About one group of metal magical objects in the Koban culture
About one group of metal magical objects in the Koban culture

Summary/Abstract: This paper presents a review of Early Iron Age metal pellet bells found in archaeological contexts of Central and North Caucasus. Сonical pellet bells with openwork sound boxes belong to the exotic magical objects discovered in the burial complexes of the Koban culture. The main area of their distribution is the mountainous regions of the Central Caucasus, primarily the Koban necropolis. These objects form a rather homogeneous, compact group, differing mainly in the design of the “neck”, located between the cage and the loop. Pellet bells are mostly recovered in female burials, which are dated within the framework of the second half – end of the 8th century BC. They were part of amulet assemblages that formed necklaces and were used as charms associated with cosmogonic beliefs, animal cults and spell magic. The appearance of these objects should be considered as a result of borrowing (“import”) of ideas by the population of the Koban culture from the inhabitants of the South Caucasus, where various conical bell-shaped pendants and pellet bells were well known in the Late Bronze-Early Iron Age. Cast in copper-alloy with a high amount of antimony, they show frequency-ranges from 0.2 kHz up to 20 kHz with noise character and rather low loudness.

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