The lowest eigenmode of thin axisymmetric shells is investigated for two physical models (acoustics and elasticity) as the shell thickness (2ε) tends to zero. Using a novel asymptotic expansion we determine the behavior of the eigenvalue λ(ε) and the eigenvector angular frequency k(ε) for shells with Dirichlet boundary conditions along the lateral boundary, and natural boundary conditions on the other parts.First, the scalar Laplace operator for acoustics is addressed, for which k(ε) is always zero. In contrast to it, for the Lamé system of linear elasticity several different types of shells are defined, characterized by their geometry, for which k(ε) tends to infinity as ε tends to zero. For two families of shells: cylinders and elliptical barrels we explicitly provide λ(ε) and k(ε) and demonstrate by numerical examples the different behavior as ε tends to zero.[We observe] a phenomenon which is particular to many deep shells, namely that the lowest natural frequency does not correspond to the simplest natural mode, as is typically the case for rods, beams, and plates.This citation emphasizes that for shells these lowest natural frequencies may hide some interesting "strange" behavior. The expression "deep shell" contrasts with "shallow shells" for which the main curvatures are of same order as the thickness. Typical examples of deep shells are cylindrical shells, spherical caps, or barrels (curved cylinders).In acoustics, driven by the scalar Laplace operator, it is well known that, when Dirichlet conditions are applied on the whole boundary, the first eigenmode is simple in both senses that it is not multiple and that it is invariant by rotation. We will revisit this result, in order to extend it to mixed Dirichlet-Neumann conditions. In contrast to the scalar Laplace operator, the simple behavior of the first eigenmode does not carry over to the vector elliptic system -linear elasticity. Relying on asymptotic formulas exhibited in our previous work [5], we analyze two families of shells already investigated in [2]. Doing that, we can compare numerical results provided by several different models: The exact Lamé model, surfacic models (Love and Naghdi), and our 1D scalar reduction.The first of these families are cylindrical shells. We show that the lowest eigenvalue 1 decays proportionally to the thickness 2ε and that the angular frequency k of its mode tends to infinity like ε −1/4 . The second family is a family of elliptic barrels which we call "Airy barrels". Elliptic means that the two main curvatures (meridian and azimuthal) of the midsurface S are non-zero and of the same sign. Airy barrels are characterized by the following relations: