Investigations on Some Pellet Bells and Bells from the Early Middle Ages in Slovakia. Nové Zámky I, Radvaň nad Dunajom-Žitavská Tôň (Radvaň I), Holiare and Skalica

Pellet bells and bells from the Avar period cemeteries Nové Zámky I, Radvaň nad Dunajom-Žitavská Tôň, Radvaň I,
Holiare and the Slavic cemetery Skalica, housed in the archaeological collections of the Slovak National Museum
in Martin and the Archaeological Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences were investigated interdisciplinary
within the research project ‘Metallic Idiophones between 800 BC and 800 AD in Central Europe’ (funding Austrian
Sciences Funds FWF, supporting Natural History Museum Vienna). The aim of the research project was to gain more
information about their function, their tonal influence, their material and the textiles corroded on the surface. They
sound objects served as sounding-apotropaic amulets for humans and sounding-apotropaic decoration of horse harness. The pellet bells are cast in various copper alloys and forged from metal sheet. Filled with small pebbles or cinder
they show oval or ball shaped forms with various decorations on the surfaces. Frequency ranges show partial from
2 kHz up to 20 kHz. The sounds are rather quiet, more noise like, bright, a little bit sharp and very low in roughness.
Most of the objects are heavily corroded, which influences the sounds. Apart from decorative and apotropaic uses,
a practical test has shown that the horse is much more concentrated and less likely to spook at outside factors when
in movement carrying pellet bells.