Possible flank right element of a composite cuirass for a kataphraktos (armoured horseman), part of the edge still preserved on three sides, fastening holes and part of the clasps for attaching the piece to the other parts of armour still visible. [No Reserve]

PROVENANCE:
UK private collection, acquired in 1996.
This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.

LITERATURE:
Cf. Connolly, P., Greece and Rome at War, London, 2006, figs.p.55-56, for the typology of armour and similar fragments; for the type and composition of the Hellenistic heavy armours see Nikonorov, V. P., & Savchuk, S. A., ‘ New Data on Ancient Bactrian Body-Armour (In the Light of Finds from Kampyr Tepe)’ in Iran, 30, 1992, pp.49-54, figs.1-5.

FOOTNOTES:
A near complete armour for cataphract was found in a French excavation in Al-Khanoum, a Hellenistic city in Afghanistan. The cavalry of Seleucid, Ptolemaic and other Hellenistic Kingdoms formed regiments of heavy armoured horsemen, who in the west, employed a combination of lamellar and segmented armour together with muscled armour of Greek type. Cataphract armour in the west had more Greek elements, for example more plate armour and less scale and lamellar.