Thanks for you reply. I've attached a new picture that shows the wires. On the right are the four wires from the other pic and the left are two sets of black and white wires. I tried connecting one set of the black and white wires to trans and front on a new chime but it ended up just making the chime ring non stop. The other set of black and white wires did nothing when hooked up to the chime.

For what it's worth the white/black wires look like doorbell wiring - the green/red/yellow/black is standard telephone wire so it could have been for something else.

The question is where do those wires go? Do you have a button at the door? And where is this "trans" and how is it wired?

Red/Green/Yellow/Black is the old 'standard' telephone 4-wire cable. Red/Green would be line 1, Yellow/Black would be line 2, or DC power for those old phones that need it for lighting. There's no reason one couldn't use this 4-wire cable for a door bell, though it would be confusing.

The transformer may be in the attic or basement.

It looks as if the black and green wires were connected to terminal screws at one time. If the wires you picture are high up on the wall, that might indeed be where a doorbell was once mounted. Or it might not. :)

With an assistant and a digital multimeter that measures voltage and resistance (continuity), you should be able to determine which wires (if any) provide transformer power, and which (if any) connect to the door buttons.

Unless you know where both ends of that 4-conductor telephone land-line cable are, I would measure it for voltage; perhaps it is still connected to the phone line. POTs phone line is 48 volts DC.