Archaeology Magazine - January/February 1994 - 91

a lacquered wooden coffin in a large side chamber.
Eight smaller coffins, containing the skeletons of
women, lay next to the master coffin. Thirteen more
caskets, also containing the bones of women, were
grouped in another side chamber. The 21 females, presumably consorts and attendants, were probably strangled so they could be buried with their master, a custom prevalent throughout much of Bronze Age China.
A fourth chamber held layers of chariot fittings,
weapons, armor, and other articles of war. According to
textual accounts of the period, such an assortment of
grave goods was intended to identify the deceased as a
member of a particular lineage and to serve him in the
world beyond.
Several inscriptions on the bells indicate that they
were made for the Marquis Yi of Zeng, a petty state in
central China during the Warring States period
(481-221 b.c.), a time when smaller principalities were
being absorbed by their bigger and more powerful
neighbors. A long text on a dedicatory bell notes that
it was presented in 433 b.c. by the king of Chu, a

amounts of bronze. (China's Bronze Age extended
from 2000 b.c. to 220 b.c.)
Unlike most Western bells, which are round and
have attached clappers, many ancient Chinese bells, including those from the Marquis Yi's tomb, were pointed
oval in cross-section and clapperless. They were hung
mouth down, usually tilted at an angle to facilitate
striking from the outside with wooden hammers or
poles. The positions of the Marquis' bells in the tomb
and the number of wooden hammers and posts recovered suggest that perhaps five musicians played the set.
Two would have been responsible for the largest bells on
the lowest tier, each standing in front of the L-shaped
rack and wielding a lacquered wooden pole seven feet
long. Three other musicians, standing behind the rack
with the bells tilted toward them, would have used
smaller lacquered wooden hammers to strike the bells
on the second and third tiers. The large, lower bells
would have produced deep sonorous tones to accompany the lighter and higher pitches of the bells on the
second and third tiers, which most likely carried the

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Removal of protective timbers exposeda four-chambered tomb
containing twenty-two coffins, two groups of musical instruments , and
layers of chariot fittings, weapons, and armor.
powerful neighboring state to whom the Marquis prein the
sumably owed allegiance. The instruments
tomb's central chamber would have constituted an orchestra of 20 percussion, string, and wind instruments.
The pristine condition of the bells allows them to be
played, and frequency measurements obtained from
them have allowed musicologists and acoustical scientists to study their musical properties.
The largest bell in the set weighs almost 410
pounds; at least nine other bells weigh more than 200
pounds each. (The total weight of the bells comes to
5,647 pounds.) Archaeologists estimate that about 10.5
tons of bronze were used in the manufacture of the
musical instruments in the tomb. Not even the tombs
of China's Bronze Age kings have yielded such large

The tomb's central chamber yielded the bell
rack with two striking poles, a mass of chime
stones, top, and a pole drum, right

melody. The musician would strike the bells either in
the center at the highest point of the concave curve of
the mouth, or at one side toward the right pointed tip.
The sound produced by striking each bell at either of
these two locations would have produced the equivalents of an interval approximating a major third or
minor third.
Based on the decoration and inscriptions cast on the
face of each bell, it would appear that the 64 bells were
composed of at least six different chimed sets, made
over a period of time, but combined with consideration
for their musical properties. The inscriptions on two
chimes in the middle and lower tiers reveal two different but complementary tonal concepts; the central
chime in the middle tier, showing different surface
1994 45
January/February

Archaeology Magazine - January/February 1994

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Archaeology Magazine - January/February 1994