The Clay Rattles of the Numantine Museum of Soria (Spain). An Approach from Experimental Archaeology

RICARDO EICHMANN – FANG JIANJUN – LARS-CHRISTIAN KOCH (HRSG.)

STUDIEN ZUR MUSIKARCHÄOLOGIE IX

DEUTSCHES ARCHÄOLOGISCHES INSTITUTORIENT-ABTEILUNG

Orient-Archäologie

Band 33

RICARDO EICHMANN – FANG JIANJUN – LARS-CHRISTIAN KOCH (HRSG.)

Studien zur Musikarchäologie IX

Vorträge des 8. Symposiums der Internationalen Studiengruppe Musikarchäologie

in Suzhou und Beijing, China, 20.–25. Oktober 2012

Papers from the 8th Symposium of the International Study Group on Music Archaeology

in Suzhou and Beijing, China, 20 – 25 October, 2012

2014

Verlag Marie Leidorf GmbH · Rahden/Westf.

XVIII, 196 Seiten mit 108 Abbildungen, 33 Tabellen zzgl. 1 CD-ROM (mit Text- und Musikbeispielen)

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ISBN 978-3-89646-663-1ISSN 1434-162X

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Bibliografische Information der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek

Eichmann, Ricardo / Fang, Jianjun / Koch, Lars-Christian (Hrsg.):Studien zur Musikarchäologie IX ; Vorträge des 8. Symposiums der Internationalen Studiengruppe Musikarchäologie in Suzhou und Beijing, China, 20.–25. Oktober 2012[Red.: Orient-Abteilung des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts].Rahden/Westf.: Leidorf, 2014

(Orient-Archäologie ; Bd. 33)ISBN 978-3-89646-663-1

Inhalt/Contents

Raquel Jiménez Pasalodos – In memoriam Roberto Melini . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IXEmiliano Li Castro

Vorwort der Herausgeber/Preface of the Editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . XIII

Idiophone/Idiophones

CHEN Yan Essential Findings from an In-depth . Study of the Bronze Chime Bells Retrieved from Duke of Xu’s Tomb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

FANG Jianjun Chime Bells from Three Tombs of the State of Zhongli in Eastern Zhou China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Raquel Jiménez Pasalodos – The Clay Rattles of the Numantine Museum of Soria (Spain) .Carlos García Benito – An Approach from Experimental Archaeology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47Juan Jesús Padilla Fernández

Véronique Alexandre Musical Problems in the 周礼 Zhouli . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65Journeau

LI Hongfeng Features of Combinatorial Tone Series of the Musical Instruments with Definite Temperament Unearthed from the Marquis Yi (乙) Tomb . Discussion of the Relationship Between the Tone Series Combination of Niu (钮) and Yong (甬) Bells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Sylvain Perrot – The Shape and Function of Bronze Bells in the Archaic andAnne Lapasset-Weddigen Early Classical Greek World . Some New Perspectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

WANG Youhua Analysis of Marquis Su Chime Bells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Saiteninstrumente/Stringed Instruments

YANG Yuanzheng The Subdivided Qin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

Aerophone/Aerophones

Stefan Hagel Better Understanding the Louvre Aulos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

Simon O’Dwyer Boolybrien . The Personal Hoard of a Bronze Age Musician . . . . . . . . 143 Appendix . Notes on the Methods Used in the Reproduction

of the Boolybrien Hoard by Holger C . Lönze

José Pérez de Arce Diaguita and Aconcagua Music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

VIII Inhalt/Contents

Jesús Salius The Davant Pau Aerophone . Use-wear Analysis, Hypotheses and Purposes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

Bericht/Report

Khairy El-Malt The Role of Ancient Egyptian Musical Instruments in the Revival of the Musical Heritage of Ancient Egypt . A Report on the Methods for the Recreation of Ancient Music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

Appendix I Inhalt der CD/Content of the CD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189

Appendix II Die Autoren/The Authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

The Clay Rattles of the Numantine Museum of Soria (Spain)An Approach from Experimental Archaeology

Raquel Jiménez Pasalodos – Carlos García Benito – Juan Jesús Padilla Fernández

Zusammenfassung

Im Zuge unserer Durchsicht archäoorganologischer Materialien im Museum von Numancia in Soria (Spanien) wurden fünf kugelförmige Keramikrasseln gefunden, die bisher unpubliziert sind. Diese Idiophone können in das 2. und 1. Jahrhundert v. Chr. datiert werden, entbehren allerdings Informationen zum archäologischen Kontext, wie der größte Teil numantischer Funde, die während der ersten beiden Dekaden des 20. Jahrhunderts ausgegraben wurden. Doch selbst wenn diese Tatsache unsere Interpretation von Gebrauch und Funktion dieser Instrumente einschränkt, vermag ein experimenteller Forschungsansatz mehr Information über diese Objekte zu liefern und die herkömmliche Interpretation des Materials in Frage zu stellen. Dies erlaubt uns weitere Reflexionen über die mögliche kulturelle Bedeutung dieser Keramikrasseln.

