encountered with regard to the arched 'basket' handle, often offset from the body, which is the predominant handle type of the Spartan bells. It is less common in the rest of Greece-cf. the bells from Olbia (FIG. 13) and from the Kabeirion (FIG. 14)-and also rarely encountered on Near Eastern bells.'26 Among the earliest examples of this feature, however, are again dome-shaped bells from Samos, which constitute interesting cases of an intersection between East and West.

Duck heads, hands and profiling: decorative features between East and West One of the Samian bells (B 1125; FIG. 39)127 is a strikingly large (almost io cm high) bell of conical shape with an arched handle ending in two duck's heads. Judging from its findspot it probably predates 58o. Duck heads, as part of handles, finials etc. are a feature not uncommon in early Greek,'28 but also Near Eastern art, from where the feature may well derive. Mobius29 had already considered the bell's duck heads to be particularly 'Oriental'-

125 H. 8.5 cm and 9.2 cm. V. Karageorghis, Salamis V. Excavations in the Necropolis of Salamis, iii (Nicosia, I973), 20 no. 142, 23 no. 163, p. 83, pls. 8o, 254. Other bronze bells found in Cypriot tombs are mostly of a later date; cf. Chavane (n. io8), 46 no. 382, pls. 12, 22. (Archaic-Classical or possibly later); ead., Salamine de Chypre VI: Les petits objets (Paris, 1975), 147-8 nos. 422-4, pls. 43, 69 (Roman-Byzantine). For Cypriot terracotta bells, see below.

126 On Caucasian dome-shaped and particularly cylindrical/ barrel-shaped bells (e.g. Muscarella 1978 (n. 97), fig. 4; Mobius, 'Glocken', pl. 2. 1-4, 6), or on cylindrical/barrel-shaped and truncated conical bells in Nimrud, spanning the large opening at the top (e.g. Spear, Treasury, 1O2 figs. 96--oI). It is also found

in one of the early bells from Salamis, mentioned above, n. 125- 127 Vathy Museum, Samos B 1125, from Heraion (Canal W

of Siidhalle). H. 9.8 cm, D. 6.3 cm, conical bronze bell with rounded top, arched, flattened handle terminating in ducks' heads, small hole in apex for suspension of clapper. Unpublished; mentioned by MObius, 'Glocken', 12.

128 Cf. e.g. the 'duck askoi' found on Samos from the 9th to the early 7th cc.: V Jarosch, Samos XVIII: Samische Tonfiguren aus dem Heraion von Samos (Bonn, 1994), 73-5. On duck heads in Greek metalware, see most recently also I. K. Raubitschek, Isthmia VII: The Metal Objects, 1952-1989 (Princeton, 1998), 37 with n. 78-9.

129 MObius, 'Glocken', 12.


FIG. 40. Bronze bell from Samos, Heraion. Vathy Museum, Samos inv. B 1281. Photograph copyright DAI Athens, neg. nos. 88/651, 88/650

(scale I : 2).

looking, and we may, indeed, compare ivory handles of Ras Shamra,'30 or note that in Achaemenid Lydian metalwork duck heads of different kinds appear to be ubiquitous as terminals and attachments.s3' They also feature as terminals on fittings of Achaemenid seals,'32 particularly pyramidal seals of Lydian production.' 33Looking at those seals in profile view, it is striking how much the seal's shape with its fitting resembles the taut shape of the Samian bell with its duck-head handle.134 The bell, if we trust its find context, predates the Persian seals, but since these continue earlier, neo-Babylonian/Assyrian seal shapes of the seventh-sixth centuries, which may well also have had duck-head settings, a connection does not appear impossible. One could suspect the Samian bell to be the fanciful creation of a Samian craftsman inspired by a pyramidal seal, but it might seem more likely that this bell, too, represents a case of Eastern craftsmanship in Samos.

We find duck heads again on a second bell from the Heraion (B 1281; FIG. 40),'35 which features a thickened base rim, thin slit at the side, and higher handle. A very close parallel is now in the Metropolitan Museum in New York;'36 it was purchased at Ur and had reportedly been found together with objects of the late eighth century. Spear classifies this bell as Babylonian, Muscarella as Caucasian or from a neighbouring region, dating it to the eighth-seventh century. The Samian bell, too, might be of non-Samian manufacture, although both the duck head and the basic shape and rim would also not be out of place for a local Greek product.

30o A. Greifenhagen, Jahrbuch der Berliner Museen, 7 (1965), 141 fig. 21.

131 See e.g. the numerous examples in I. Ozgen and J. Ozttirk (eds), The Lydian Treasure: Heritage Recovered (Istanbul, 1996), Io6 no. 60, o09 no. 64, 112 no. 67, 114-15 no. 71, 118-19 no. 73, 12o no. 74, 121-5 nos. 75-8, 238-9 no. 228. Duck-heads also sometimes form part of openwork rattles; cf. an example from the Archaic Ephesian Artemision: A. Bammer and U. Muss, Das Artemision von Ephesus (Mainz, 1996), 32 fig. 29.

132 e.g.J. Boardman, Iran, 8 (1970), pl. 8. 188. 133 Ibid., p. i9, pl. 6. 137 (seal from Sardis). For more seals

of this shape from Sardis, see e.g. Curtis (n. 67), 18 no. 26 b, 41-2 nos. 107-11, 115, pls. 3, 10.

134 See e.g. M. L. Vollenweider, Musee d'Art et d'Histoire de Genive: Catalogue raisonne des sceaux cylindres et intailles, i (Geneva, 1967), 73-5 nos. 79-85, pls. 37-8. Cf. also a Neo- Babylonian seal type in the shape of a duck: H. H. von der Osten, Ancient Oriental Seals in the Collection of Mr. Edward T Newell (Chicago, 1934), 9.

'35 Vathy Museum, Samos B 1281, from Heraion (found in 1961; the Samos archive records 'Ni5/iW,a,b+89 above sand' as the exact findspot). H. 6.3 cm, D. 4.2 cm. Dome- shaped bronze bell with angular thickened base rim, high arched handle terminating in ducks' heads, narrow slit in lower third of wall, small hole in upper part of wall.

136 New York, MM inv. 1978.514-40: H. 8.3 cm, D. 6.4 cm; Muscarella (n. 64), 443 no. 592; Spear, Treasury, 97, pl. 15.


FIG. 41. Bronze bell from Samos, Heraion. Vathy Museum, Samos inv. B 1591. Photograph copyright DAI

Athens, neg. nos. 91/2132, 91/2133 (scale i :2).

A similar dilemma is encountered with regard to the final Samian bell to be considered here (B I591; FIG. 41).'37 Its basic shape is rather similar to the previous bell, and it, too, features a decorated handle, but this time one ending in human hands. To my knowledge this handle-type is truly unparalleled for bells (but cf. the fist on top of an Urartian 'pagoda'- shaped bell).'38 In other contexts, however, hands are occasionally found as part of handles, both in the East and in the West: in the Heraion, they occur not only on Archaic Egyptian alabaster spoons,139 but also on bronze handles of vessels'40 as well as on the handles of (in all likelihood) locally produced pottery bowls.'4' Even if these were inspired by oriental prototypes, they do provide good evidence that this handle-type was part of Archaic Samian craftsmen's repertoire.

The fine moulding surrounding the bell's base is equally not a feature commonly found in Near Eastern bells. We have seen earlier that Assyrian simple dome-shaped bells in particular sometimes have a narrow thickened rim, but more elaborate arrangements are rare: Conical bells may have several incised lines above the base, creating a 'profiled' impression,'42 and a cylindrical, domed bell (Assyrian? Caucasian?) has around its base three narrow plastic ridges,'43 and also shares with the Samian bell the triangular cut-out aligned with the handle, but this is much bigger here, and the basic shape of the bell is entirely different. And nowhere do we find the same kind of elaborate differentiation and gradation as in the rim treatment of

137 Vathy Museum, Samos B 1591, from Heraion (under cement road south of Rhoikos altar, found in autumn 1964) H. 8.4 cm, D. 5.8 cm, conical or dome-shaped bronze bell, thickened lower rim consisting of wide plastic ring framed by two narrow rings each above and below; high arched handle terminating in human hands; triangular cut-out at lower rim, up to height of profiled rings. Mentioned by MObius, 'Glocken', 12, but since the bell had not yet been cleaned he mistook the hands for swimming ducks.

'38 Van den Berghe and De Meyer (n. 97), 153 no. 77. 139 E. Diehl, AA 1965, 846-8 nos. 104-5, figs. 23-5. 140 e.g. Vathy Museum, Samos B 2257, B 2268, B 2271, B

1014, B 1015, B 1179. Cf. also a similar bronze handle from

the sanctuary of Demeter Malophoros at Selinus: Mon. Linc. 31 (1927), 354 fig. 149 m.

141 E. Walter-Karydi, Samos VI. i: Samische Ge.fdjle des 6. Jahrhunderts v. Chr. (Bonn, 1973), 20-1, pl. 37. 289, 292-7. Walter-Karydi suspects Eastern inspiration for these vessels.

142 Cf. e.g. Calmeyer (n. 104), 111-12, fig. 115; P. R. S. Moorey, Ancient Persian Bronzes in the Adam Collection (London, 1974), 97 fig. 63.

143 Spear, Treasury, 70-2, fig. 45; Muscarella (n. 64), 443-4 no. 590. Unknown provenance; Spear assigns it to Amlash and dates it to the 9th c., Muscarella suspects the Caucasus or a neighbouring region and gives the 8th/7th c. as terminus ante quem.


the Samian bell, a feature more characteristic of Greek art, as is, generally speaking, the high and offset arched handle that characterizes the three Samian bells.'44 Both features are, as we have seen, quite prominent especially on the more carefully produced Spartan bells (cf. esp. Br x, 2, 6-9, x1: FIGS. 1-2), and may well present a particular Greek element, developed from, ultimately, Near Eastern models.

Samos and the Near East: how did bells travel? Samos has emerged as one of the points of intersection between East and West with regard to bronze bells. But how did Near Eastern bells get to Samos, and why were they dedicated to Samian Hera? Gehrig had suggested that the bells were apotropaic animal bells, maybe from sacrificial animals-a common assumption when bells are found in sanctuaries.145 As will be discussed in more detail further below (section III), an apotropaic function is indeed attested for ancient bells, but there is not much evidence for bells being associated with sacrificial animals in ancient Greece.

What is attested, however, is that at least the 'imported' bells in all likelihood originally served as horse bells in their home countries. Assyrian reliefs from the second half of the eighth century onwards'46 frequently show bells worn by horses, both chariot and ridden horses; particularly numerous are the representations in the North Palace of King Ashurbanipal in Niniveh of around 645-635-.47 The detail illustrated here (FIG. 42) shows the horses of the king's chariot, which alone are distinguished by wearing more than one bell. The custom is still attested in the Persian Apadana reliefs at Persepolis (FIG. 43).148 Occasionally, other animals, such as camels, also wear bells, both on Assyrian and the Persepolis reliefs.149 Elsewhere, the archaeological record confirms such a practice: the earliest bronze bells from Cyprus, as we have just seen, come from a grave in Salamis where they had been worn by horses and where much Assyrian material has been found.50s Also in Nubia bells clearly served as horse bells,'5' and they could fulfil the same function later, in parts of the Roman Empire.'52

Regarding the function of such bells, we can assume that for camels as part of caravans they had a signalling function, announcing the caravan's approach as well as keeping it together.'53 Similar functions could be imagined for a cavalry troop in battle or out hunting. Bells also would have announced an animal as being in human ownership. At the same time, the sound of bells may well have had a protective function, perhaps scaring away wild animals or

144 It must be noted that there are also occasional instances of offset arched handles within the repertoire of early bells in the Mediterranean: one, from a grave in Amathus/Cyprus, has been mentioned earlier (n. io8); another is an openwork dome-shaped bell with an arched handle with upturned ends, from a grave in Marsiliana d'Albegna, dated to around 700 (MObius, 'Glocken', 11-12,

pl. I. 3-4). 145 Gehrig (n. 85), 91. 146 Spear, Treasury, 1oi fig. 95. 147 For illustrations see e.g. Spear, Treasury, 106-9 figs.

o109-, 113. Cf. alsoJ. K. Anderson, Ancient Greek Horsemanship (Berkeley, 1961), pls. 5 b (Sennacherib), 6 b, 11 b, 38 (Ashurbanipal). 7th-c. frescos from Til Barsip show bells (one with cut-outs) on both riding and chariot horses; cf. F. Thureau-Dangin and M. Dunand, Til-Barsib (Paris, 1936),

pls. xxiie f, xxxvii e. A saddled bull wearing a bell is represented on a bronze plaque: Calmeyer, 'Glocke', 427.

