My research in archaeomusicology focuses on
the history of concussion idiophones from antiquity to the present day.
Concussion idiophones consist of two or more complementary sonorous parts
struck against each other (cymbals, castanets, etc…). I have recently published
two articles on cymbal playing techniques in the Roman Empire. My methodology
is essentially based on comparative iconography and experimental archaeology.
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I have recently 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, Volume 50, Issue 1, February 2022, Pages
3–20
https://doi.org/10.1093/em/caab073
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I have also published an
analysis of the Roman-imperial mosaic of the female musicians from Mariamin in Syria. This mosaic shows that finger cymbal players
could use two different pairs of cymbals with two different pitches, one per
hand. It also 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), Volume 9
https://journals.uio.no/CLARA/article/view/9726
Studying Roman-period
cymbals at the Musée d’Archéologie
de Nice / Cimiez
Reconstruction of Roman-period cymbal tongs
(a) Lateral cymbal tongs from the mosaic of Mariamin, Photo:©Dick Osseman
(b) Modern reconstruction of lateral cymbal tongs ©Audrey Cottet
(c) Frontal cymbal tongs from Roman Egypt, Photo: ©The
Trustees of the British Museum
(d) Modern functional replica of frontal cymbal tongs ©Audrey Cottet