Despite the large amount of evidence for clay rattles on the European continent, the stud-ies largely focus on a description of such devices and conclude with very superficial interpretations. Nevertheless, we believe that if we are able to forget the traditional convictions we can throw more light on the uses and functions of such sound devices. To achieve this goal, it is absolutely necessary to use experimental and ethnographic approaches that may eventually bring new insights which may ex-plain certain features that are impossible to clarify exclusively by examining the archaeological mate-rials and their contexts.

In order to gather information to help us with this task, we will propose a methodology1 that be-gins with the study of the objects in the museum, followed by a search for parallels in neighboring cultures. But the main part of the research is based on the reproduction of the châines opératoires. This

experimental reconstruction of the rattles is part of a larger scale experiment that involves the repro-duction of a Second Iron Age kiln where we have fired various examples of Numantian clay objects, such as clay horns,2 rattles and vases.3 Finally, as a result of this process and with the data provided by experimental archaeology, we will consider to what extent this methodology can unveil hitherto hidden cultural meanings.

1 The Findings

During our study of organological remains in the Numantine Museum of Soria (Spain), we found five unpublished examples of spherical clay rattles. These artefacts, around 3.8 – 4.5 cm in diameter, are handmade and show no marks indicating mold-ing. The complete pieces sound when shaken. The broken examples, which revealed the thickness of the walls (0.5 – 0.8 cm) and the manufacture tech-nique, show no traces of the inner materials. The first examination of the objects revealed that the rattles’ sound is very subtle, so they were prob-ably not used as musical instruments or even sound makers in rituals. Moreover, their manufacture is not as meticulous and careful as other Numantian clay products. Nevertheless, they share decorative patterns with other important clay objects such as horns, vases, solid marbles or even marbles and rat-tles from neighboring cultures.

The five unpublished examples of spherical clay rattle are:

1 García Benito – Jiménez Pasalodos 2011, 95; García Benito – Jiménez Pasalodos 2012.

2 Jiménez Pasalodos – García Benito – Padilla Fernández 2013.

3 Padilla Fernández et al. 2013.

Raquel Jiménez Pasalodos – Carlos García Benito – Juan Jesús Padilla Fernández 48

N12323 (Fig. 1): Red clay marble rattle, 4.2 cm diameter, decorated by incision with points and spikes. The decoration is similar to that found on some Celtiberian clay marbles, where the surface is divided into four sectors.

N4867 (Fig. 2): Red clay marble rattle, 3.8 cm diameter. It is broken and without the original con-tent, but was clearly hollowed out, so it was prob-ably a rattling marble. It is decorated with three lines that again divide the ball’s surface into four sectors, ornamented with triangles.

N4868 (Fig. 3): Red clay marble rattle, 3.7 – 3.8 cm diameter. It is broken, but again, the hollowed out ball makes us think of a rattle. It has a stamped decoration, probably made with deer-antler burins.

N4861 (Fig. 4): Black clay marble rattle, 4.1 – 4.3 cm diameter, decorated with stamped concentric circles made with deer-antler burins. These burins have been widely found at the Nu-mantian archaoelogical site.4 Another decoration, probably made with the fingernails, again divides the surface into four portions. The black colour is caused by reduction firing. The black clay and the decorative pattern link the piece to other Numan-tian finds of the same colour with a very similar stamped decoration, such as vases and a clay horn (N-8240).

NP f. 120 (Fig. 5): Broken hollowed red clay marble, probably a rattle, 4 cm diameter. It shows a stamped decoration made with deer-antler bur-ins.

These objects most likely date between the 2nd and 1st centuries B.C., but unfortunately, as with the majority of the Numantian finds, they lack an archaeological context, as they were ex-cavated in 1924.5 Thus, a more accurate chronol-ogy and a better interpretation taking into account their archaeological context are impossible. In an attempt to uncover find information, we consulted the excavation diaries and the reports of the first ar-chaeologists that excavated Numantia in the 1920s. The first mention of these objects appears in the excavation report of 1923, written by Ramón Mé-lida.6 He describes some objects found during the archaeological campaign and afterwards stored in the Numantine Museum of Soria. Among them, he mentions more than 83 stone and clay balls that were found both in Roman and Celtiberian levels.7 Moreover, he writes about a particularly interesting hollowed ball, which seemed to have a smaller ball inside. The outer ball was decorated with pointed lines forming meridians and sectors, rough fishes and swastikas. We believe he is probably referring to rattle N-12323 (Fig. 1). Unfortunately, there is no mention of the archaeological context. He com-ments on the clay balls again in 1929, in Mélida’s handbook of Spanish archaeology.8

“Another small clay object, especially abun-dant in the Celtiberian area, are the clay balls. In Numantia, we have collected hun-dreds of them (…) sometimes without deco-ration, but normally decorated with incised lines or points, similar to meridians that di-vide the sphere, and also concentric circles. The biggest examples are hollowed and have a piece that, when moving the ball, produces a rattle-like sound. On the uses that these balls may have had, we can suppose that they were used in some kind of gambling game or to consult the oracle.”9

We have no doubt that he is talking about the clay rattles we found in the Numantine Museum, where the materials from the first excavations were stored. Unfortunately, there are no comments on the context of the finds.