148 Cf. e.g. Spear, Treasury, 60-7, with figs. 34-5; Anderson (n. 147), pl. 8 b. See also below, n. 2o6.

149 See T. C. Mitchell, 'Camels in the Assyrian bas-reliefs', Iraq, 62 (2000), 187-94, esp. 191-2. For the Persepolis camels, see e.g. Spear, Treasury, 65.

150 In various other regions bells attached to chains may have been part of horses' harnesses: cf. e.g. Spear, Treasury, 82 fig. 59, 71 fig. 43, 91 fig. 9go.

'51 Cf. the reconstructed horse-harness with bells in Emery (n. 27), pl. 55-6.

152 A. R. Furger and C. Schneider, 'Die Bronzeglocke aus der Exedra des Tempelareals Sichelen I', Jahresberichte aus Augst und Kaiseraugst, 14 (1993), 159-72, esp. 166.

153 Cf. Price, Bells and Man, 51.


FIG. 42. Details of frieze in North Palace of King Ashurbanipal in Niniveh (London, British Museum): the King's horses.

FIG. 43. Detail of relief at Persepolis, Apadana: Mede with Horse. Drawing after Spear, Treasury, 63, fig. 34.

enemies. In the Scythian kurgans, bells are often found as part of a horse's harness, but also dangling from pole tops and possibly linked to shamanic rites, at least from the sixth century onwards.154 A seventh-century Babylonian bell decorated with representations of demons may have had a ritual function.' 55 We may moreover note that for those bells with a slit in their side it has been suggested that this was done particularly to transform a 'friendly' sound into a 'dark', 'menacing' sound, in order to enhance those bells' apotropaic powers.'56

As far as the Samian bells are concerned, we can suspect that at least a fair number

probably came to Samos as part of horse-harnesses, possibly even with the horses

154 Cf. Bakay (n. 12), 34, 36-7, 41-50, 74-5, 86-7, 115-20;

Spear, Treasury, 117-30; Porada (n. 68), 114-16. '55 Rashid (n. 22), fig. 132. 156 Experiments with recast ancient bells have shown that a

bell's high-pitched sound could be transformed into a lower sound by adding a slit in the bell's side: H. Drescher,

'Rekonstruktionen und Versuche zu friihen Zimbeln und kleinen antiken Glocken', Saalburg-Jahrbuch, 49 (1998), 155-70, esp. 158. However, a more practical reason could be that lower sound frequencies travel further, making it easier to track animals, as is claimed by Price, Bells and Man, 51. Perhaps both were, in fact, desired.


themselves,'57 together with their Near Eastern owners, with Greek mercenaries, or-perhaps most likely-as commodities in a formal gift exchange between Samians and their Near Eastern trading partners.'58 Yet why did they end up in Hera's sanctuary? As has been pointed out by Brize, the fact that objects are of foreign manufacture, and possibly functioned as luxury goods, does not exclude the possibility that they had a religious meaning. Bridles and horse-harness ornaments, he argues, could thus have a social significance as symbols of an aristocratic lifestyle,159 but could also reveal a special aspect of Samian Hera: Hera Hippia, as she is attested, e.g. at Paestum,I6o although no such function is evidenced explicitly at Samos. Still, a function for the bells as bells in their own right, and not just as part of horse-harnesses, cannot be excluded, either.

Samos and Sparta: close relations?

What bearing does this have on the question of the Spartan bells? We have noted that some of the Samian bells, are indeed very close to some later Spartan bells, displaying a similar dome- shape, thickened base rim, and high arched handle. It has also been tentatively suggested that one very unusual bell with an arch-and-loop handle may have found its way from the Near East to Sparta via Samos. Is this a realistic scenario?

A mediation of Near Eastern influences in Archaic Spartan art through Samos is often suspected also for other groups of objects. Distinct Lakonian phenomena, such as lead figurines or the masks dedicated to Artemis Orthia, may go back to Near Eastern (Mesopotamian/ Babylonian/Assyrian/Phoenician) inspiration, possibly with Samos playing a mediating role.'6' Connections between the two states are certainly well attested,'62 at least from the mid-seventh century until the later sixth century, when the Spartan help in an attempt to overthrow Polykrates led to a cooling-off of the relationship. Transmission could be imagined, for instance, on the basis of aristocratic guest-friendships-we know that individual members of the elite moved from Sparta to Samos (as suggested by a votive inscription)'63 and certainly this was also the case vice versa (Samian refugees, for example, came to Sparta to ask for help against Polykrates).'64 The inscribed Spartan bells, of course, do not date from before the fifth century, i.e. after the time of close relations between the states. But we have seen that terracotta bells are attested at the Spartan Menelaion already in the early part of the sixth century, indicating that bells became known in Sparta already in the Archaic period. Moreover, aristocratic relations on a personal basis are likely to have survived throughout the Classical period. Although there is little tangible evidence for a transfer of the bell from Samos to Sparta, the resemblances of shape and usage that have emerged in the above discussion suggest the existence of some link.

'57 Cf. A. Furtwangler, AM 96 (I98i), 86-7 n. 66. '58 Brize suggests that Al Mina may have been involved in

a mediating role: Ph. Brize, 'Offrandes de l'ipoque g0om6trique et archaique a l'H6raion de Samos', inJ. de La Geniare (ed.), Hira: Images, espaces, cultes (Naples, 1997), 123-39, esp. 132.

159 Brize (n. 1"4), 320. ,6o Brize (n. 158), 130-2. Other parts of horse harness are

also among the finds from the Samian Heraion. ,6' For the lead figurines, see M. Boss, Lakonische Votivgaben

aus Blei (Wtirzburg, 2000), 224-30; J. Boardman, The Greeks Overseas (2nd edn.; London, I999), 76; for the masks, possibly based on the demon Humbaba, see Boardman, ibid., 77;

Brize (n. 158), 136; J. B. Carter, 'Masks and Poetry in Early Sparta', in R. Hagg, N. Marinatos, and G. C. Nordquist (eds), Early Greek Cult Practice: Proceedings of the Fifth International Symposium at the Swedish Institute at Athens, 26-29 June, 1986 (Stockholm, 1988), 89-98.

'62 As attested by literary (esp. Hdt. iii. 39-60) and archaeological evidence. Cf. P. Cartledge, 'Sparta and Samos in the Archaic Period: a 'special relationship'?', CQn.s. 32 (1982), 243-65; M. Pipili, 'Archaic Laconian vase-painting: some iconographic considerations', in W G. Cavanagh and S. E. C. Walker (eds), Sparta in Laconia (London, 1998), 82-96, esp. 85.

163 Cf. G. Dunst, AM 87 (1972), 140-4, pl. 56. '64 Hdt. iii. 39-46. Cf. Cartledge (n. 162), 246-7.


Ancient Greek bells: a summary In summary, there are five key points to be mentioned regarding the history of the bell in ancient Greece. First, bells are found throughout much of Greece and on the fringes of the Greek world, from the Late Geometric period right through Byzantine times. They appear particularly in sanctuaries, but also in graves and settlement contexts; for some bells the context cannot be determined with certainty. However, they usually do not appear in bulk: excavations have generally not unearthed more than one or two in each location. Exceptions are Athena's sanctuary in Sparta and the Samian Heraion, and to a lesser extent the Boiotian Kabeirion; the numerous bells from Olympia were found in various locations across the site.

Second, most Greek bells are made of bronze or terracotta; some bells of precious metals appear on the Eastern fringes of the Greek world, yet these are small and appear to have served as jewellery. Bronze bells are found predominantly in sanctuaries, but also in graves and domestic contexts, while terracotta bells appear predominantly in graves but also in some sanctuaries, mostly in those where bronze bells were found too.

Third, if we discount the doubtful Minoan terracotta bells, bells are found on Samos, Cyprus and Aigina as well as in Thessaly probably from around 700 onwards, and are often not locally produced or at least are strongly based on Near Eastern models. Influences are traceable to the Caucasus region, Urartu, Assyria, Babylon, or the Iranian region-although the exact origin of a Near Eastern type is often difficult to pin down. They are found both in graves, as at Salamis (as part of horse-trappings) and Samos, and in sanctuaries, as at Idalion, the Samian Heraion, the sanctuary of Aphaia on Aigina, and Pherai.'65 Among these, the Samian bells stand out both for their sheer number, variation of shapes, and extent and breadth of Near Eastern 'imports', and there are also indications that Samian craftsmen amalgamated local Greek with Near Eastern elements.'66 It appears that upon the adoption of the bronze bell, Cypriots and Greeks began to also produce clay imitations, obviously to fulfil a specific need that had not existed before in the East, from where only a few terracotta bells are known. Clay bells are particularly common in Boiotia, and served as cheap imitation of bronze bells for the purpose of dedication in sanctuary or burial contexts.

Fourth, Greek bells are usually small and often more or less dome-shaped, although conical/dome shapes and hemispherical shapes are also common. Handles are either of the arched basket type (particularly at Sparta) or loop-shaped. Angular handles, and square or rectangular base shapes, are not attested with certainty before the fourth century and are most common in Roman times. Feet are a rare feature outside Lakonia, and appear to be essentially a local development. Decoration is attested only rarely, at most there are incised or plastic rings around the bell's body or an ornamented handle; Attic clay bells can be painted with stylized birds, while other clay bells are usually banded. Even rarer are inscriptions, the only early examples being the bells from Sparta and the Kabeirion.

165 The exact provenance of the bells from Pherai is not altogether clear (they supposedly came to the Athenian National Museum as part of a larger gift of objects from Velestino/Pherai: cf. PAE I890, 89-90o), but it is at least a possibility that they come from the sanctuary of Artemis Enodia (and Zeus Thaulios) in which rich Geometric bronze finds were made. On the site, its finds and the history of the excavations, see Kilian (n. 30).

"66 There is ample evidence for early bronze-working on Samos, including in or around the Heraion. See H. Kyrieleis, 'Samos and some aspects of Archaic Greek bronze working', in Small Bronze Sculpture from the Ancient World (Malibu, 1990), 15-29, esp. 23. For Near Eastern type horse

harnessing adapted by local bronze workers, see H. Kyrieleis, AM 103, 37-61.


Fifth, looking at the sanctuary finds, no particular pattern emerges. The bells for the Theban Kabeiroi (inscribed bronze bell plus terracotta bells) and for Artemis (?) at Lakonian Aigiai (bronze and terracotta bells) are clearly votive dedications, as are probably the terracotta bells for Helen and Menelaos at the Spartan Menelaion and for Demeter (?) at Boiotian Eutresis. Among the rest, we find that three Hera sanctuaries have yielded bells (Samos, Argos, Perachora) as well as two or three Athena sanctuaries (Sparta, Idalion, perhaps Delphi) and at least one sanctuary of Aphrodite (Miletos), hence it seems that in general female deities are predominant, but we also find bells, e.g., in sanctuaries of Apollo (at Longa/Messenia and Kato Phana/Chios). Not all bells discovered in sanctuaries were, of course, necessarily votive offerings; some may have been attached to equipment such as horse-harnesses (Samos) or jewellery. Otherwise, bells, notably clay bells, are sometimes found in graves, and only very rarely in domestic contexts. Their precise function is in no case indicated by contextual evidence.

III. SPARTAN BELLS AND THE FUNCTION OF BELLS IN ANCIENT GREECE

To glean the function of the Spartan bells, and of Greek bells in general, from the archaeological evidence alone is difficult; it has emerged that, in certain regions and at certain times, they were used in sanctuaries, burials, and domestic contexts. But what exactly was their function within these contexts? Bells appear to have come to Greece from the Near East, where their use as a signal instrument for animals, notably horses, is well attested, in addition to occasional magical or apotropaic uses that are more difficult to grasp. In ancient Greece, the situation appears to be somewhat different and certainly complex, but there is evidence available to shed light on the usage of bells. This section will briefly review the information that can be obtained from the Spartan bells themselves and from their context as votive offerings on the Spartan acropolis, and then explore the functions of ancient Greek and Spartan bells in the light of evidence provided by literary sources.

BELLS AS VOTIVE OFFERINGS TO SPARTAN ATHENA

The Spartan bells form part of the reasonably large corpus of votive offerings given to Athena in her sanctuary on the Spartan acropolis. As votive offerings, they are thus part of a complex social and religious framework. Their dedication could have been determined by factors as diverse as the status and gender of the dedicant, the occasion and purpose of the dedication, and the original use of the object. Only a detailed study of all the finds could fully exploit the excavated material's potential. In the interim, some general observations can be made that shed some light on the votive behaviour of those worshipping Spartan Athena.

