Archaeomusicology: History of Cymbal playing in Antiquity back to menu

My secondary research activity in archaeomusicology focuses on cymbal playing in Antiquity. I adopt a multidisciplinary approach combining comparative iconography, experimental archaeology, and the study of archaeological specimens using various imaging techniques and advanced image processing. Since 2023, I have been collaborating with the Centre de Recherche et de Restauration des Musées de France (C2RMF).

o I have put forward the fact that dancers from the Roman Empire could use two cymbals per hands, attached to two different fingers, in a way similar to modern Middle Eastern Dancers from Egypt and Turkey. For more details, see:

A. Cottet, Playing finger cymbals in the Roman Empire: an iconographic study,

Early Music, 2022, Volume 50, Pages 3–20

https://doi.org/10.1093/em/caab073

o I have published an analysis of the Roman-imperial mosaic of the female musicians from Mariamin in Syria. This mosaic depicts a type of cymbal tongs, the “lateral” cymbal tongs, which differs from the “frontal” cymbal tongs considered so far by scholars, regarding the placement of the cymbals. I have studied the acoustic properties of these two types of instruments by realizing functional reconstructions. For more details, see:

A. Cottet, Cymbals playing in a Roman mosaic from Mariamin in Syria,

CLARA (Classical Art and Archeology), 2022, Volume 9

https://journals.uio.no/CLARA/article/view/9726

o I have examined strong similarities between cymbal-playing techniques depicted in Romano-Byzantine and Sasanian (Persian) iconography. Among these is a spectacular ankle-cymbal technique, for which I have proposed an experimental reconstruction demonstrating its practical feasibility. For more details, see:

Cymbal Playing in Late Antiquity: Resonances between Romano-Byzantine and Late Sasanian Iconographies

Greek and Roman Musical Studies (published online ahead of print 2026)

https://doi.org/10.1163/22129758-bja10118

Covers of the journals Early Music and CLARA (Classical Art and Archaeology)

featuring two illustrations of my articles