Nevertheless, the finding of spherical clay rat-tles in other neighboring contexts is not rare, even if these pieces are by no means as common as the clay marbles, which are a little smaller but have the same decorations on the surface. In 1959, Watten-berg began to use the term marble rattles when de-scribing two hollowed clay balls that rattled when shaken (Fig. 6). He found them when prospecting in Padilla de Duero,10 and presumed a symbolic function for the objects. Several other clay balls, again with incised decoration and pointed lines like the ones described by Mélida, are also described. More of these marbles, probably some of them rattles,11 were identified at Pallantia necropolis,12 which could for the first time suggest a possible fu-nerary use of the objects as grave goods. Another example from the Celtiberian site of Las Quinta-nas in Padilla de Duero (Fig. 7) was published in 1980.13 Slightly bigger than our examples (5 – 6 cm diameter), it has four holes on each side, perhaps, as remarked by Martín Valls and Romero Car-nicero, to enhance the sound properties of the ob-ject. The decoration on the ball is divided into sec-tors by pointed lines, and each sector is decorated with half-moons incised with fingernails and other stamps. The authors assumed that they could have been children’s toys, acknowledging that it was difficult to be certain considering the accidental

4 García Heras 1999, 225.5 Mélida y Alinari et al. 1924, 29.6 Mélida y Alinari et al. 1924.7 Mélida y Alinari et al. 1924, 29. 34.8 Mélida y Alinari 2004.9 Mélida y Alinari 2004, 179. Translation by the authors.10 Wattenberg 1959, 217; Sanz Mínguez 1997, 333 – 336.11 Sanz Mínguez 1997.12 Castro García 1971, 24; Sanz Mínguez 1997.13 Martín Valls – Romero Carnicero 1980, 160 – 165.

The Clay Rattles of the Numantine Museum of Soria (Spain) 49

finding of the piece. Another object of this kind appeared together with clay marbles in the Vaccean Protohistoric fort of Cuesta del Mercado in Coca (Segovia, Spain) (Fig. 8) and was identified as a rat-tle.14 More rattles were apparently found at the site of La Custodia, Viana, in the province of Navarra (Spain), but the bibliography does not mention the archaeological context.15 There is no specifica-tion either on the number of finds, but the author asserts that there are several of them, some with decorations. Another clay ball rattle was found at the surface of the Vaccean site of El Soto de Medinilla16 (Fig. 9), slightly bigger than our pieces (5 – 6 cm diameter). It is decorated with pointed lines that divide the ball into sectors, as with the other examples, and also has surface perforations. Probably other clay marbles from Celtiberian sites were also rattles, and some sites have yielded hun-dreds of them, such as the settlement of La Hoya in the province of Vitoria (Spain), with more than two hundred examples.

Although we can count at least ten finds of spherical clay rattles in the area, only the ones from Pallantia necropolis were found in context. This could mean that at least some of the clay rat-tles could have been used as grave goods. To sup-port this idea, we should also consider other clay rattle finds in European Iron Age contexts. Even if the geographical distance from our main area of interest does not permit us to make direct parallels, we have to remember that Celtiberian populations shared an important set of beliefs and ritual behav-iour with other La Tène peoples.

Clay rattles have been found in La Tène ne-cropoles in France. For instance, two clay ball rattles,17 which were recovered from children’s burials in the Maegstub tumulus and the Kur-zgeland tumulus in the Haguenau forest, dating to La Tène A, showed incised decoration with a white infill (Fig. 10). Clay marbles are also com-monly found as grave goods in both child and adult burials in cremation graves dated to La Tène D in Champagne-Ardenne (Fig. 11). Their diameters are around 2.9 cm and 3.4 cm, and some of them are hollowed and sound when shaken.18 Besides, clay rattles and marbles have been found in both the child and adult graves from Gallic burials in Belgium.19 Finally, it is also interesting to record the find of a marble rattle in an adult grave in the Gallo-Roman necropolis of Clos au Duc in Upper Normandy (France), dated to the 1st century B.C. (Fig. 12), very similar in size and shape to the Celti-berian examples (a hollowed gray clay ball, deco-rated with white painted dots, containing two small clay pebbles). Even if according to French schol-ars it is an exceptional discovery in this region,20 it could be another clue to a possible funerary use of such objects.

Further evidence that points to a funerary and symbolic function for the rattling clay objects is the finding of a special type of clay rattle in the neighboring Vaccean area. These idiophones have a cylindrical shape, profuse and complex split decorations, a large number of inner pebbles, and always appear as grave goods, both in adult and child burials. This implies that they are not exclu-sively children’s objects and it may even indicate some sort of symbolism attached to the rattles’ sound.21 Considering these complex rattling arte-facts and their presence in graves, we would agree with Sanz Mínguez22 when he states that these in-struments had a symbolic function, whether with an apotropaic aim to drive away evil spirits, or as part of some kind of ritual. The ritual use of clay rattles in the region is also attested by the use of complex ritual vases, such as the kernoi from the Archaeological Museum of Palencia,23 found in the necropolis of Las Eras del Bosque.24 These kernoi have two vases and a clay rattle attached to the same clay ring. The rattles are similar to three pieces published by Taracena and come from the same area.25 So if in the neighboring Vaccean re-gion clay rattles were most likely used for ritual or symbolic purposes, it is also quite possible that in the Arevaci (allies of the Vaccaei during the Roman conquest) area of Numantia the spherical clay rattle was not solely used as a children’s toy. Moreover, these marble rattles appear in both regions with very similar decorations, which could be linked to some culturally significant use. Furthermore, the finding of similar spherical clay rattles in La Tène contexts in France and Belgium also points to a fu-nerary use. Nevertheless, some scholars consider them gaming balls or children’s toys, principally taking into account their similarities with clay mar-bles, for a long time identified as the pieces of some sort of sport or game. We agree that we should not