Many of Athena's votives belong to the realm of (male) military victory (dedications of weapons and miniature weapons) and of (male) success in athletic and equestrian contests (dedication of two halters, Panathenaic Prize-amphorae, the Damonon stele). Representations of the deity herself, of sacrificial animals (bulls) and of votaries are related to the cult itself, while items such as a mirror or jewellery belong to the (female) dedicant's personal sphere. There are both objects that originally had a real, 'secular' use (mirrors, pins, jewellery, loomweights, Prize- amphorae), and objects specially produced for dedication (figurines, miniatures), and there are both objects that were dedicated following particular significant events such as athletic and equestrian games, and ones probably dedicated at less specific times (lead figurines).'67 Stephen

'67 The most popular lead figurine types from the sanctuary are warriors and women, followed by wreaths,

representations of Athena and winged female figures. See most recently Boss (n. i6i), esp. 151-


Hodkinson's recent analysis of Spartan bronze votives'68 has detected a particularly high ratio of objects in Athena's sanctuary that were produced specifically for dedication (partly explained by a general trend towards such 'converted' offerings in the Classical period), a relatively large number of votives linked to 'public' events, and a proportionally higher number of inscribed votives, compared to other Spartan sanctuaries.

This more 'public' face, as well as the focus on military and athletic issues, is not too surprising. As in many other Greek cities, the goddess Athena was venerated as the central polis deity of Sparta and had an eminently political role. Her local epithet, in addition to Chalkioikos ('of the bronze house'), was Poliachos, upholder of the city, attested in the fifth- century Damonon inscription.'69 This inscription also mentions a festival called 'Athanaia' which featured chariot-, horse-, and stadium-races, and was probably a local Spartan festival. Another festival is attested at least for the latter part of the third century by Polybios (iv. 35. 2-5), who reports that 'at a certain sacrifice of ancient institution the citizens of military age had to form a procession in arms and march to the temple of Athena Chalkioikos, while the ephors remained in the sanctuary to perform the sacrificial rites'. Possibly the warlike- sounding festival Promacheia also belonged to Athena's cult.'70 Official records as well as public dedications (cf. e.g. Paus. iii. 17. 4) were also set up here. Athena's Spartan cult was thus characterized by the involvement of high polis officials and by celebrations of military and athletic character.'7'

Possible usage of the Spartan bells How do the bells fit into this picture? Bronze being a material of significant intrinsic value, the dedication of a bronze bell involved considerable expense and was thus suitable if a display of wealth in a sanctuary of central public significance was desired on the part of the Spartan dedicant. Interestingly, this dedicant in two cases is female and in one case male (the fourth bronze object from the acropolis naming the dedicant is a mirror, the offering of a woman),'72 suggesting that the bell's significance was not gender-specific. But what exactly was this significance? Did the bells ever have a 'real' function for the dedicants, in their daily life, in the public life of the city, or in the context of ritual, before being dedicated?

For the most part, Spartan bronze bells are clearly functional. Like other ancient Greek bells, almost all have (or had) a clapper and thus do not belong to the kind of bells that were struck from the outside with a mallet or hammer,'73 a practice particularly suitable if bells are to be used as musical instruments; the Spartan bells are thus rather unlikely to have been used to produce precise melodious music. Like other ancient Greek bells, they also apparently did not have long, stick-like handles,174 which would have been particularly useful if the bell was to be rung by hand. However, with their arched and looped handles, Spartan and other Greek

i68 S. Hodkinson, Property and Wealth in Classical Sparta (London, 2000), 27I-302.

'69 '69Jeffery 1990 (n. 18), 196-7, 201 no. 52, pl. 38. 170 On the Promacheia, see R. Parker, 'Spartan Religion',

in A. Powell (ed.), Classical Sparta: Techniques Behind Her Success (London, 1989), 142-72, esp. 145-6.

'71 On the cult of Athena at Sparta, see above, n. 6. ',7 This ratio of 3 : I seems unusual for a major polis

sanctuary, but fits in well with the attested greater control over property by Spartan women: see E. Millender, 'Athenian ideology and the empowered Spartan woman', in S.

Hodkinson and A. Powell (eds), Sparta: New Perspectives (London, 1999), 355-91, esp. 370-I. See also L. Thommen, 'Spartanische Frauen', Mus. Helv. 56 (1999), 129-49, esp. 143-6. On Spartan women, see now also S. B. Pomeroy, Spartan Women (Oxford, 2002).

'73 This technique, giving better control over the sound produced by the bell, is attested early on in China (e.g. Lehr (n. 44), 16-7) and we also find it, for example, in the Middle Ages (ibid., 75-80).

174 Cf. e.g. Tibetan priests' bells (Lehr (n. 44), 7 fig. io), and Anglo-Saxon handbells (ibid., io) or town-criers' bells.


bells could easily be held in the hand (and there are Classical representations that show them used like this),'75 but they could also be hung, and one of the Spartan bells (Br x) in fact preserves an iron chain element. Thus, suspension is attested, and hand-held ringing is a definite possibility.

That they were hung somewhere entirely stationary, to be moved only by the wind, is another possibility; the small bells suspended from the roof of temples in Eastern Asia, Tibet, Mongolia or Burma, however, usually have a metal plate attached to the clapper to be caught by the wind, and there is no indication that this was the case for the Spartan or other Greek bells.'76

Why feet? Yet-if they were hung, what was the practical function of the feet that characterize many of the Spartan bells, including the one with the iron chain? The only possible purpose for attaching feet to a bell would seem to be that the clapper should not get in the way if the bell is placed on a flat surface;'77 also the tone would not be cut off instantly. That feet did not necessarily prevent a bell from being suspended-at least in the Roman period-is indicated, however, by a number of examples of the characteristic Roman type of square-based bell with a small rounded foot in each corner, which are frequently attested suspended'78 or at least with chains attached.179 So, unless we assume that the feet are merely 'decorative', or that they are nothing more than visible remnants of the casting process (unlikely, given the shape of many of them), it looks like the Spartan bells were intended to-or at least could-be hung as well as placed on a surface, leaving open a wide scope for possible uses.

Not all bells were, of course, necessarily actually used as such. The terracotta bells were probably produced specifically for dedication, as substitutes for bronze bells. But also the fact that some bronze bells were very sloppily produced and appear hardly functional may suggest production specifically for dedication. Still, ultimately, there must be some functionality involved. As is attested by ancient sources, bells did fulfil a range of functions across ancient Greece.I8o The evidence is disparate both as regards time and place, but nevertheless crucially sheds light on the practice of using and dedicating bells in Classical Greece.

FUNCTIONS OF BELLS IN ANTIQUITY

From the Classical period onwards, literary sources commonly use the word K()6wov to refer to the bell. From the contexts we can infer that what is meant is indeed the kind of open-

'75 See below, n. 238. Note also later representations of bells of this kind being held in the hand: cf. e.g. an Irish stone sculpture of a monk, 9th c. AD (Schlichting (n. 24), ii), or a monk holding a bell on a string or chain on a woodcut of 1568 (ibid., 22).

176 Schlichting (n. 24), 101, 107; Price, Bells and Man, 54-5. '77 As suggested by Galliazzo (n. 28), I58. '78 e.g. Spear, Treasury, 8o figs. 219-20; P. Wolters, B. Jb.

II8 (1909), 267-8. A. Dierichs, 'Klingendes Kleinod: Ein unbekanntes Tintinnabulum in Danemark', Antike Welt, 30 (999), 145-9, gives a list of phallic tintinnabula: p. 149 n. 13. Cf. also S. De Caro, 1 Gabinetto Segreto del Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli (Naples, 2000), 70-2. Note also a bust of Mercury with six round-based bells and one square-based

one with knobbly feet: Spear, Treasury, i86 fig. 231. 179 See e.g. Nowakowski, 'Import' (n. 74), 112 pl. 5; id., 'Z

badari nad dzwonkami rzymskimi znajdowanymi nad wschodnim Baltykiem. Brgzowe tintinnabulum z Malborka', Archaeologia. Rocznik Instytutu historii kultury materialnej Polskiej akademii nauk, 37 (1986), 107-29, esp. 112 pl. 2.

18o Evidence for the ancient use of bells had been assembled already by Morillot, Etude, corrected and supplemented by Pease, 'Bells'; Cook, 'Gong', discusses the uses and meaning of bells particularly in relation to cult. For a recent comprehensive summary, see Trumpf-Lyritzaki, 'Glocke'; a collection of the evidence is also provided by M. Schatkin, 'Idiophones of the Ancient World', Jahrbuchf jr Antike und Christentum, 21 (1978), 147-72.


mouthed bell that is discussed in this article, rather than some other kind of sound- producing instrument such as a rattle.'8' Among the earliest sources to mention the bell is the fifth-century physical theory of Empedokles,'82 which describes how we perceive sounds within the ear, 'for the organ of hearing, which he terms the fleshy bone, is a sort of bell

[KJc5owv] which reproduces echoes that resemble the sounds outside. The air, when it is set moving, beats against the solid parts and thus causes the ringing sound' (tr. Long). The meaning of the word Kc68ov has been debated, but a further comment by Aetius, who describes 'the gristly part' as 'swinging when it is struck' confirms that 'bell' is indeed the right translation, rather than 'trumpet' or even 'rattle'.'83 The bell, K68ov, is thus characterized as an instrument producing a sonorous reverberating sound, a sound that is the basis for the fundamental function of the ancient-like the modern-bell as a signalling instrument. 84

Guarding the Greek city: bell-ringing as signal Bells were used in ancient Greek and Roman cities as signal instruments to attract attention in a variety of contexts. According to sources dating to the Roman period, bells were rung to announce the opening of markets and baths, or the spraying of streets with water,'85 and they may also have been used in the gymnasium.'86 In a private environment, bells awakened and summoned slaves.'87 In ancient Greece, no such uses are attested, although the bell was clearly well known as a means of attracting attention by the time of Demosthenes (25- 90).,88

Instead, the Greek bell is attested particularly as a signal instrument carried by guards. Around the late fifth and early fourth century, the Athenian comedy-writers Nikophon and Aristophanes as well as the historian Thucydides mention bells in such a context. Aristophanes describes the city of birds being guarded by birds doing rounds while carrying bells: KWoi8vopopv TEcpL'pEFX; K038ovoCpopELO aL (Av. 842; 116o). Thucydides (4. 135) attests to this custom also at Potideia during the Peloponnesian war: here, Brasidas attempts to take Potideia by making use of a lull in the guards' attention: 'the ladder was placed at a point which the guard who was passing on the bell had just left, and before he had returned to his post'. This seems to suggest that bells were passed on from one guard to another, but other, especially later, sources suggest that the bells were actually carried by inspectors to test whether guards were asleep, or awake enough to answer. This is, e.g., the explanation given by

'8' On the word K68wov and its attestations, see LSJ, s.v. 182 Fr. 99 DK (145 Wright): see DK 31 A 86.9 (1.302.11); A

86.21 (1.304-37 = Theophr., de sensibus 9, 21). 183 DK A 93. Cf. A. A. Long, 'Thinking and sense-

perception in Empedokles: mysticism or materialism?', CQ n.s. 16, 1966, 256-76, esp. 265; M. R. Wright, Empedokles: The Extant Fragments (New Haven and London, 1981), 296 on no. 145 (99). Also those sources that mention bells carried by guards as signal instruments (see below) imply that K8wO)v refers to a proper bell, the sound of which travels some distance, yet which is easy to carry around.

184 Lehr (n. 12), 1421, lists as the basic functions of bells across all times and regions: conjuring and chasing away bad or attracting good spirits; ritual function, accompanying ceremonies; functional, to signal events; and musical.

,85 Markets: Strabo 14. 21; Plut. Quaest. conv. 4. 4 (668 A);

Baths: Mart. 14. 163 (tintinnabulum/aes thermarum), cf. Cic. Orat. ii. 5. 21 (discus in gymnasium), Fronto, ad M. Caes. 4. 6

(discus); cf. also Pease, 'Bells', 35. Spraying of streets: Sext.

Emp. Math. 8. 193; cf. Pease, ibid., 55-6. '86 A bell is depicted among other gymnasium implements

on grave stelai of gymnasiarchs from Bursa/Bithynia and Chalkedon, dated to the Ist c. AD: E. Pfuhl and H. M6bius, Die ostgriechischen Grabreliefs, ii (Mainz, 1979), 548-9 nos. 2273-5, pl. 321.

187 Lucian, Merc. cond. 24. 31; Sen., Brev. vit. 12. 5; Sen. Ira iii. 35- 3; cf. Pease, 'Bells', 32-4. Use as a doorbell seems not to be attested: ibid.

'88 As can be gathered when Demosthenes says about Aristogeiton: 'What every other citizen does with as little noise as possible, he performs, one might almost say, with a

peal of bells hung about his neck [KtMC vavcag alVp'LSvog]' (tr.J. H. Vince, Loeb edn.).


the Byzantine lexicographer Photius for Nikophon's use of the word 'KW8ovoqiopCov: 'Going the rounds and seeing if the sentries are awake. The officers who did so had bells and rang them, so that the sentries might reply'.'89 Plutarch's account of Aratos' attempt to climb the walls of Sikyon mentions that 'the officer who was to set the morning-watch began making his round with a bell, and there were many lights and the noise of the sentries coming up', which might suggest that a guard rang the bell in order to summon the night-watch at the end of the night.'90 Perhaps there were different systems, contemporary or subsequent.'9' At any rate, a custom of bells being carried and rung by town guards as a signal clearly was current in at least some Classical Greek cities.

