Finger cymbals, played with one pair in each hand like castanets, are iconic of the Middle Eastern ‘belly’ dance, which has been represented in numerous pictorial works and photographs since the 18th century. Middle Eastern dancers show that it is possible to dance while using two small cymbals in each hand, attached to two different fingers with straps from the cymbals’ holes. Starting from the observation that many such small cymbals have been found in Roman archaeological sites, this article asks whether Roman dancers played these small cymbals like Middle Eastern dancers do today. The question is complex, because Roman dancers were able to play small cymbals in other ways, such as holding just one in each hand, or inserting them into cymbal tongs. This article presents a typological and functional study of small metal cymbals attached to fingers in Roman iconography. Three examples are considered: a mosaic from the Roman city of Augusta Traiana (now Stara Zagora) in Bulgaria, and two stone reliefs, one from Orolaunum (now Arlon) in Belgium and another from the Podocataro Palace in Rome, dated from the 2nd to the 4th centuries ce. These remains testify to the use of fingers cymbals, two in each hand, attached directly to two different fingers, by dancers from the Roman Empire.

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在罗马帝国演奏手指钹：图像学研究

手指钹像响板一样每只手各用一对演奏，是中东“肚皮舞”的标志性元素，自 18 世纪以来已出现在众多绘画作品和照片中。中东舞者表明，可以在每只手使用两个小钹跳舞，用钹孔的带子连接到两个不同的手指上。本文从观察到在罗马考古遗址中发现了许多这样的小钹，本文询问罗马舞者是否像今天的中东舞者那样演奏这些小钹。这个问题很复杂，因为罗马舞者能够以其他方式演奏小钹，例如每只手只拿着一个，或者将它们插入钹钳中。本文介绍了罗马肖像中附着在手指上的小金属钹的类型和功能研究。考虑了三个例子：保加利亚罗马城市奥古斯塔特拉亚纳（现为斯塔拉扎戈拉）的马赛克和两块石头浮雕，一个来自比利时的奥罗劳努姆（现为阿尔隆），另一个来自罗马的波多卡塔罗宫，日期为 2 日至公元4世纪。这些遗骸证明了罗马帝国的舞者使用手指钹，每只手两个，直接连接到两个不同的手指上。