14 Blanco García 1994, 60 – 62.15 Labeaga Mendiola 1999 – 2000, 122.16 Sanz Mínguez 1997, 333.17 Clodoré-Tissot 2006, 290.18 Clodoré-Tissot 2002, 68; Clodoré-Tissot 2006, 289 – 296.

According to Clodoré-Tissot (2002, 63 – 71) the solid clay balls found as grave goods were imitations of rattles, point-ing to a greater symbolic meaning of the sounding objects. Nevertheless, in our opinion, considering the greater quan-tity of non-hollowed clay marbles, we think that this can-not be a satisfactory explanation.

19 Ancel 2010, 350.20 Pluton et al. 2008, 217.21 Martín Valls – Romero Carnicero 1980; Sanz Mínguez

1997, 333 – 336; Sanz Mínguez – Romero Carnicero 2005; Sanz Mínguez et al. 2007.

22 Sanz Mínguez 1997; Sanz Mínguez et al. 2007.23 Barril Vicente 1990, 327 – 345; Sanz Mínguez 1997, 335.24 Barril Vicente 1990, 327.25 Taracena Aguirre 1947, 96.


neglect the similarities between the rattling and non-rattling clay balls, as they both have compara-ble decorations and similar size, but we should also recall that that kind of decoration appears in other Celtiberian clay objects. Furthermore, we could even speculate on the possibility that marble rattles were used together with clay marbles, which would also produce sound if struck against each other, for instance, inside vases.

Despite the fact that it is difficult to prove that the aim of sound production with marble rattles may have been pure entertainment or perhaps some kind of ritual or culturally significant use, we should consider the extent to which clay rat-tles are amongst the most common finds in the music-archaeological record, and the fact that they usually appear in funerary or ritual contexts. They have been found in different archaeological sites all over the world, from Neolithic to Pre-Columbian America. In the Middle East, for in-stance, bird shaped or spherical clay rattles with handles are quite common, such as those found in Akkadian and post Akkadian contexts in the Tel Barak excavations.26 Also, rattling clay pigs were found in large numbers in Ur, dating from around 3000 – 2000 B.C. A type of spool shaped clay rat-tle was also relatively common in Late Bronze Age and Iron Age Israel27 and probably had a rit-ual purpose, as they are commonly found in devo-tional and funerary contexts.28 Several clay rattles of different shapes, including balls with handles, birds and spherical rattles, have also been found at sites dating from Bronze Age Anatolia, in many cases in child burials.29 Clay rattles, both in zoo-morphic and geometric shapes, were also relatively common in the European Bronze and Iron Ages. During the Bronze Age, clay rattles were placed in graves in Poland, Hungary, Switzerland, France, Germany and the Czech Republic. In certain ne-cropoles, bird shape clay rattles were very common in children’s graves.30 In Holland, clay rattles have been recovered from cemeteries dated between the 3rd to 1st centuries B.C., and probably had a ritual purpose.31 In Iron Age Etruria, clay rattles were placed in the graves of women and children, probably with a ritual significance.32 Despite all these ritual interpretations of rattling clay objects, there are findings that indicate a more profane use. In Greece and Rome, zoomorphic, such as dol-phins, dogs or birds, and geometrically shaped clay rattles were commonly used as toys between the 4th century B.C. and the beginning of the 1st cen-tury B.C. Also, a Greek clay ball rattle, decorated with a frieze of athletes and belonging to a famous courtesan, was recovered, and was probably used as a pendant.33 But if we consider to what extent the finds of clay rattles are linked with ritual and funerary practices in many cultures, especially in

European contexts, we must not disregard the pos-sibility that the clay marble rattles from Numantia were more than game balls or children’s toys.

2 The Reconstruction of the Production Process

Experimental archaeology can help us understand-ing more about the production process and, even-tually, throw light on the possible uses and func-tions of these rattles. The degree of specialization required, their sturdiness and their capacity for sound production are some of the questions that were raised before the experiment. Another goal of this experimentation was to observe the signs of use-wear on the surface of the replicas produced by different kinds of action, in order to make com-parisons with the use-wear of the original rattles.