There is no reason to suspect that such a custom might not also have existed in Sparta. The city-guarding aspect of bells would fit in rather well with Sparta-the 'armed camp on constant military alert'"92--as well as with city-protecting Athena, to whom, as the main polis deity, bells could have been dedicated by retiring guards. But such a theory would be at pains to explain the varying sizes and qualities of the Spartan bells, or the fact that two of the Spartan dedicants were women. One would have to think of a more general connotation of the bell as an instrument symbolising city-protection in order to reconcile the evidence with such an interpretation. What is more, the presence of bells in other sanctuaries or-as attested in other regions-in graves is still not easily accounted for, and other possible explanations should be considered.

Bells in battle: a Greek custom? Another use of bells seemingly indicated by Classical sources is that of bells hung from armour or from horses' harnesses during battle. It has been mentioned earlier that bells were often part of horses' harnesses in the ancient Near East, and a similar use seems to be referred to by fifth-century writers of tragedy. This might at first glance fit in better with the Spartan evidence, since it could account for the variety of sizes, and also-in analogy to miniature armour-for the existence of imitations merely for the purpose of dedication. However, the evidence is not straightforward:

Aischylos and [Ps.-]Euripides describe both Tydeus and Rhesos as carrying shields with bells attached (Sept. 385-6: 'while from beneath his shield within bronze-wrought bells peal forth a fearsome clang [C1CaKT'kCcoL Kd11OVuL KC-~KwEg OVC 6Pov]';'93 [Ps.-]Eur. Rhes. 383-4: 'Heard ye the bells clash proud defiance [K6noutog KbwOovoKpdtoVg], as their tongues from his buckler-handles tolled?'), and Rhesos' horse as wearing a gorgon-mask with many bells on its forehead ([Ps.-]Eur. Rhes. 3o6-8: 'A bronze Gorgon, as on Pallas' shield, upon the frontlet of his horses bound, clanging with many a bell clashed forth dismay [oiyv KW&6'ooXLv KTUJEL po6pov]'.94 The bell's sound was thus intended to arouse fear, qcp63og, in the enemies. Even

189 Nicophon fr. 27 Kassel-Austin. 19o Cf. the commentary by B. Perrin, Plutarch's Lives, xi

(Loeb edn.), ad loc. '9' For a discussion of the possibly different systems and for

further ancient sources, see S. Hornblower, A Commentary on Thucydides, ii: Books IV-V 24 (Oxford, 1996), p. 418 ad loc.; Trumpf-Lyritzaki, 'Glocke', 168-9; Pease, 'Bells', 43. For the continued use of the bell as a signal of guards, see Trumpf- Lyritzaki, ibid., 181-2.

192 P Cartledge, in Cavanagh and Walker (n. 162), 41.

193 Tr. H. Weir Smith (Loeb edn.) 194 Tr. A. S. Way (Loeb edn.). There is, of course, the

question of whether the words used by the authors always necessarily refer to actual bells, or rather to the clanging sound of bronze, for which the bell is merely a metaphor. Such an interpretation cannot be excluded entirely for composite terms such as Ko18v6Kpotog and

KwwovoqpaXapon5~houg, although in those cases where the word

KO6o8v appears on its own it seems likely that it is indeed a 'bell' that is referred to.


though one may wonder how jingling bells could have that effect,'95 similar uses of bells are attested elsewhere: in ninth-century AD Nubia, Muslims in a battle against Sudanese Nomads transferred all camel bells to their horses and used drums and trumpets for added noise. As a result, 'the sound of the bells filled the air with so confusing a noise that the Sudan felt as if the sky had collapsed overhead', and the battle was won. In addition, one might mention the Britons, who are said to have used short spears decorated with bells (Cass. Dio 36. 2), and in the African Congo, a custom is reported of men ringing bells to precede warriors in order to encourage them and to frighten the enemy.'96

Modern scholars have often regarded these sources as attesting a Classical Greek practice of attaching bells to armour and harnesses.'97 However, this is not supported by ancient archaeological or pictorial evidence, in spite c "much extant armour and representations of armour of this period.'98 The few attempts that have been made at identifying bells on shields, for example, are less than convincing: one relates to representations of supposed shields surrounded by crotals on a Roman relief, but this identification is rather unlikely (if anything, the objects might be tympana).'99 The other200 cities a kind of bronze shield of around 40 cm diameter, from the Bactrian site of Begram, which is unlikely to predate the end of the Hellenistic period.20' It is decorated with a central gorgoneion and surrounded by fish with separately attached moving fins and tails and other figures with movable limbs; these are counterbalanced at the shield's back with small dangling weights, all of which would have made a rattling sound when moved. However, not only is it doubtful if this is to be considered a shield at all, or rather a cultic instrument,202 but this is also a singular object far removed in time and space from Classical Greece.

Even the extant Classical sources may not actually attest a contemporary Greek practice at all: on closer examination, their context seems to suggest that clanging bells on armour were perceived to be an Eastern, barbarian custom, unworthy of Greeks: Rhesos is a Thracian king,

195 Cf. Pease, 'Bells', 4I: 'That little bells like these should have been used with any intention of terrifying the enemy is almost preposterous'. Note, however, that the custom of testing to see whether horses were frightened of bells suggests that bells could indeed disturb animals: Hesych. s.v.

Ko10s)voqpopdv; Etym. Magn. p. 267 s.v. 8LatKoc1CVLO8k oVg; cf. also Schol. Ar. Ran. 78; Schol. Ar. Lys. 485; Etym. Magn. 325. 21; cf. also Pease, 'Bells', 56.

196 The Nubian battle is reported by the mediaeval historian al Taghribirdi, cited after G. Vantini, Oriental Sources Concerning Nubia (Heidelberg and Warsaw, 1975), 730; see also D. Welsby, The Medieval Kingdoms of Nubia (London, 2002), 81. For war in the Congo, see Schlichting (n. 24), 0o8-9

'97 e.g. Simon, 'Ionia', 293; G. Herzog-Hauser, RE 2nd ser. vi. 2 (1937), 1408; Villing (n. 6), 96.

198 Cook, 'Gong', 18, cites several vases that represent Pegasos wearing a necklace of bells or bullae. These are, in fact, part of a larger group of Etruscan representations of horses and related creatures (winged horses and hippocamps) adorned with a kind of 'necklace' with rounded objects attached (see J. D. Beazley, Etruscan Vase- Painting (Oxford, 1947), pls. 3. I, 5. 2, 6. 5, 7. I, 2; N. Spivey, The Micali Painter and his Followers (Oxford, 1987), pls. 2 a, 7 b, 15 c, 17 b, 19 b; N. Yalouris, Pegasus: The Art of

the Legend (1975), figs. 56, 58), These are often identified as bullae (e.g. Yalouris, but see also Beazley, p. 49), the amulet cases worn by Etruscan and Roman children (see below, n. 276). In some cases these objects look more like bells with clappers, but an interpretation as bells seems on the whole less likely.

199 Morillot, Etude, 30. 200 C. Picard, RA i8 (1941), 278 n. i. 2o' J. Hackin, Recherches archiologiques ac Begram (M6moires de

la D616gation Archbologique Frangaise en Afghanistan, xi; Paris, 1939), 46-7 no. 216, figs. 47-52. For the dating of the finds from Begram, see J. Boardman, The Diffusion of Classical Art in Antiquity (Princeton, 1994), 121.

20o2 Geometric Etruscan bronze shields with stamped relief decoration also sometimes feature cast bronze pendants attached to the back, possibly with the intention to produce 'noise or melodious sounds'; however, they, too, were

probably not used in battle but for parades, or, more likely, in a funerary or votive context: see I. Strom, Problems Concerning the Origin and Early Development of the Etruscan Orientalizing Style (Odense, 1971), 19-20, figs. 2, 7. Cf. also the supposed Parthian custom of using a tympanon with bells instead of the salpinx -below, n. 216.


and Aiolian Tydeus, too, was considered to be rather wild and 'barbaric'.203 When Sophokles (fr. 859 Lloyd-Jones) describes the custom as characteristic of the Trojans ('Lovers of horses and drawers of bows, and wrestlers with shield with jingling bells [Kw&oVOKp6tt]]'),204 it is obviously Eastern, and when the fictitious Euripides in Aristophanes' Frogs denies ever having scared the audience (as, by implication, Aischylos was supposed to have done) by staging the horses of the Trojan allies Kyknos and Memnon harnessed with bells (Kco0covoqpchXupond)1.oug: 'with bells at the cheekpieces'), this may just be a criticism of the word but perhaps also of the barbarian custom.205

The Greeks may, in fact, have encountered bells in battle during the Persian wars, since we know from the Apadana reliefs in Persepolis that bells could adorn Persian horses (FIG. 43).2o06 So the jingle-jangle of bells could well have been judged to be an over-the-top Eastern custom, one that might be perceived as both scary and unworthy of a true Greek who relied on the spear rather than the bell-a sentiment that is expressed when Aischylos has Eteokles tell the messenger that he is not impressed: 'crest and bell [KdIW8ov] don't kill without the spear'.

Of course, this could just be an Athenian attitude: one could imagine a scenario in which bells were introduced into Spartan horsemanship via the Persian horses and camels listed by Herodotos (ix. 81) as among the spoils of Plataia;207 and we may also note Pausanias' report that especially after the Persian Wars the Lacedaimonians became the most ambitious of all Greeks in the breeding of horses. Bells could then have found their way into Athena's sanctuary as an implement relating to equestrian events, just as halters relate to athletic games, equestrian competition being a well-attested feature of Spartan life.208 Dedications by women would perhaps not be out of place in this context: Spartan king Agesilaos' sister Kyniska, supposedly the first female Olympic chariot victor (in the early fourth century?), was followed by others.209 But the link with Persia is not unproblematic: not only is it a purely hypothetical construction which would require the Spartan bells not to pre-date Plataia and

203 Cf. Trumpf-Lyritzaki, 'Glocke', 170; Price, Bells and Man, 74; G. O. Hutchinson, Aeschylus: Septem contra Thebas (Oxford, 1985), io9 ad. loc. See esp. Aesch. Sept. 463.

204 Tr. H. Lloyd-Jones, Sophocles: Fragments (Loeb edn., 1996), ad loc. On Sophokles' Trojans being particularly persianized, see H. Bacon, Barbarians in Greek Tragedy (New Haven, 1961), 101-4.

205 Some scholars (e.g. G. Herzog-Hauser, in RE 2nd ser. vi. 2 (I937), 1408), probably correctly, see in this reference mainly a mocking of Aischylos' pompous word-creations. A 'foreign' context is not explicitly indicated in Pollux's note that Aischylos termed horses' head-bands a3Auwroi cptooi because of the attached bells, but equally cannot be excluded: Poll. 10.56 = Aesch. fr. 465 Radt. The mention of KiecYov in Aristophanes' Peace (1o78), if not a mistake, is of no further consequence.

2o6 At Persepolis, bells adorn the horses led by Medes, but also those of several other peoples, including e.g. Scythians, Armenians, and Cappadocians; in addition, we find them on Bactrian, Parthian, and Aryan camels (cf. e.g. Anderson (n. 147) pl. 8 b; Spear, Treasury, 60-7, with figs. 34-5, 37). The bells are all of a simple high dome-shaped form. For a horse with a bell on an Achaemenid seal of the 'Court Style', cf. J.

Boardman, 'Pyramidal stamp seals in the Persian Empire', Iran, 8 (1970), 36, 44 no. 169, pl. 7. 169. Rhyta of the Achaemenid period, too, sometimes represent horses with bells; cf. an example in Yerevan, probably locally produced: J. Santrot (ed.), Arminie: trisors de l'Armenie ancienne (Paris and Nantes, 1996), 176, 197 no. 181. Cf. also a late-4th-c. rhyton, probably Thracian, in Prague (B. Svoboda and D. Conciev, Neue Denkmiiler antiker Toreutik (Prague, 1956), pls. 1-4, and the rhyta being manufactured in the Petosiris-tomb mural of around 3o0: Boardman (n. 201), 170 fig. 5. 17 b.

207 Note also that camels, which might have been equipped with bells, were captured by Agesilaos II at Sardis in 396 and brought to Sparta (Xen. Hell. iii. 4. 24)-

2o8 Cf. Hodkinson, (n. I68), 303-3- 209 Paus. v. 12. 5; vi. I. I; iii. 15. I. Cf. Pomeroy (n. 172),

19-24; S. Hodkinson, 'Inheritance, marriage and demography: perspectives upon the success and decline of Classical Sparta', in Powell (n. 170), 79-121, esp. 97-9. On Spartan athleticism and horsemanship, see also A. Powell, 'Sixth-century Lakonian vase-painting: Continuities and discontinuities with the 'Lykourgan' ethos', in: N. Fisher and H. van Wees (eds), Archaic Greece; New Approaches and New Evidence (London, 1998), 119-46, esp 138-42.


which relies on the idea that the Spartans adopted a defeated enemy's custom,2)0 but also the existence of non-functional terracotta bells fits awkwardly into such a picture.

