Golden Bell From the Clothing of a High Priest

In 2011, a small golden bell in the shape of a round ball was found during excavations of the rainwater drainage channel under the stepped road leading up to Temple Mount. It had a loop at the top, for the purpose of attaching it to something else. Perhaps to the hem of the garment of a noble or important individual, as was customary at that time. Found very close to the foot of the Temple Mount on the road where the High Priest would have walked, especially during the water libation service of the Sukkot festival, archaeologists deduced that it might be one of the bells that adorned the hem of the garment of the High Priest himself. When Eli Shukrun, the overseeing archaeologist, shook the little ball, it rang like a bell. Research later revealed that it had a bell clapper inside.

The Book of Exodus describes the Priestly Garments in chapter 28:31-34  “You are to make the robe of the ephod entirely of blue cloth…  Make pomegranates of blue, purple, and scarlet yarn all the way around the lower hem, with gold bells between them, alternating the gold bells and pomegranates around the lower hem of the robe.”