The reconstruction process (Fig. 13) was car-ried out at the same time as the production of other Numantine clay products, such as horns and vases. The first step was to select the clay. Con-sidering the archaeometric analysis of Numantian pottery,34 we have selected well decanted clays without tempering, which match the type of clay used by the Numantine artisans. Once the clay is decanted, it is manually mixed, and a ball of the size of the finds is made by hand. When the ball is ready, it is hollowed with the thumb in order to obtain a clay ball with an opening. At this stage, our observation of traditional pottery artisans made us consider that ash was probably intro-duced together with the clay pebbles inside the rat-tle. Ash is a natural non-stick material, commonly used in pottery workshop for several reasons. This use could explain some of the dark grey traces that we can observe inside the broken artifacts (Fig. 14), and also why the sound produced is so gentle, es-pecially considering the good metallic sound of Numantine clay once fired. In the opinion of the experimental potter and experimental archaeology expert Javier Fanlo, the use of ashes would have been more likely intended to make the artefacts less noisy, rather than preventing the pebbles from sticking to the inside. Be that as it may, the use of some kind of powder inside the clay rattles was

26 McDonald 2001, figs. 75. 95. 96.27 Joachim Braun could identify 75 clay rattles so far, 45 with

a spool form (Braun 2001, 106).28 Braun 2002, 105 – 107.29 Bachmann 1994, 145 – 157.30 Malinowski 1994, 279 – 297; Clodoré-Tissot 2006, 279 – 289.31 Rimmer 1981, 245.32 Li Castro 2008.33 Hoffmann 1963, 20 – 22.34 García Heras 1999.


proved after the accidental breaking of a Vaccean example. It showed that a whitish powder had been introduced together with the pebbles. In this case, the large number of pebbles in a limited space may have made the use of ash necessary as a non-stick material.35 Therefore, some small clay balls, all covered with ash, were introduced into the rat-tle reproduction together with a small amount of ash, both to avoid possible adherence of the balls inside the rattle and to mimic the subtle sound of the original pieces. A small piece of clay closed the ball. When we had manually smoothed the sur-face, we proceeded to apply different decorations through incisions and impressions with fingernails and sticks.

When the pieces were ready, they were fired in a reconstruction of a Late Iron Age kiln (Fig. 15). Hitherto, no reproduction of a kiln had been suc-cessful, this one being the first functional recon-struction of a Late Second Iron Age Iberian kiln. To do so, we reconstructed a kiln based on finds of kiln remains with the help of traditional pottery artisans Bartolomé and Antonio Padilla Herrera, who had worked in their youth with traditional wood ovens of Roman and Spanish-Muslim tradi-tion.36

Since the 8th century B.C., a new technique of production with a faster potter wheel had been introduced on the Iberian Peninsula, creating the need for more complex combustion structures such as double chamber kilns separated by a grill and with a vertical flue. We have reproduced a kiln that corresponds to Type B6, following the typol-ogy made by Coll Conesa,37 the most common type from the Ebro River southwards since the 3rd century B.C. The lack of archaeological infor-mation on kiln covers was the main challenge for our reconstruction. We chose a permanent cover, discarding traditional interpretations of possible temporary covers based on a lack of evidence. We believe that considering the construction technolo-gy required in order to build such an efficient com-bustion device, it is more likely that the cover was permanent, the lack of evidence being the result of later reutilization of the cover material, which would have been at the top of the remains once the kiln was destroyed. Our kiln achieved temperatures of 750 – 950 ºC, which is the same temperature that the archaeometric analysis indicates for the original firing.38 The experiment would have been impos-sible without the contribution of several traditional potters from Bailén (Jaén, Spain), who learned, in their youth, the building and the firing process of wood kilns. Their expertise was the key to our suc-cess both in building a functional kiln and firing the pieces, controlling the whole process from the first pre-heating of the kiln up to the final opening three days later. They were able to control the tem-

perature by the color of the fire, and understood when the pieces were ready and the fire had to be extinguished. At the same time, we recorded all the temperatures with a pyrometer.39 The quality of the resulting clay objects was remarkable, and the rattle replicas had the same sound, size and weight as the original pieces (Fig. 16).

Nevertheless, our goal when reproducing the rattles through experimental archaeology was not exclusively the production of a perfect replica, but the possibility that the process could answer some questions and generate new queries. All the steps that we followed were done while working with much more complex pieces, such as clay horns and vases. The rattles were easily made in a few minutes and did not require any special technique or expe-rience, as the clay was ready and mixed in order to produce the other objects. We believe that these pieces were much easier to make than the cylindri-cal rattles of Vaccean origin,40 which are profusely decorated with excised geometrical patterns. The production process is much closer to that of the clay marbles than to any other more complex clay rattles. Another important aspect of the project was the study of the use-wear on the surface. The dif-ferences between unused reproductions (Fig. 17) and used reproductions (Fig. 18) seemed quite ob-vious. The unused objects had a smooth surface with no marks, while the used rattles show circular marks and damage on the surface. To use the rattle reproductions we played with them as marbles and also gave them to toddlers, but they were not used intensively. All the archaeological pieces show the same marks as those on our used, self-made rattles (Fig. 19). This is significant since it means that the original rattles were used, and not unused goods solely made for funerary purposes. On the other hand, it proves that the use of these objects was not very intense, such as in continuous marble games or as everyday children’s toys, since the marks are not very different from the ones produced by our brief use of our self-made objects.