More plausible, perhaps, would be a scenario in which bells became part of horses' harnesses in ancient Sparta through the influence of Samos.2" As on Samos, horses had been a feature of Spartan life already from early on in the Archaic period; this is attested by numerous bronze figurines which-similar to their Samian counterparts-were probably closely linked to an Archaic aristocratic value system. Yet such an explanation not only would find it difficult to account for the presence of bells outside Sparta in contexts such as children's graves, but there is also a serious dearth of supporting evidence: Although Archaic Cypriot terracottas furnish us with early examples of bells worn by horses (as well as, apparently, bulls),"'2 and as has been mentioned earlier, horse-bells are also attested in Cyprus around 700, probably linked to Near Eastern (Assyrian) influence,2'3 there are no attestations of horse-bells preserved from Greece itself. And in Sparta, although horse-figurines were dedicated to Artemis Orthia, not a single bell appears to have been found there; conversely, Athena's sanctuary is lacking in horse-figurines. The link between horses and bells at Sparta is thus, at least on present evidence, a rather tenuous one.

To summarise: the uses for bells attested by Classical Greek (Athenian) sources-signal instruments in guarding the city and frightening adornment of armour or horse harnesses in battle-have proved to be deficient in fully explaining the phenomenon of Spartan and other Greek bells. They have, however, brought out which essential qualities appear to have been attributed to bells in ancient Greece: first, a function as signal, and secondly a protective and/or fear-arousing aspect. This latter aspect raises the possibility of a special connection, on a more abstract level, between bells and Athena as goddess or war and crafts.

Athena and bronze Ancient sources have suggested that the sound of bells, the sound of bronze, could be perceived as closely linked to the sound of battle: the clanging of bronze, embodying the power of weapons, could induce fear and could be aimed at chasing away enemies: 'The sound of bronze against bronze, the 'phone' which reveals its true nature as living, animated metal, wards off the witchcraft of the enemy'.214

As goddess of war, Athena was more than familiar with the sound of clashing bronze during battle. In fact, her own voice is piercing like the sound of bronze, ogtq9o)vog. Pindar (01. 7. 35-8) describes her cry as a penetrating clamour. Other ancient authors compare her voice, notably her battle cry, to the piercing sound of the trumpet, the oibLuy1, which was used as a signalling instrument in war, and which appears to have been particularly closely associated with Athena in Argos.15 Interestingly, when Sophokles in his Ajax (1. 17) likens the voice of

2,o But note the attested adoption of a number of Persian/ Eastern habits in Athens: M. Miller, Athens and Persia in the Fifth Century BC: A Study of Cultural Receptivity (Cambridge, '997).

21" An Athena Hippia is actually attested at Athens and Corinth: cf. N. Yalouris, 'Athena als Herrin der Pferde', Mus. Helv. 7 (1950), I9-I0o. Cf. also Brize's suggestion of a Hera Hippia at Samos: above, n. 16o.

212 Karageorghis (n. 21), 25-6, fig. 26 (horse); 30 no.J 5, pl. 17. The bell-shaped ornaments sometimes worn lower down on horses' chests (id. (n. 46), 153 no. 244; cf. also representations on sarcophagi: ibid., 201-6 nos. 330-1) are more likely tassels of the

kind worn by Assyrian horses. The harnessing of Cypriot horses is generally quite close to that of their Assyrian cousins.

213 On the Cypriot bells, see above, n. 125, on Assyrian and Persian horse bells, nn. 146-9. Note also the biblical reference to horse-bells: Zech. 14. 20.

214 214J. P. Vernant, Myth and Thought among the Greeks (London, 1983), 13-

215 On Athena Salpinx and Athena's brazen voice and character, see esp. A. Serghidou, 'Athena Salpinx and the ethics of music', in S. Deacy and A. Villing (eds), Athena in the Classical World (Leiden, 2001), 57-74.


Athena to the trumpet's sound, the word he uses is Kw6ov, bell-bronze bell- (. . .XaKoor6rtou Kcwovog dg TvpolvKY1ig), since the flaring front part of the trumpet was also called K&8oV.216 Similar to the bells attached to Rhesos' armour, the voice of Athena is thus a striking, fear-inspiring sound. In a sense, they are equivalent.2I7

In addition, Athena's epithet in Sparta was 'Chalkioikos'-of the bronze house. This epithet is explained by Pausanias by the fact that Athena's temple on the Spartan acropolis had a revetment of partly decorated bronze sheets. That there was more to it than this has been argued both by Luigi Piccirilli and Soteroula Constantinidou.28 They take into account the fact that Pausanias also reports a sanctuary of Athena Ergane on the Spartan acropolis, link this with what we know of Athena Ergane's cult as patron of bronze-workers at Athens (notably the Chalkeia festival), and suggests that at Sparta, too, Athena could have been a patron of bronze-working, in particular of the forging of weapons, and bronze offerings may have played a particular role in her cult.

Against such a background, bells could have served as votive offerings on account of their brazen sound, which could have been perceived as standing for Athena herself, for Athena as a patroness of the Spartan state at war, and for Athena as a patroness of the Spartan bronze- worker, crucial to the city's supply of armour. They could also have fulfilled an actual function within ritual associated with battle.2 The idea is an attractive one, especially since it successfully combines central traits of Athena's character as well as of the Spartan state.

However, there are also problems associated with these explanations. To begin with, only looking at Sparta itself, one would suspect a role of Athena as patroness of bronze-workers to be a less prominent, possibly early and, in the Classical period, fading aspect of the goddess: Her epithet 'Chalkioikos' is sufficiently explained by her temple's appearance, while the more prominent Athena 'Poliachos', with her highly public, official role as city patroness-cum- protectress, is unlikely to have been honoured preferably as a patroness of craftsmen-if, in fact, Spartan austerity of the Classical period at all tolerated much of a cult related to craftsmanship in the very heart of the Spartan polis.22o

Similarly, explaining the role of bells as votive offerings merely by their ability to reproduce the sound of battle may be stretching the point somewhat; more effective instruments than tinkling bells should perhaps be imagined in this context, such as, for example, the salpinx. Both an assumed link with craftsmanship and a connection with warfare, moreover, suffer

216 Poll. vi. IIo; x. 56; Schol. ad Hom. 11. 18. 219. We may also note that according to the Suda (01164), the 'Indians' (i.e., the Parthians) used a tympanon made of hollowed-out wood and oxhide fitted with bronze bells instead of the salpinx, suggesting that the sound of bells could be seen as equivalent to the sound of the salpinx; cf. T.J. Mathiesen, Apollo's Lyre (Lincoln and London, 1999), 174.

217 Note also that there is one further instance in which Athena is explicitly associated with noisy bronze instruments: according to legend, Athena gave bronze clappers (XaAXKEla KpdraAa), obtained from Hephaistos, to Herakles in order to help him to drive Stymphalian birds from their cover (Pisander fr. 4 Bern = 5 D., Pherec. FGrH 3 F 72, Hellanicus, FGrH 4 F 1o4, Apoll. Rhod. Argon. ii. 1055; Apollod. ii. 5. 6; cf. Diod. 4. 13).

21a S. Constantinidou, 'The importance of bronze in early Greek religion', Dodone, 21 (1992), 137-64, esp. 153-9; L.

Piccirilli, 'Il santuario, la funzione guerriera della dea, la regalitk: il caso di Atena Chalkioios', in M. Sordi (ed.), I santuari e la guerra nel mondo classico (Milan, 1984), 3-19.

219 We may note that, together with Zeus and perhaps the Dioskouroi, Athena is one of the deities to whom is addressed one of the 6taflarqjpta, sacrifices performed at the frontier by the kings which determined whether a military expedition would take place: Xen., Lak. pol. 13. 3-4, 15. 2; cf. also W. K. Pritchett, The Greek State at War, iii: Religion (Berkeley, 1979), 67-71. On Spartan war-music and attitudes to war and music, see e.g. R. F6rtsch, Kunstverwendung und Kunstlegitimation im archaischen und friihklassischen Sparta (Mainz, 2001), 74-5; W. K. Pritchett, The Greek State at War, i (Berkeley, 1971), o06-7.

220 On the difficult question of Spartan attitudes to manual arts and crafts, see most recently Cartledge (n. 7), 182.


from a failure sufficiently to explain the involvement of women as dedicants: Spartan women may in many ways have led more active lives than women elsewhere, but, as far as we know, they were not involved in the armed protection of the city. It therefore seems worthwhile to explore further possible uses of the bell in antiquity that might shed light on its usage in Sparta.

Bells in cult and ritual: sacrificial animals? For those bells-like the Spartan-that were found in Greek sanctuaries, scholars have always considered a cultic use quite likely."' Evans had suggested that Minoan terracotta bells used to hang from trees in sanctuaries, but there is no secure evidence for such a use.222 Nonetheless, a use in some unspecified ritual is always a possibility-similar, for example, to the ringing of bells in a Christian church at sacred moments,223 or the custom of ringing a bell to attract the god's attention in Far Eastern temples224-but again this has to remain speculation.225

The favourite possibility with modern scholars is that bells were worn by sacrificial

animals."6 Here, the modern concept of the cow or sheep bell clearly plays a role; however, flocks and herds of animals are not attested to have been equipped with bells before Roman or even early Christian times.227 Earlier, there are representations that show animals wearing bells, but these seem to be more unusual instances confined to special occasions, mostly from the fringes of the Greek world, and not related to sacrifices. We have already noted that bells were worn by horses in the ancient Near East, in Archaic Cyprus, and in Egypt. Later Egyptian art and finds in Nubia attest bells for donkeys.28 Other larger animals also wore bells, such as elephants-(for example on coins"9 or on a terracotta figurine from Myrina230) or camels (from around 700 on Assyrian reliefs, on the Persian Apadana reliefs, on a Hellenistic relief from the Troad depicting Psyche on a dromedary, and in Graeco-Egyptian

221 Cf. e.g. Trumpf-Lyritzaki, 'Glocke', 175. 222 See above, n. 44. Morillot, Etude (n. 2), 54-5 and others

cite representations of bells suspended from branches of trees in cult scenes, especially in connection with Kybele and Attis (cf., e.g. DA i s.v. 'arbores sacrae', 359-60, figs. 444, 447; cf. also Cook, 'Gong', 16), but these are more likely to be pairs of cymbals rather than bells (see Pease, 'Bells', 52-3). In some Roman temples bells may have been suspended, but this seems to have been exceptional: Suet. Aug. 91. Cf. also DA i. 902 figs. 1146-7.

223 Of particular interest in this context is a Roman bell from Spain with an inscription stating that the bell belonged to the local Nuntius Junior Felix and was used to announce the beginning of sacrificial ceremonies (Pease, 'Bells', 54).

224 In this context we even find small bells as votive

offerings: they were dedicated to the goddess Daksina Kali in

Nepal as a sign of devotion, permanently praying to the

goddess on behalf of the dedicant. Cf. Price, Bells and Man, 55-6.

225 Finds of bells in temples of Mithras have led to suggestions that in some later Roman cults bells may have played a liturgical role; cf. a fragmentary statuette from the Mithraeum of Nida-Heddernheim which features a bell on a pedestal or altar: I. Huld-Zetsche, Mithras in Nida-Heddernheim (Frankfurt, 1986), 75 no. 39 (cf. also 32 no. 28);

Furger-Schneider (n. 152), 169 fig. 14; see also Trumpf- Lyritzaki, 'Glocke', i78. Note however that bells are not listed among Roman ritual instruments by A. V. Siebert, Instrumenta Sacra: Untersuchungen zu rdmischen Opfer-, Kult, und Priestergerdten (Berlin and New York, 1999).

226 Argued e.g. by Bonias (n. 33), 99-oo00, for the bells from Aigiai.

227 See Trumpf-Lyritzaki, 'Glocke', 184-5. Of course, the possibility cannot be excluded, but it also needs to be considered that no cheap forged iron bells, of the kind that appear later on in Roman times and that would have been useful for this purpose, have been found in ancient Greece.

228 Hickmann, 'Zur Geschichte', 15-16, fig. 12; Emery (n. 27), 262-5. In Roman times donkeys also occasionally wore bells: for references, see Trumpf-Lyritzaki, 'Glocke', 171, 176.

229 Especially on Roman coins of the gens Caecilia, but also on other coins; the evidence has been collected by Pease, 'Bells', 37-42, and does not include any Greek coins.

