Klang Bell

The Klang Bell is an ancient bronze bell found in the city of Klang, Selangor state, western Malaysia. Estimated to date from the late Iron Age, the bell is a rare object of its genre and since 1949 has been part of the British Museum's Asian Collections.[1]

Klang Bell
Bronze bell from Klang, Malaysia on display at the British Museum
MaterialBronze
Size58 cm High, 31 cm Diameter
Weight7.4 kg
Created200 BC
Present locationBritish Museum, London
Registration1949,0715.1

Discovery

Found with a number of iron tools in the city of Klang, the cast bronze artefact was one of three unearthed there; it is very similar to other bells that have been found in Battambang in Cambodia.[2] One bell has been dated to AD 150.[3]

Description

The Klang Bell has a high, narrow body crowned by a cup-like lid and was designed to be worn by an elephant.[2] The entire bell is decorated with vertical bands of rectangles composed of double spirals with central eyes motifs. In the lower part of the bell, three irregularly fashioned rows lie above a plain band. The bell is decorated in a similar way to the Dong Son drums that were produced in large quantities in Vietnam and elsewhere in southeast Asia between 600 BC and the third century AD, and are some of the region's finest examples of metalworking from this period.

  • Detail of the bell from Klang

References
  1. "Bell". The British Museum.
  2. Linehan, W. (1951). "Traces of a Bronze Age culture associated with Iron Age implements in the regions of Klang and the Tembeling, Malaya". Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. 24 (3 (156)): 1–59. JSTOR 41502997.
  3. bin Haji Taha, Adi (1983). "Recent archaeological discoveries in Peninsular Malaysia 1976-1982". Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. 56 (1 (244)): 47–63. JSTOR 41492946.

Further reading
  • J. Rawson, Chinese bronzes: art and ritual (London, The British Museum Press, 1987)
  • L. von Falkenhausen, Suspended Music: Chime-Bells in the Culture of Bronze Age China (Los Angeles, 1993)
  • Harris, Mark (1990). National Museum, Kuala Lumpur: History and culture of Malaysia. Kuala Lumpur: Syarikat S. Abdul Majeed, Pub. Division. p. 88 pages. ISBN 978-983-9629-15-6.
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