So even if they did not have a complicated man-ufacturing process that could indicate an important cultural, economic or symbolic connotation for the objects, the fact that they do not have marks show-ing intense use does not help us to understand them solely as children’s toys or game balls. Moreover, if hollowed balls with pebbles inside were part of

35 Sanz Mínguez et al. 2007, 294.36 Padilla Fernández et al. 2013.37 Coll Conesa 2000, 201.38 García Heras 2005, 363.39 Padilla Fernández et al. 2013.40 Martín Valls – Romero Carnicero 1980; Sanz Mínguez 1997;

Sanz Mínguez – Romero Carnicero 2005; Sanz Mínguez et al. 2007.


these marble games, the number of rattling marbles would have been higher, but in fact the number of rattling pieces is insignificant compared with the solid pieces. We must also consider that solid mar-bles are even easier to make, as there is no possible failure in the process, so there must be another rea-son for the rattling pieces.

Perhaps then they were used as rattles to enter-tain babies and toddlers. Nevertheless, if we accept that this was so, some aspects remain unexplained. On the one hand, an intense sound was not the goal of the objects, as they could have been easily produced to sound louder. But even if the purpose was a not-so-disturbing child’s toy, this would not explain why these marble rattles appear both in children’s and adult’s graves in French and Belgian contexts. Another fact that seems to indicate that they might have had a cultural significance is the decorative patterns, which are remarkably similar in different cultural areas. During the reconstruc-tion of the objects we reflected on the possibility that they were made by children. Understanding the techniques involved in the modeling process allows us to make interesting interpretations of so-cial aspects, such as gender, age, status and trans-mission. The high degree of specialization achieved signifies that artisan families established a learning pattern through which the knowledge of the pro-duction process was taught and transmitted from generation to generation. Through experimenta-tion, children and apprentices would gradually acquire basic knowledge. From an archaeologi-cal perspective, in Las Cogotas Iron Age Pottery Centre (Cardeñosa, Ávila, Spain) there are inter-esting finds of manufactured pieces, such as small boxes and decorated clay toys, which bear infant’s dermatoglyphic prints.41 Nevertheless, these pieces have clear defects and the decorative patterns are random, preventing a comparison with our much more complex rattles (Fig. 20).

3 An Ethnohistorical Approach

Consequently, the conclusions from the recon-struction of the production process and the use-wear studies do not fully suit the traditional in-terpretation of the objects, whether it be that of sound tools with apotropaic properties (the sound is very light and it seems they were purposefully built not to sound loud), marbles for games (they do not show intense use) or children’s toys (they do not have marks of intense use and have appeared in adult graves in French and Belgian contexts). We believe then that it is necessary to propose other possibilities based on ethnohistorical and ethno-graphic comparisons to add to the list of possible interpretations of the artefacts.

Reflecting on why it would be interesting to put an object inside another if sound production was not the main goal, the concept of imitative magic came to our minds, which suits the world-wide use of rattles as fertility and pregnancy amu-lets. Already in 1935, a discussion of the uses of these rattle-like clay objects took place in the jour-nal of the Societé Préhistorique Français,42 which gathered information about the possible uses of these clay hollowed objects from the Bronze Age to Gallo-Roman times. The authors concluded that they could not be used as toys as they were too delicate for children, and some of them were too heavy and big for children’s hands. Further-more, they proposed a very interesting interpreta-tion through an ethnohistorical journey from the 3rd century B.C. to the 19th century, comparing the findings to certain amulets that were used to protect women during labour. In fact, they docu-mented the tradition of the aetites or eagle stones. The author starts with Theophrastus, who in his treaty On Stones mentions a sounding stone, used long before his time, to protect pregnant women against miscarriages and help them during la-bour,43 and identifies them with the eagle stones. These eagle stones were different types of circular geodes that sounded when shaken, as they con-tained small pebbles in the inside. This tradition of attaching rattling stones to pregnant women us-ing the skin of sacrificed animal is documented in Pliny, who mentioned these eagle stones or aetites in his Natural History:

“Attached to pregnant women or to cattle, in the skins of animals that have been sac-rificed, these stones act as a preventive of abortion, care being taken not to remove them till the moment of parturition; for oth-erwise procidence of the uterus is the result. If, on the other hand, they are not removed at the moment when parturition is about to ensue, that operation of Nature cannot be effected”.44

Also during 2nd century B.C., Dioscorides ex-plained why these stones were so powerful:

41 Padilla Fernández – Chapon (forthcoming).42 Saintyves 1935, 621 – 627.43 However, Theophrastus only asserts: “But the greatest and

most wonderful power, if this is true, is that of stones which give birth to young” (Thphr. Lap.10. Translation from Theophrastus 1956, 48). The ideas that these were used as labour amulets and that Theophrastus was probably refer-ring to the eagle stones come from the commentaries of the 1754 French translation that was used by the article’s author (1754, 21 – 26).