230 E. Pottier and S. Reinach, 'Fouilles de Myrina (i). Eldphant foulant aux pieds un Galate', BCH 9 (1886), 485-93, esp. 486 with n. 3 (citing further examples of elephants with bells, but all of a rather late date), pl. ii. Also in modern times, Indian elephants are known to have been adorned with bells.


terracotta figurines).23' From Meroe, there is evidence that bells were also worn by cows and calves, and Egyptian dogs, as well as Roman cats and dogs, could be equipped with them.232 A small deer with a bell accompanies Apollo (or Orpheus) on a Classical Etruscan mirror,233 and a Roman painting even depicts a giraffe with a bell.234 For large animals in particular, the bell could have served as a warning signal, for wild animals and household pets as a sign of domestication, for exotic animals as a means of attracting additional attention, or generally as a sign of human ownership. An apotropaic use or its opposite (i.e. to chase away bad and attract good spirits) could also have played a role.235

As for sacrificial animals, however, there is only a single attestation known to me: a painted altar in a house on Delos (to be dated probably after 166 BC), which clearly depicts a pig being led to sacrifice with a bell around its neck (FIG. 44).236 But, of the many representations of animal sacrifices in Greek art, this is the only one to depict such a feature, and a rather late one at that; it is thought to refer to the Compitalia, a festival dedicated to the Italian Lares Compitales.237 So, on the whole, it seems unlikely that Greek sacrificial animals were generally adorned with bells.

Bells in cult and ritual: Dionysos, Artemis, and ritual dancing As far as actual pictorial and literary evidence goes, bells are in fact best attested in relation to the cult of Dionysos. Strabo, in a passage that might go back to early Hellenistic times, calls the wearing of bells and beating of tympana a Dionysiac activity, and Nonnus names a Maenad 'Kodone'. Most interesting is, however, the fact that quite a number of South Italian vases of the fourth century represent Dionysos or members of his thiasos, either holding a bell, 38 with a bell attached to the

231 For the Assyrian and Persian reliefs, see above, nn. 146-9. For the relief, dated by Schauenburg to around 300, see K. Schauenburg, 'Die Cameliden im Altertum', B. Jb. 155-6 (1955-6), 59-94, esp. 73-4 with n. 4 and pl. 8. 2. For the terracotta figurines, see W Weber, Die iigyptisch-griechischen Terrakotten (Berlin, 1914), 242-3 nos. 434-7, pl. 39. Bells were also worn by camels in Nubian burials: Emery (n. 27), 262-3.

232 e.g. Weber (n. 231), 239 no. 424, pl. 38. Cf. also Hermann (n. 14), 82. For Roman dogs and cats, see J. M. C. Toynbee, 'Graeco-Roman Neck-Wear for Animals', Latomus 35 (1976), 269-75, esp. 273-5.

233 R. D. de Puma, CSE USA 2: Boston and Cambridge (Ames, 1993), 36-7 no. 14. A connection with Apollo is also suggested by a tetradrachm of Catana of around 410-403, depicting the head of Apollo accompanied in the field by a knotted 'fillet' (with crotals?) with a hook at the top and ending in what appears to be a calyx-shaped bell, with its upper part decorated with vertical lines: C. M. Kraay and M. Hirmer, Greek Coins (London, 1966), pl. 14 fig. 42, p. 285. This has been identified as a tassel (Pease, 'Bells', 57) but a clapper seems to be indicated; if not a bell, it might at best be a floral ornament; compare e.g. the 'Asteas' flower of 4th-c. Paestan vase-painting (A. D. Trendall, The Red-Figured Vases of Paestum (Rome, 1987), 17-8, fig. 4; cf. also ibid., pl. ioi e), or the bell- like floral ornaments worn by a variety of animals in the tomb of Petosiris in Hermoupolis (around 300), where the confusion might be intentional or the result of a misunderstanding: G. Lefebvre, Le Tombeau de Petosiris (Cairo, 1923-4), pls. 20, 35, 46.

234 Trumpf-Lyritzaki, 'Glocke', i71; Hermann (n. 14), 84 fig. II; O. Keller, Die Antike Ti7ewelt, i (Leipzig, 1909) 284 fig. 90.

235 Ancient animal bells have often been interpreted in this way: see e.g. Schauenburg (n. 231), Hermann (n. 14). An apotropaic function is advocated particularly by Porada (n. 68), i13-

236 House D in residential quarter E of stadium, insula I (bell appears on both earlier and later layer of painting): M. Bulard, Dilos IX: Description des revitements peints di sujets religieux (Paris, 1926), 156-8, pls. 18, 25. I. The iconography is essentially Roman. For pigs adorned with 'tintinnabula culti', see also Petron. 47. 17.

237 Cf. P. Bruneau, Recherches sur les cultes de Dilos a l'ipoque imperiale (Paris, 1970), 594-600.

238 For Dionysos holding a bell, see, e.g.: Apulian rf. volute krater of around 380-70 by the Tarporley Painter (Geneva 15036: LIMC 8 p. 786 Mainades 43, pl. 533); Apulian rf. volute crater (RuvoJ 1499: A. D. Trendall and A. Cambitoglou, The Red-Figured Vases of Apulia (Oxford, 1978), 167 no. 7/33); Apulian rf. bell krater (Dionysos or youth, Rome, Villa Giulia 43995: Trendall and Cambitoglou, ibid., 97 no. 4/233); Sicilian rf. bell krater of the Group of Louvre K 240 (Paris, Louvre K 241: Trendall (n. 233), 45 no. 1/98, pl. 12 d); rf. calyx krater (Reggio 5013: A. D. Trendall, The Red-figured Vases of Lucania, Campania and Sicily (Oxford, 1967), 74 no. 374); and a rf. Paestan bell krater by Asteas (London, BM F 153: Trendall (n. 233), 72 no. 2/41). A maenad holding a bell: rf. Paestan calyx-krater by Asteas (Malibu, Getty Museum: Trendall (n. 233), 92-4 no. 2/129, pl. 50). The motif of the maenad holding a bell survived into Byzantine times: see M.-X. Garezou, 'Le roptron et la clochette: musique dionysiaque sur un plat byzantin', AK36 (1993), 111-19-


FIG. 44. Painting on altar on Delos (House D, stadium quarter E, insula I). Drawing after M. Bulard, Dilos IX:

Description des revitements peints a sujets religieux (Paris, 1926), pls. 18, 25. I.

a b c

FIG. 45 (a) Detail of Apulian rf. volute crater. RuvoJ 1499. (b) Detail of Paestan rf. bell crater. Melbourne D 391/1980. (c) Detail of Lucanian rf. volute krater. Naples 3237 (inv. 82123).


wrist,239 or to the thyrsos (FIG. 45).240 At least once, Dionysos holds the bell up high as if to signal to his thiasos. This seems to indicate that the bell may indeed have played a role in the South Italian cult of Dionysos,24' a phenomenon which may be linked with the cult's connections with death and afterlife; bells could be imagined, ultimately, as calling the deceased to a happy Dionysiac afterlife.242 One could also imagine the bell's sound providing magical protection in particular for the potentially vulnerable periods of ecstatic abandon in Dionysiac ritual. In Roman times, moreover, there appear to have been cult officials (fovKd'Xot and dpxepo09KoAot) who wore a dress with several rows of bells attached; they appear as dancing shepherds in the Dionysiac pompe on sarcophagi and on other (grave) reliefs (FIG. 46).243 We may compare to them mediaeval dancers decked out with jingles,244 or also Asian female dancers; among the Naga in India, for example, women and girls from wealthy families traditionally wore bells for ritual dances.245

239 e.g. Dionysos: Paestan bell krater by Asteas, Melbourne D. 391/i980: Trendall, (n. 233), 66 no. 2/24, pl. 21 c; A. D. Trendall, Red Figure Vases of South Italy and Sicily (London, 1989), fig. 344. Nude bacchante: rf. hydria in Vienna (E. Espirandieu, in DA v. 341-4, s.v. 'Tintinnabulum', fig. 6995; A. D. Trendall, Paestan Pottery (London, 1936), pl. 14 a). Centaur, on which Dionysos is riding: rf. Paestan bell-krater by Python (Trendall (n. 233), 157 no. 2/252, pl. 95 c).

240 e.g. Dionysos dancing: Sicilian rf. bell krater, by the Painter of Naples 2074, second quarter 4th c. (Trendall (n. 233), 28 no. 23, pl. 3 a). Dionysos seated: Sicilian rf. calyx- krater by the Painter of Louvre K 240 (Lipari 9604: Trendall (n. 233), 44 no. 1/91, pl. ii a); Apulian rf. amphora (Basel S29: M. Schmidt, A. D. Trendall and A. Cambitoglou, Eine Gruppe apulischer Grabvasen in Basel (Basel, 1976), 35-6). Dionysos in panther-drawn cart: Apulian rf. volute krater (Naples, private collection: Trendall and Cambitoglou (n. 238), 1020 no. 30/20, pl. 393). Dionysos in Gigantomachy: Apulian rf. volute-krater (Berlin 1984.44: L. Giuliani, Tragik, Trauer und Trost. Bildervasenfir eine apulische Totenfeier (Berlin, 1995), 1I2, fig. 78). Dionysos with bell attached to thyrsos accompanied by Maenad holding bell: Apulian rf. amphora/loutrophoros (Munich 3300: Trendall and Cambitoglou (n. 238), 535 no. 18/297, pl. 200). Maenad/Ariadne(?): Lucanian rf. volute krater (Naples 3237 (inv. 82123): Trendall (n. 238), 114 no. 593; S. Reinach, Peintures de vases antiques recueillies par Millin (i8o8) et Millingen (1813) (Paris, 1981), 93-4, pl. 2 Millingen). Dirke: Apulian rf. calyx krater (Melbourne, private collection: A. D. Trendall, in H. A. Brijder, A. A. Drukker and C. W. Neeft (eds), Enthousiasmos: Essays on Greek and Related Pottery Presented to J. M. Hemelrijk (Amsterdam, 1986), 163 fig. 7). Note also that a thyrsos with fillet and bell, sometimes together with other Dionysiac symbols, appears on the reverse of coins with the head of Dionysos on the obverse, from Amisos/Pontus, at the time of Mithridates Eupator (121-63 BC): SNG v. Aulock i, pl. 2.61; BMC Pontus etc. 17-18, nos. 50-9; cf. Pease, 'Bells', 54-5. Bells as symbols in the field can possibly be identified on some further coins, e.g. of Paeonia (Patraos), around 340-315 (BMC Macedonia, etc. 2 no. 4) or of Parion, Mysia, around 400-300 (SNG Delepierre, pl. 68.2531-2). Against Cook's claim (Cook, 'Gong', 17, followed by Trumpf-Lyritzaki, 'Glocke', 176), however, no bells are represented on the tympanon carried by a maenad on the vase London, BM GR F58.

241 As suspected by E. Langlotz, in Scritti in onore di Carlo Anti (Florence, 1954), 76-7, followed by Schmidt, Trendall

and Cambitoglou (n. 240), 35-6; cf. also A. B6lis, 'Musique et transe dans le cortege dionysiaque', in Transe et Theitre (Cahiers du GITA 4, d6cembre 1988; Montpellier, 1988), 9-29. Note also the bell carried by an armed figure on an Apulian volute-krater (Berlin 1984.40), who is interpreted by Giuliani as a korybant in the service of Demeter searching for Persephone in the underworld: Giuliani (n. 240), 10o5-6.

242 This does not, however, appear to have left many traces in the archaeological record: few bells are found in South Italian graves, among them two 4th-c. bronze bells in tomb 1571 of the necropolis of Lipari: L. Barnab6-Brea and M. Cavalier, Meligunis Lipara V Scavi nella necropolis greca di Lipari (Rome, i991), 85, 112, pl. 67. 18o.

243 Cf. M. Cremer, 'Der Schellenmann', Epigraphica Anatolica, 7 (1986), 21-33, figs 9-18; G. Koch, in Roman Funerary Monuments in the J. Paul Getty Museum, i (Malibu, 1990), 18-21; G. Pesce, Sarcofagi romani di Sardegna (Rome, 1957), 27-33, figs. 9-18; R. Turcan, Les Sarcophages romains a representations dionysiaques (Paris, 1966), 548-51; L. Robert, 'Documents d'Asie Mineure xxviii. Stale funeraire en Meonie', BCH 107 (1983), 597-8.

244 Cf. the modern-day Morris dancers (Price, Bells and Man, 52) or the carnival dances on Skyros or Naxos (J. C. Lawson, 'A Beast-Dance in Scyros', BSA 6 (1899-1900), 125-7; C. Stewart, Demons and the Devil: Moral Imagination in Modern Greek Culture (Princeton, 1991), 71).

