ABSTRACT
Chapter 5, ‘Musical media, 2’, describes membranophones (here, drums) and clashing, clapping and shaking instruments (idiophones). Drums were important in the cult and were of two basic types: portable (hand drums, shoulder-slung drums) and static (kettledrums, single-membrane floor or table drums, large double- and single-membrane rim-standing drums). Shapes varied (circular, rectangular, barrel-shaped, hourglass-shaped, cylindrical, cauldron-shaped). Drums were played with the fingers or the flat of the hand. Beaters are perhaps attested in written sources, but not in iconography. In ancient Israel and the Levant, only the small hand drum is mentioned in the sources in connection with the cult, in processions and with dance, but not in sacrificial rites. In Anatolia and Mesopotamia, individual representatives of types of drum mentioned in mythological narratives might attract royal favour, receive individual names and become used in cultic worship. Idiophones, also important in the cult, were cymbals (copper, bronze), hinged clappers (wooden boards), crotals and paired flat clappers (wood, ivory), enclosed rattles (earthenware, grass), sistrums (attested mostly in Egypt), bells and the menat. Menats are attested only in Egypt.
