bell(?);
crotal(?);
votive offering(?);
fitting(?)
- Museum number
- 1886,0401.1750
- Description
-
Cast object in copper alloy; possibly a bell or a fitting (for a crotal?); thin walls, bit distorted; covered by corrosion, especially internal surface very encrusted.
- Production date
- 1stC BC (late) - 1stC AD (possibly)
- Dimensions
-
Diameter: 2.54 centimetres
-
Diameter: 3.10 centimetres
-
Height: 1.10 centimetres
-
Thickness: 0.30 centimetres
- Curator's comments
- If the identification is correct, this small bell could have been attached along the handles or at the top end of a crotal, a kind of clapper used during ritual performances (on this instrument: Hickmann 1949; Ziegler 1979, 65-70, esp. IDM 92-IDM98 for bells of crotalum, similar to this specimen). This instrument, known in the whole Graeco-Roman Mediterranean world, was introduced quite late in Egypt, in the Roman period (Ziegler 1979, 66).
Hickmann, H. 1949, 'Cymbales et crotales dans l'Égypte ancienne', Annales du Service des Antiquitiés de l'Égypte 49, 451-545.
Ziegler, Chr. 1979, Catalogue des instruments de musique égyptiens, catalogue du Musée de Louvre, Département des Antiquités Égyptiennes, Paris.
- Location
- Not on display
- Condition
- Rather poor, very corroded
- Acquisition date
- 1886
- Acquisition notes
- Found by locals looting the site between 1884 and 1885 “south-west of the town at a high part, lying in the loose dust among the houses”
- Department
- Greek and Roman
- Registration number
- 1886,0401.1750