245 Schlichting (n. 24), 106-7. Note also a Roman Imperial bronze figurine of a female mimic dancer (?) with 22 jingles attached to her dress: M. Bieber, 'Mima Saltatricula', AJA 43 (1939), 640-4. Asiatic Shamans, too, are known to have worn bells attached to their clothing (ibid.), as did, according to Targum Scheni (on Esth'r 6. io), the Persian kings, who adorned the base of their garments with small golden bells. Bells may also have been part of the dress of priests on rare occasions: note in particular the biblical attestation of the bells (?) and pomegranates for the priest's dress (Exod. 28. 33-4; 39. 25-6), probably intended to warn the god of the approaching human to avoid him coming to harm by inadvertently catching a glimpse of the god (cf. e.g. Porada (n. 68), 117-18; Trumpf-Lyritzaki, 'Glocke', 178; Calmeyer, 'Glocke', 431), and the relief representation of what might be the high priest of Hierapolis wearing a robe fringed with bells: H. Seyrig, 'Stale d'un Grand-Pretre de Hierapolis', Syria, 20 (1939), 183-8, pl. 26.


FIG. 46. Roman relief fragment. Vatican, Loggia Scoperta. Drawing after G. Pesce, Sarcofagi romani di Sardegna (Rome, 1957), fig. 13.

Could all this imply that Spartan Athena had a hidden face consisting of Dionysiac-style revelry? Did Spartan men and women perform dances in her honour, while being adorned with jingling bells? Did bell-ringing accompany thiasoi for Athena? Dances doubtlessly were an important feature in Spartan ritual life.246 Perhaps, if we can trust Aristophanes, there were also dances associated with the cult of Spartan Athena: in Lysistrata 1296-1315, the chorus calls on Helen to lead a dance in the sanctuary of Athena Chalkioikos.247 The nude young girls acting as supports on Lakonian mirrors,248 who sometimes carry cymbals or castanets in their hands, may be participants in some ritual dance; an Archaic figurine of a woman playing cymbals was found in the sanctuary of Artemis Orthia, and an arm of a similar figure was discovered in Athena's sanctuary on the Spartan acropolis.249 Cymbals like these, bronze percussion instruments quite similar to the bell in many ways, may have had a role particularly in Artemis' cult, and were sometimes dedicated to deities, including Spartan Artemis Limnatis, especially by women, perhaps on the occasion of a woman's marriage (which meant that she could no longer participate in the ritual dances she used to take part in as a girl).250 However, there is no explicit evidence for bells ever having been part of ritual

246 Cf. e.g. Parker (n. 170), 149-51. 247 Cf. also Eur. Helen 245, where Helen is also associated

with the cult of Athena Chalkioikos. 248 L. O. Keene Congdon, Caryatid Mirrors of Ancient Greece

(Mainz, 1981), 46-50; cf. M. Pipili, Laconian Iconography of the Sixth Century (Oxford, 1987), 77-8; Millender (n. 172), 368.

249 W Lamb, BSA 28 (1926-7), 86. 250 Mid-6th-c. bronze statuette from the sanctuary of

Artemis Orthia at Sparta: Athens, NM 15890: W. Lamb, BSA 28 (1926-27), Io0 no. 16, pl. 12; M. Wegner, Musikgeschichte in

Bildern II: Musik des Altertums, iv: Griechenland (Leipzig, 1963), fig. 32. Cymbal with inscription to Artemis Limnatis: IG v. i. 1570; Jeffery 1990 (n. 18), i99 no. i8. Cymbals as votive offerings: Anth. Pal. vi. 234 (cymbals dedicated to Rhea[?] by her priest at end of service); cf. Wegner, ibid., fig. 33; W. H. D. Rouse, Greek Votive Offerings (Cambridge, 1902), 250-I. Cymbals are also attested in the cult of Kybele and Attis (Pind. fr. 79 Bergk; Diogenes trag. TrGF 45 Fi xiv; Firm. Mat. Err. prof rel. 18 Halm; cf. also above, n. 222, and Cook, 'Gong', 16-17), and, like Demeter, Kybele is called XaXK6Kporog (Orph. Hymn 41).


dancing at Sparta, or, for that matter, anywhere else in Greece, either for Artemis or for Athena. There are rare instances of small bells attached to cymbals,25' but in general it seems that bells, by their nature, are less well suited as instruments to accompany a rhythmic dance than cymbals; comparative evidence shows that they were generally worn strapped to the body and tended to produce a 'background' noise, rather than function as an rhythm-giving instrument.251 Certainly, in a Dionysiac setting, it appears to have been more of a case of a singular bell being used as a signalling instrument, perhaps with an additional particular magical/apotropaic significance related to the bell's sound.

The phenomenon of bells playing a role in the Dionysiac thiasos, and cymbals in the cult of Artemis, does, in fact, refer to another field of meaning relating to bells. It had been touched upon already in relation to the possibility-albeit rejected-of bells playing a part in ancient armour: the significance of the sound of bronze in ancient Greece.

The sound of bronze: protecting women, children, the dead As scholars have realised for some time, an early scholion on Theokritos 2. 36 is crucial when assessing the meaning of bronze in ancient Greece.253 In order to explain Theokritos' passage 'the chthonian Artemis is approaching, make the spot holy ground by beating the bronze',254 the scholiast embarks on a detailed explanation of the custom of beating bronze in antiquity. In particular, he quotes Apollodoros' ,Epi p 0 ~ov, a Hellenistic source stating that bronze, or rather the sound of bronze, played a role in all kinds of purificatory rituals; being pure and averting pollution, it was employed during lunar eclipses and funerals-an interpretation supported by a number of further, notably Roman, sources, which attest that the sound of bronze was used to ward off evil powers. 255

This immediately sheds light on the use of noisy bronze instruments in a number of contexts, both ritual and funerary. In the ecstatic cult of Dionysos, the noise of the bronze- at the same time as providing a backdrop to ecstatic dances-can easily be imagined to have served to keep bad spirits away. In the cult of Demeter, the clashing of bronze also appears to have played a role, and already Pindar (Isthm. 7. 3) calls her 'XaXKoKp6Tro0 ... Aca[tdrepog'. A later source explains this epithet with the noise of the cymbals256 and drums that was made in searching for Kore, but one might suspect that a different function played a role too: just as the dance of the Kouretes and Korybantes with clashing shields may have been intended to avert evil from the infant Zeus,257 so Demeter in her role as a patron of motherhood and childbirth may have employed the sound of bronze in order to avert evil from mother and child.

And exactly this function might be crucial in explaining why it is the case that, when we find bells-both bronze and terracotta-in graves of the Archaic, Classical and later periods,

251 H. Hickmann, 'Cymbales et crotales dans l'Egypte ancienne', Annales du Service des Antiquitis de l'Egypte, 49 (i949), 451-545, esp. 524 fig. 47.

252 See above nn. 243-5. 253 Cf. esp. Cook, 'Gong', 14-16; Pease, 'Bells', 35. 254 According to a gloss on the papyrus the XCXicKELov

was, in fact, a bell: A. E S. Gow, Theocritus, i (Cambridge, 1952), 43.

255 For evidence regarding lunar eclipses, see Cook, 'Gong', 14; for funerals, see below. Note also that at the Roman Lemuria festival it was customary for the head of the

household to clash bronze vessels to scare off the dead who during the festival had revisited their old homes (Ov. Fast. v. 441). During the eclipse of the moon bronze implements were clashed and bronze trumpets blown (Ov. Met. vii. 207-8; Tac. Ann. i. 28; schol. on Theocr. ii. 36). Cf. also Lucian, Philops. 15; Alex. Aphr. probl. ii. 46; Tzetz. schol in Lykoph. 77. See also J. G. Frazer, The Fasti of Ovid, iv (London, 1929), 47-50.

256 Schol. on Ar. Ach. 709. 257 Cook, 'Gong', 17.


these are often children's graves. The phenomenon is attested throughout Greece and beyond, from the Archaic Caucasus, Archaic Cyprus,258 Late Archaic Attica259 and the Black Sea area,260 Classical Messenia26' and Boiotia,262 to Hellenistic Egypt, Syria and Iberia, to Roman France.263 Of course, bells in connection with children are often explained as children's toys.264 But the bells found in the graves are often either barely functional clay bells, or clearly too big and unwieldy to be much fun to play with-unlike easy-to-handle rattles, for which such an interpretation is probably closer to the truth.265

Rattles of various kinds (clay and bronze) were well-known in ancient Greece from the Geometric period onwards; Aristotle explicitly mentions that Archytas invented a kind of clapper for children,"66 which functioned as a child's plaything, or as a means for parents to keep children quiet. Yet even for such rattles a complex framework of meaning can be suspected: they have been found in a variety of contexts, including graves, and may have a particular connection also to women who died in childbirth.267 Moreover, Archytas of Tarentum, a contemporary of Plato, was a Pythagorean and one of the main protagonists of ancient musical theory,'68 and we know that in Pythagorean thought a special quality was attributed to the sound of bronze: when beaten, it would emit the voice of a demon trapped inside.269 Against this background of the magical quality of the brazen sound, we may wonder if Archytas' rattle could have been not just a mere plaything, but a talisman protecting the

child.270 That such an aspect of protection was clearly a major factor when bells were brought

258 For terracotta bells found in Cypriot graves, at least partly in connection with children's burials: Karageorghis (n. 21), 88. For Caucasian bells, see Gambaschidze (n. 67), 369 no. 291.

259 Clay bells: see above, nn. 50-2 26o Bronze bell: see above, n. 40. 261 Bronze bell: see above, n. 31. 262 Clay bells at Halai and the Thespian Polyandrion: see

above, nn. 56-7. 263 Egypt: W. M. F Petrie, Objects of Daily Use (London,

1927), 24 nos. 33-7, pl. 50. Parthian-Roman Syria: three small bronze bells in wooden cask found under the left hand of young boy, aged 8-9: M. Novdk and A. Oettel, Antike Welt, 29. 4 (1998), 334-5, 337 fig. 23. Iberia (Mallorca): see above, n. io6. Roman tomb in France: Pease, 'Bells', 42.

264 e.g. 'No doubt these objects were meant to be toys'-- Karageorghis (n. 21), 88. Others, however, vociferously argue against such an interpretation in favour of an

apotropaic function: e.g. Hickmann, 'Zur Geschichte', 16:' .. mussen wir allzu voreilige Deutungen als Kinderspielzeug (sic!) ablehnen'.

265 A different interpretation of bell chains found in (Early Christian) graves (in connection with adults) is suggested by Weber, who points out that they could have been worn by delinquents as punishment, warning, and binding spell: T. Weber, 'Ein fruhes christliches Grab mit Glockenketten zu Gadara in der syrischen Dekapolis', JOBG 42 (1992), 249-85, esp. 261-73. Cf. also Trumpf-Lyritzaki, 'Glocke', 182-3. Note also the double-spatula-shaped instrument with numerous bells attached that was found in the Roman catacombs: Esperandieu (n. 239), 343 fig. 6996.

266 Arist. Pol. 1340b26. The word used by Aristotle is hatcryil, from hkaracEto, to clap or to beat. Clappers of this name are said to have been made of metal or wood

(Apoll. Rhod. ii. o1055) and are characterized as a children's toy by Plut. Quaest. conv. 714 e and in Leonidas of Tarentum's epigram Anth. Pal. vi. 309, and are also mentioned in the Suda. Cf. also S.-T. Teodorsson, A Commentary on Plutarch's Table Talks, iii (G6teborg, 1996), 135; M. L. West, Ancient Greek Music (Oxford, 1992), 126 n. 220.

267 A. Durand, in Jouer dans l'Antiquiti (exhibition catalogue; Marseille, 1991), 50-3; D. C. Kurtz and J. Boardman, Greek Burial Customs (London, 1971), 76-7, 352; C. Smith, 'Dead dogs and rattles: time, space and ritual sacrifice in Iron Age Latium', in J. B. Wilkins (ed.), Approaches to the Study of Ritual: Italy and the Ancient Mediterranean (London, 1996), 73-89, esp. 83-4. For the different phenomenon of flat plates reminiscent of a bell's cross-section (and therefore often termed 'tintinnabuli') appearing in Archaic and Classical graves in Northern Italy, see e.g. G. M. Fazia, 'Due tintinnabuli

geometrici al Museo civico di Foggia', Taras, 3 (1983), 149-53- 268 Cf. W. Burkert, Lore and Science in Ancient Pythagoraeanism

(Cambridge, Mass., 1972) 170-1, 373, 380, 384-6; West (n. 266), 234-9. The story that Pythagoras discovered numerical ratios in music when listening to the sound of hammers in a

smithy is interpreted by Burkert, 375-7, as 'a rationalization of the tradition that Pythagoras knew the secret of magical music which was discovered by the mythical blacksmiths (i.e. the Idaean Dactyls).' Cf. also Plut, De Is. et Os. 32, with the commentary by J. G. Griffiths, Plutarch's De Iside et Osiride (Cardiff, 1970), 404-

269 Porph. Vit. Pythag. 41 = Arist. fr. 196. 270 On the inherent ambiguity of function of such toys

which also served as talismans, see D. Williams, 'Of Geometric toys, symbols and votives', in G. R. Tsetskhladze, A. M. Snodgrass, and A. J. N. Prag (eds), Periplous: To Sir John Boardman From His Pupils and Friends (London, 2000), 388-96, esp. 391-2.


a b

FIG. 47. Bronze bells on bracelets(?). (a) London, University College, from Egypt. Drawing after W. M.

