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_900x900.jpg "Roman Bronze Armour Squama Scales Group")
_200x200.jpg "Roman Bronze Armour Squama Scales Group")
.jpg "Roman Bronze Armour Squama Scales Group")
LOT 1117
Roman Bronze Armour Squama Scales Group
2ND-3RD CENTURY A.D.
3/8 - 2 1/2 in. (30 grams total, 10-65 mm).
Mixed group of semi-rigid bronze scales with scalloped lower edges, pierced for attachment; together with two small panels of articulated lamina scales. [23+, No Reserve]
ProvenanceAcquired in the late 1980s.
The Kusmirek Collection, UK.
Cf. Bishop, M.C. & Coulston, J.C.N., Roman military equipment, from the Punic wars to the fall of Rome, London, 2006, p.139, fig.84.2, for similar.
FootnotesA new form of rigid scale-armour, typified by pieces found in Britannia (Corbridge, Carlisle), Pannonia (Musov), Moesia (Iron Gates) and in various other provinces of the empire, was introduced earlier in the Antonine Period, and continued for all of the 3rd and 4th centuries A.D. The new body protection was realised with scales attached by wire to each of their four neighbouring scales. These new scales tended to be not only very small, but also long and slender and needed to be carefully shaped around the neck.
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Luristan Bronze Socketted Axehead
Circa 13th-7th century B.C.Sold for (Inc. bp): £59
Featuring an oval-shaped socket, straight upper edge and curved lower edge with slightly convex cutting edge. 1.2 kg, 14.5 cm
Acquired 1990s-early 2000s. East Anglian private collection.
Unadorned weapons, especially axes, adzes and picks, were made by Luristan craftsmen using simple clay or stone bivalve moulds, into which was inserted a core to form the socket for the shaft. Typically, the metallic composition consisted of a combination of arsenical bronze and copper, together with a small percentage of lead. -
Greek Bronze Socketted Spear with Iron Head
12th-10th century B.C.Estimate: £100 - 140 (+bp*)
Opening Bid: £50
With foliate head and short tubular socketted shaft. 119 grams, 15 cm
Ex German collection, Cologne, 1980-1990s.
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. -
Western Asiatic Bronze Long Sword
2nd-1st millennium B.C.Sold for (Inc. bp): £182
Composed of a tanged and barbed blade with raised midrib to both faces, extending the full-length of the weapon. 470 grams, 57 cm
Private UK collection, 1980s. Ex London gallery.
In the last ninety years many such tanged blades have been considered coming from centres of production of North-West Iran, like Amlash and Marlik. Without context an accurate dating is impossible, but the shape recalls the rapiers of Bronze Age or Early Iron Age.
