This bronze bell is one and a half feet tall! That’s a half a meter! It comes from the Eastern Zhou Dynasty circa 500s BCE. It is beautifully decorated with thirty-six studs around the body and the taotie motif—fangs, horns, and brows snaking around protruding eyes—near the lip.
These bells were an integral part of ancient court rituals. A full set consists of more than sixty bells of varying sizes. The bells had no clapper, and were struck instead with a mallet. Acoustically, each bell is capable of producing two tones depending on where it is hit: Striking along the side produces one tone, and striking along the middle results in a tone three degrees—or the equivalent of a major or minor third—away.
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