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_900x900.jpg "Roman Bronze Armour Double Fastening Hook")
_200x200.jpg "Roman Bronze Armour Double Fastening Hook")
.jpg "Roman Bronze Armour Double Fastening Hook")
LOT 1075
Roman Bronze Armour Double Fastening Hook
1ST CENTURY A.D.
2 3/4 in. (33 grams total, 70 mm each).
Each a scrolled and angled bar tapering to a gently carinated zoomorphic terminal, formed as a serpent or other animal with stylised geometric detailing; attachment perforations to both terminals. [2 3/4 in.]
ProvenanceAcquired on the London art market, 1980s-1990s.
LiteratureCf. D'Amato, R. and Sumner, G., Arms and Armour of the Imperial Roman Soldier: From Marius to Commodus, 112 BC-AD 192, London, 2009, fig.160, for similar double fastening hooks.
FootnotesIn the 1st century B.C.-1st century A.D., the Celtic fastening system of the ring mail armour (gallica, lorica ferro aspera) became the standard in the Imperial Roman army, with a pivot attached to the breast and hinged to the edges of the humeralia (shoulder guards). The chest fastener had various different designs. The double hooks, S-shaped and usually with snake-head terminals, were secured by a central rivet on the chest. The system allowed excellent freedom of movement, giving greater protection to the shoulders and the arms. Similar fasteners for infantry mail have been found on the Kalkriese battlefield, some of them also decorated with niello and inscribed with the name of the soldier.
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Snodgrass assigns the Athenian iron spearheads to the type A, i.e. spearheads with a leaf-shaped blade, a long socket and a midrib running to the tip. The bronze ones were assigned to typologies C – small, with a leaf-shaped blade (like the present specimen) - and D – with the socket as long as the blade, rounded shoulders and pronounced midrib. Both socket types were beaten round a cylindrical bar, a conservative method to produce bronze sockets even if the head was in iron. -
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