44 Pliny, Naturalis Historia XXXVI, 39. Translation from Pliny 1855, 364 – 365.


“Aetites stone when shaken sends out a sound as if it were pregnant with another stone. It prevents miscarriage when the wombs are slippery, tied around the left arm. At the time of delivery [in childbirth] take it from the arm and tie it around the thigh and she shall bring forth without pain”.45

Saintyves also quoted the 12th century bishop of Rennes, who enumerated the qualities of these stones for pregnant women. Descriptions of the miraculous properties of these stones can be found also in several treatises, books and poems from the Middle Ages to the 18th century.46 During the 19th century, women of the French region of Vi-varais still used the stone when pregnant. An Italian ethnographer also collected a round clay geode that sounded when shaken that was an amulet for wom-en. Called pietra gravida (pregnant stone), they were carried in small bags. The tradition seemed to be alive in Italy at least as late as 1945, when wom-en still used these rattling geodes attached to their right arm during pregnancy and to the thigh when giving birth. They hired these stones if they did not have them as heirlooms, and despite it being a pagan belief, grateful mothers would offer them as ex-votes in churches.47

In fact, the use of amulets to help women in pregnancy and labour is common in almost every culture. Also in ancient Babylonia women carried stones that are called in the texts “stone of stay-ing pregnant”.48 The texts explain how the women should carry them in order to avoid miscarriages, tied with leather laces in small bags with herbs and other ritual elements. The Talmud also mentions a preserving stone, which would protect the woman from miscarriage and which she was allowed to carry also during the Sabbath. Some scholars have identified these stones with the eagle stones, while others are reluctant to believe that it was the same amulet.49 These stones are also well known in Ger-man folklore, under the names of Adlerstein or Klapperstein (‘eagle stone’ or ‘rattle stone’).50 On the Iberian Peninsula they were called Piedras de San Juan (Stones of Saint John).

So it is possible that artificial clay amulets were made to imitate these geodes. In fact, given the be-lief that similar actions produce similar result, a clay ball containing another one would replicate the pregnancy and ensure that the baby was well carried. But if women around the world have used amulets to ensure safe pregnancy, it is also com-mon to use magical objects to favour it. Fertility rites and amulets are among the most common ones in agrarian societies, where the use of rattles is extensive. If we follow Sachs idea,51 the first rattles were probably made from gourds, and the sound of a fruit carrying the seeds would produce, through

imitative magic, the same effect in a woman. In fact, in many cultures, some types of rattles are only used by women and children.52 It is also remark-able that a significant number of Iron Age rattle finds in Europe also belonged to young women’s and children’s burials.53 If this is the case, our clay rattles may also be related to fertility, pregnancy or labour.

Nevertheless, we should not forget that they also appear in adult male burials. In fact, anthro-pologists have long point out to what extent per-cussion instruments and noisemakers have a strong connection with rites of passage in a large number of human cultures, especially in connection with illness and death rituals.54 A percussive noise seems to punctuate and divide time, as a natural symbol for marking a temporal change in status. It is also connected with the idea of the contrast between the noise of the living and the silence of the dead. Artificially produced noise has been used as a powerful magical device in many cultures and times during funerary rituals, and was often linked with the idea of driving away the souls of the dead or evil spirits. For instance, bells in Greece, Etruria and Rome had a function connected with death and burials, not only for children (although bells are common in children’s graves). Pliny, in his Natural History55 quotes Varo when he re-ports the grave of the Etruscan sovereign Porsena, where bells were hung. According to Diodorus of Sicily,56 the cortege of the funeral of Alexander the Great was accompanied by bells of different sizes. So it seems that the relationship between rattling sound and some kind of symbolic attribution re-lated with their apotropaic properties in funerals was common in antiquity. The sound of struck bronze was very significant also for Greeks and Romans as is attested in various written sources, and was used in purification rituals and funerals to ward off evil. Small bells were also normally used as amulets. This is also corroborated in other areas such as the Caucasus, Cyprus, the Black Sea area, Boeotia, Hellenistic Egypt and Syria57 and also in Iberian children’s graves since the 3rd century B.C. This idea of metallic idiophones as a protection

45 Dsc. V, 160. Translation from Dioscorides 2000, 823.46 Forbes 1963, 390 – 401.47 McDaniel 1948, 543.48 Stoll 2000, 49.49 Stoll 2000, 50 – 52.50 Bromehead 1947, 16 – 22.51 Sachs 1940, 27 – 28.52 Sachs 1940, 28; Schaeffner 1990, 20 – 43.53 Clodoré-Tissot 2006, 293 – 295.54 Needhmam 1967; Metcalf – Huntington 1993.55 Pliny, Naturalis Historia XXXVI, 19.18.56 Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca Historica XVIII, 26.6; 27.5.57 Villing 2002, 289 – 291.


against evil persisted through the Middle Ages to modern times, but in Greek and Roman women’s and children’s graves from the Archaic and Clas-sical periods there are also examples of terracotta bells. The latter were hardly functional and are more related to the idea of symbolic sound, as a representation of a ritual sound protection for the afterlife. So this could also be the case with our clay rattles, which produce a sound that is hardly audible.

