The Sound of Magic? Bells in Roman Britain

Abstract

Bells are recorded in many published excavation reports from Roman sites, but there has been no previous study of the British material. This paper explores the significance of bells in the Roman world from both a ritual and functional perspective. We create a first typology of Romano-British bells, provide an understanding of their chronology and examine any spatial and social differences in their use. Special attention is paid to bells from funerary or ritual contexts in order to explore the symbolic significance of these small objects. Bells from other parts of the Roman world are considered to provide comparisons with those from Roman Britain. The paper demonstrates that small bells were used as protective charms and may have been preferentially placed into the graves of children and young women. The paper identifies a new, probably Roman type of bell that has no parallels within the Empire, although similar pieces occur in first-and second-century graves in the Black Sea region.

Full Archives, Meaningless Data? What Artefacts Can Tell about Age and Gender at Large-Scale Cemeteries (Case Study Colonia Iulia Emona)

“…Literary sources attest that Romans believed that sounds had the power to chase bad spirits away (Martin-Kilcher 2000: 66;Luck 2006: 27). This is one possible way to interpret the bells from five of Emona's graves 9 as protective in nature, as proposed by Dasen (2009: 208; see also Eckardt and Williams 2018).…”

Metallic Idiophones 800 BCE–800 CE in Central Europe: Function and Acoustic Influence

“…In children's graves, bells are often found attached to a bracelet or necklace (e.g. Eckardt and Williams 2018;Ruprechtsberger 1996;Ubl 1997: 300;Villing 2002).…”