Ancient bell
Photo: City of David
For whom the bell tolls: Listen to the sound of the Temple high priest's coattails
Using an ancient bell discovered during an excavation in 2011, researchers have successfully recreated the 2,000 year-old sound made by the 72 ceremonial bells on the coattails of the high priests of the holy Temple.
Thanks to archeological findings and reconstructions, we have a pretty good idea of how the holy Temple in Jerusalem looked like, but what did it sound like? The City of David, in collaboration with Muriel Celinger, has recently managed to reproduce the sound of the coattails of the high priest.
This was done with the help of a golden bell discovered bell during the excavation of a drainage channel beneath Jerusalem in 2011 by archaeologist Eli Shukron of the Israel Antiques Authority.
The discovered golden ball (Photo: City of David)
After discovering and researching the bell, made of pure gold, experts were confident they could recreate the sound produced by the 72 bells associated with the garb of the high priest.
City of David and Eli Shukron (באדיבות עיר דוד)
"Through X-ray examination, we discovered that within the golden ball, which looks like a pomegranate without petals, there is a old thread about 4mm in size which produces the sound," Shukron explained.