4 Conclusions

Although with this methodology we cannot defini-tively conclude a unique use and cultural function of the marble rattles, we have gathered significant information that has helped us to question some of the traditional conventions and also made us reflect further on the materials. Our experimental repro-duction has led us to the conclusion that the pro-duction of the rattles did not require experienced craftsmanship, but also that it is probable that they were specifically made in a way to ensure gentle sound properties, since they could have been eas-ily made to produce louder sounds. Thanks to the analysis of the use-wear we have demonstrated that the objects were used and not simply made to be employed during a funerary ritual, but that at the

same time they were not used intensely, like mar-bles in games or toddler toys. Also, the fact that the same patterns of stamps and lines that divide the spheres into the same number of portions are depicted in almost all the examples of both mar-bles rattles and solid rattles may support the idea that some symbolic conception was attached to these artefacts. In fact, cultural behavior related to ritual practices is in general very codified, and this includes the design and ornamentation of ritual ar-tefacts. Moreover, they are more easily transferred from one culture to another and change slower than other cultural aspects. The large number of parallels to La Tène culture and the use of clay rat-tles in neighboring cultures also indicate a cultural significance. All things considered, we believe that these objects probably had a life process that could fit in with any of the cultural interpretations we have proposed. Ethnography proves that certain objects often have different functions during dif-ferent stages, from their production until their final disposal. It is possible, then, that we have not been able to propose one unique use of the marble rat-tles because they did not have such a unique use. They may have been fertility, pregnancy and labor amulets for women, which later accompanied the children as apotropaic protectors throughout their life, and which in some cases also served as a com-panion in the afterlife.

Ancient Sources

DioDorus of sicily

The Library of History, Vol. IX: Book 18. Transl. by R. M. Geer (The Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press 1947).

DioscoriDes

The Materia Medica. Transl. by A. T. Os-baldeston (Ibidis Press, Johannesburg 2000).

Pliny the elDer

The Natural History. Ed. by J. Bostock (M.D., F.R.S.) and H.T. Riley (Esq., B.A.). (Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street London 1855).

theoPhrastus

Traité des Pierres de Théophraste. Traduit du Grec; avec de Notes Physiques et Cri-tiques traduites de l’Anglois de M. Hill. Ed. by J. Th. Herissant (Paris 1754).

On Stones. Introduction, Greek text, Eng-lish Translation and Commentary. By E. R. Caley and J. F. C. Richards, Ohio State University (Columbus, Ohio 1956).


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Fig. 1 Marble rattle from Numantia (Garray, Soria, Spain). Numantine Museum of Soria. N-12323 (photo and drawing by the authors).





Fig. 5 Marble rattle from Numantia (Garray, Soria, Spain). Numantine Museum of Soria. NP f. 120 (photo and drawing by the authors).

Fig. 6 Marble rattles from Las Quintanas (Padilla de Duero, Valladolid, Spain) with an approximate diameter of 4.5 cm (left) and 4 cm (right) (after Wattenberg 1959, 217).


Fig. 7 Vaccean rattle from Las Quintanas (Padilla de Duero, Valladolid, Spain) with a diameter between 5–6 cm. a. Original (after Martín Valls – Romero Carnicero 1980, 163, pls. 1–2). b. Drawing (after Martín Valls – Romero Carnicero 1980, fig. 2, 162).

Fig. 8 Marble rattle from La Cuesta del Mercado (Coca, Segovia, Spain) (after Blanco García 1994, fig. 16, n° 9, 62).

Fig. 9 Vaccean marble rattle from El Soto de Medinilla (Valladolid, Spain) (after Sanz Mínguez 1997, 334).

Fig. 10 Spheric clay rattles from Forêt de Haguenau (Alsace, France) with a diameter of 4 cm. a. Photo (after Clodoré-Tissot 2006, III-5, pl. 232, 2 b). – b. Drawing (after Bevilacqua 1997, 77–78).

Fig. 11 Spheric clay rattles from Acy-Romance (Ardennes, France) with diameters between 2.9–3.4 cm (after Clodoré-Tissot 2006, III-5, pl. 233, 1–3).

a b

a b


Fig. 12 Marble rattle from an adult grave, Gallo-roman Cemetery of Clos au Duc (Evreux, Eure, France) (after Pluton et al. 2008, 217 fig. 8).

Fig. 13 Reproduction of clay rattles (photos by the authors).

Fig. 14 Detail of broken marble rattle 4868 with a diameter of 3.7–3.8 cm. Numantine Museum of Soria. N-4868 (photo by the authors).


Fig. 15 The firing in the kiln reconstruction (photo by the authors).

Fig. 16 Reproduction of a marble rattle with a diameter of 4.5 cm (photo by the authors).

Fig. 17 Use-wear marks in unused rattle reproductions (photo by the authors).

Fig. 18 Use-wear marks in used rattle reproductions (photo by the authors).

Fig. 19 Use-wear marks in original rattles. Detail of N-12323. Numantine Museum of Soria (photo by the

authors).


Fig. 20 a. Part of a small glass with thick walls showing children’s fingerprints (Las Cogotas Pottery, Ávila, Spain). – b. Handmade clay doll (Las Cogotas Pottery, Ávila, Spain). – c. Imperfect handmade box imitating similar products

(Las Cogotas Pottery, Ávila, Spain). (Drawings made by the authors).

The Clay Rattles of the Numantine Museum of Soria (Spain). An Approach from Experimental Archaeology

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