E Petrie, Objects ofDaily Use (London, 1927), pl. 50. 36. (b) Barcelona, inv. 28994, from Mallorca. Drawing

after Spear, Treasury, 177 fig. 213-

in connection with children is suggested by a remark of John Chrysostomou, who complains about the custom of attaching bells to children's wrists instead of trusting in the protection of

God.21' In fact, bracelets(?) with small bells attached, probably used for children, are known

from the fringes of the Greek world at least from the Hellenistic period onwards, in Egypt as well as Iberian Mallorca (FIG. 47),272 and in Hellenistic Egypt a terracotta figurine of a child is wearing a bell around the neck (FIG. 48).273 Women, too, are depicted, albeit rarely, with such bracelets, on Palmyrene grave stelai (FIG. 49);274 possibly victims of death in childbirth, or else themselves still very young girls? Yet such a specific meaning was perhaps not always intended: small bells, particularly ones made of precious metals, had been used as part of jewellery since the Archaic period-at least in East Greece and by the Greeks' Eastern neighbours275-and their function may well have been both decorative and as charms, perhaps generally intended to attract good fortune and repel bad luck.

From Classical Greece, however, no evidence is forthcoming to attest to small bells having been attached to children, nor is there any secure evidence of a use of bells in women's jewellery. That protective charms were well known in principle is, of course, attested by Greek children wearing a diagonal strap or baldric with ornaments that apparently functioned as amulets; they are represented on numerous Attic choai (jugs).276 Something similar could easily have been a custom in Sparta, perhaps in connection with some specific ritual: the young nude girls functioning as supports for Spartan mirrors wear the same kind of baldric.277

271 I Cor. hornm. 12. 7 (PG 6I. I05); cf. Cook, 'Gong', 18. 272 Egypt: see above, n. 263. Mallorca: Barcelona, Museu

Arqueol6gic inv. 28994: Spear, Treasury, 177 fig. 213. 273 Hickmann (n. 27), 271-2 figs. 7-8. That small bells were

a means of keeping track of wandering children, as suggested by Petrie, Robinson, and others, is certainly a possibility, but unlikely to be the sole explanation: Petrie (n. 263), 24; Robinson (n. 6I), 518.

274 e.g. H. Ingholt, Studier over palmyrensk Skulptur (Copenhagen, 1928), 83 (n. PS 50), pl. 15. 2; D. Mackay, Iraq,

II (1949), 174-5 with fig. 4 d; cf. also M. R. Colledge, The Art of Palmyra (London, 1976), 152.

275 As discussed above, esp. nn. 67-8. 276 Cf. also the Etruscan and Roman bulla, a hollow

pendant with an enclosed amulet (made of gold, metal, or leather) worn by children and dedicated to the lares on reaching maturity. Cf. Beazley (n. 198), 33-5; RE v (1897), 1o47-51 s.v. 'Bulla' (Mau).

277 See above, n. 248; cf. also Boss (n. I6i), 211, 213-


FIG. 48. Graeco-Roman terracotta figurine of child wearing bell on necklace. Celle, Collection

H. Moeck. Drawing after H. Hickmann, Musikgeschichte in Bildern II: Musik des Altertums, i:

Agypten (Leipzig, I96I), fig. 68.

But here as elsewhere, ornaments include rings, crescents and axes, but no bells. And also the bells known from the archaeological evidence-e.g. in children's graves-are often not small items of jewellery, but sizable and functional bronze bells, or terracotta bells of symbolic character. In all likelihood, these were not everyday amulets, but objects that fulfilled a specific function. We may compare modern customs, such as the 'passing bell', but also the modern use of rattles and bells as amulets in connection with mothers giving birth, and in particular against death during birth.278

That ancient bells, too, could have had a particular function connected with death and burials is supported again by Apollodoros, as quoted by the scholiast on Theokritos 2.36: according to him the sound of bronze belongs to the dead.279 And indeed it seems that not only children could profit from the sound of the bell at their death. Pliny, for instance, quotes Varro's report of the grave of the Etruscan sovereign Porsenna, from the roof of which bells were hung.28o And over Ioo bells were apparently used in the funeral procession, in particular the hearse and sarcophagus, of Alexander the Great.28,

278 Cf. Schilling (n. 12), 243. According to Spear, Treasury, 77, it was a custom in Europe in earlier centuries to hang arrangements of small bells called 'fascinators' over babies' cradles. 'Mobiles' with several bells suspended from chains are occasionally also attested in antiquity (ibid., 8o figs. 55-6); whether they could have been used in a similar way remains, however, entirely conjectural.

279 FGrH 244 F Io b; cf. also Trumpf-Lyritzaki, 'Glocke', 174; Cook, 'Gong', 14-5.

280 Plin. NH xxxvi. 13. 92: 'supra id quadratum pyramides

stant quinque.. ., ita fastigatae, ut in summo orbis aeneus et

petasus unus omnibus sit inpositus, ex quo pendeant exapta catenis tintinnabula, quae vento agitata longe sonitus referant, ut Dodonae olim factum'.

281 Diod. Sic. xviii. 27. 5: 128 golden bells announced the cortege, the sarcophagus was decorated with 54 bells, the canopy was adorned with particularly large bells, and the draught animals also wore bells. On this passage, see also K. Staehler, Form und Funktion (Mtinster, 1993), 79-8.


FIG. 49. Detail of Palmyrene grave stele: bell worn on bracelet. Istanbul, Museum inv. 3794. After D. Mackay,

Iraq, II (1949), 174, fig. 4 d.

The sound of bronze at Sparta: beating the lebes

Among the earliest attestations of the link between the sound of bronze and burials is a passage in Herodotos (6. 58), which will finally bring us back to Sparta. Herodotos tells of the special ceremonies to be observed after a king's death in Sparta and reports that 'horsemen proclaim their death in all parts of Lakonia, and in the city women go about beating on a cauldron [Kct(&8 I Ti]V 'XLV YvvLK~ p L oacL t 13LIrTCa KpodTovot]'.828 This was the signal for one man and one woman from every citizen's household to put on mourning, under penalty of a fine. An elaborate funeral ceremony followed.283

This Spartan instance of the beating of the lebes is one that is also cited by the above- mentioned scholiast on Theokritos, quoting Apollodoros, as an example of a purification ritual. The scholiast moreover mentions a further similar ritual use of bronze bowls, namely that of the Athenian hierophant beating a bronze bowl, XFelov, at Kore's invocation at Eleusis, and we might also add Dodona, where the famous gong, XcXkKELov, appears to have been one or more bronze lebetes.284

What does this have to do with the Spartan bells? A lebes is not a bell, but both are resonant bodies made of bronze, and in that sense related. This is indicated by Apollodoros and confirmed by the inscription on a Roman bell from Spain that calls itself a cacabulus, the diminutive of cacabus, pot.285 At any rate, Thucydides' account attests that in Sparta, the beating of bronze had a combined significance of functioning as a signal to attract attention, and, in all likelihood, of being a purificatory agent, in a highly official funerary context. This would not be out of character for the Spartans, for whom b6eaL6attov'a, or fear of the gods (which might today be called 'superstition') was a powerful force in their lives.'86 We may think of the

282 Tr. A. D. Godley (Loeb edn., 1957). 283 Cf. P. Cartledge, Agesilaos and the Crisis of Sparta (London,

1987), 331-43- 284 Cf. Cook, 'Gong', 14-15 and passim. The gong at Dodona

might have been a ring of tripods or cauldrons (Xi3rlEg) placed so closely together that, if one were knocked, the vibration would go echoing around the whole series (as described in some sources), or a bronze lebes with a statue of a boy striking it. Cook suggests that it originally was a ring of resonant tripods that was later replaced by a more artistic construction.

285 Cf. Pease, 'Bells', 54. For the 'acetabulum', a similar multifunctional, sound-producing vessel, see Cremer (n. 243), 31. It is interesting to note in this context the existence of bronze bowls, from post-Meroitic tumuli dated to the 4th-5th cc. AD, with several small bells attached to the rim: D. Wildung (ed.), Die Pharaonen des Goldlandes (exhibition catalogue; Mannheim, 1998), 385 no. 458, 386-8 no. 465.

286 See Parker (n. 170), 155-63.


Pausanias episode of around 470-460 (Thuc. i. 128; I. 134; Paus. 3. 17. 7), when the pollution of Athena's sanctuary through the sacrilegious murder of Pausanias was atoned for by the erection of two bronze statues of Pausanias next to the altar of Athena Chalkioikos.287 It would perhaps not be entirely unconceivable to imagine bells involved in a purification ritual in this context, or also in the rituals accompanying a king's funeral, a supposition that would be quite compatible with the bells' appearance as votive offerings dedicated to Athena by both sexes.

For whom did the bell toll? In order to determine the possible function of bells in ancient Sparta, a balanced picture can only be achieved when we take into account not only what we know of the dedicants', the deity's, and the sanctuary's position in Spartan (religious) life, but also what we have learnt about the occurrence of bells elsewhere in the ancient world. This has revealed a myriad of potential uses for bells. They are well attested as votive offerings, particularly, but not exclusively, in sanctuaries of female deities. They are well attested as signalling instruments for guards in a number of towns in Classical Greece. They are well attested in Classical South Italy as a signal instrument in the mythical Dionysiac thiasos, possibly with a connotation of the bell's sound as magical and related to the underworld. They are well attested, albeit thinly spread, as objects in graves in several Greek regions from Late Archaic times, with a possible explanation of the bell (and its sound) as a protective, apotropaic amulet especially for children and women. They are hinted at by Classical Athenian sources as fear-arousing tools in a battle context. Ancient Near Eastern sources attest their use as horse bells. We are thus confronted with manifold uses, by both men and women, both in practical and more abstract terms, in daily life and in ritual.

A common basis to these uses seems to lie in the properties attributed to the bell's sound: Fundamentally a signal instrument, the bell's brazen sound furnishes it with protective, potentially fear-arousing and magical apotropaic qualities. These could serve to keep at bay harmful and deadly forces (while encouraging helpful ones?) during potentially vulnerable periods in ritual as well as in daily life, which included the life of women and children. Specific functions are likely to have varied from region to region, from time to time, and even from individual occasion to occasion, but in most cases the inadequacy of the ancient evidence makes it difficult for us to understand the precise circumstances of, and rationale for, a particular bell's use.

As regards Sparta, it is notable that bells were offered especially to Athena. The notion of Athena's nature being, in some ways, closely associated with bronze could have played a role here, making bells particularly appropriate offerings-their sound giving the goddess a tangible 'voice'. However, it seems unlikely that this would have been the entire picture: bells were also dedicated elsewhere in Sparta, were not exclusive to Athena's sanctuaries, and clearly had a wider appeal beyond Sparta, so a broader significance seems indicated. Assessing the Spartan evidence against the potential functions that, as we have seen, bells could fulfil in daily life and ritual in the ancient world, it seems less likely that they would have served as animal bells (either in daily life, as horse- or sheep-bells, or for sacrificial animals), or that they were part of the Spartan armour in battle; the fact that they were dedicated especially to the main polis goddess raises the possibility that they had a significance encompassing the whole

287 On this episode, see also Fortsch (n. 219), 57-60.


community. They may well have been employed as signal instruments in guarding the city, but, at the same time, the magical, apotropaic quality of their sound perhaps played the dominant role in their gaining prominence as votive offerings. The king's funeral or ritual purification are possible areas in which this quality could have found an application. Faced with the two bells dedicated by women, one might also consider the possibility of a link with children and procreation: after all, a Spartan woman's main aim in life was to produce children for the state, and particularly in the difficult times after 5oo, when the procreation of Spartiates was of utmost public importance,'88 the magical protection of women and children afforded by bells could have led to their dedication on the acropolis, by both men and women.

Of course, given the lack of explicit evidence, all of this ultimately has to remain speculation. What has become clear is, however, on the one hand, the exceptionally prominent role that bells played in the votive material on the Spartan acropolis in comparison to other sites and regions, and, on the other, the persistence with which bells permeate Greek culture across place and time, even if they never reach the prominence of Spartan bells. We have traced the Greek bells' ultimate derivation from Near Eastern prototypes, their distribution across the Greek world from the Archaic period onwards, and their wide range of possible uses in the Greek and Roman worlds. It is hoped that, with more evidence coming to light in the future, new voices will be added to the chorus of ancient bells, contributing to a richer and clearer picture of the phenomenon of bells in ancient Greece.

Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities The British Museum

ALEXANDRA VILLING

288 Cf. Cartledge (n. 7), 116-17. Note also that Cartledge points out that from around 500 women who died in

childbirth start to appear on named tombstones.