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+--- Thread: New Late Roman buckle from Dorchester on Thames (/showthread.php?tid=19627)
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New Late Roman buckle from Dorchester on Thames - Caballo - 10-06-2011
This magnificent late Roman buckle, found in the Dyke Hills , Dorchester on Thames, is of bronze with a strap end. It was found with a small francisca- possibly ceremonial. The find has not even been conserved yet. There are almost certainly more such graves in Dyke Hills- but they will await the farmers' permission to excavate which is unlikely at the moment.....
![[Image: Christasfeet011.jpg]](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v221/PaulHB/Dorchester%20Dyke%20Hills%20Finds/Christasfeet011.jpg)
![[Image: Christasfeet009.jpg]](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v221/PaulHB/Dorchester%20Dyke%20Hills%20Finds/Christasfeet009.jpg)
![[Image: Christasfeet012.jpg]](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v221/PaulHB/Dorchester%20Dyke%20Hills%20Finds/Christasfeet012.jpg)
![[Image: Christasfeet013.jpg]](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v221/PaulHB/Dorchester%20Dyke%20Hills%20Finds/Christasfeet013.jpg)
![[Image: DykeHillsnewbuckle.jpg]](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v221/PaulHB/Dorchester%20Dyke%20Hills%20Finds/DykeHillsnewbuckle.jpg)
![[Image: DykeHills1.jpg]](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v221/PaulHB/Dorchester%20Dyke%20Hills%20Finds/DykeHills1.jpg)
![[Image: Christasfeet008.jpg]](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v221/PaulHB/Dorchester%20Dyke%20Hills%20Finds/Christasfeet008.jpg)
Re: New Late Roman buckle from Dorchester on Thames - markusaurelius - 10-06-2011
Very nice buckle and belt, wonder why it is labelled Anglo-Saxon.....
Re: New Late Roman buckle from Dorchester on Thames - Vindex - 10-06-2011
Fabulous detail on the buckle - thank you for posting.
One assumes the context of excavation has led to the label...
Lets hope they can keep the detectorists away from these sites!
Re: New Late Roman buckle from Dorchester on Thames - Robert Vermaat - 10-06-2011
Very nice buckle. I also wonder why it's still labelled AS - it could be from any Germanic federate service in the Roman army, or indeed from any soldier.
I realise of course that it's labelled thus because for a very long time these buckles were seen as civilian, unrelated to any military function (a typical insular view, while on the continent any such buckles were seen as typically military). And of course after the Romans came the Anglo-Saxons..
Why would a small francisca be ceremonial? It could also have belonged to a child - in Cologne we have such a child's grave, with small items such as a helmet. Of course, one could see those items as ceremonial.
Re: New Late Roman buckle from Dorchester on Thames - Peroni - 10-06-2011
Crikey! That's huge! In comparison to the other Dorchester find - which is also quite large.
Re: New Late Roman buckle from Dorchester on Thames - Caballo - 10-06-2011
The francisca has a very flat top- it could have been used to split wood perhaps?? The symbolic interpretation came from the excavator.
The Anglo Saxon label alsoncomes from the room - which is 410 onwards...and as we all know, the Romans left in 410 AD leaving only Britons and Anglosaxons...
:roll:
So, a massive dragon head buckle, with another dragon head buckle already found nearby. This indicates that these soldiers originated from the Continent as does the chip carving- one of (I think) four found, all in Southern England.
The dragon head buckle to me begins to look like a unit id?
And dating to late 4th/ early 5th.
The dragon head buckle and tubular fittings have paralells with this find in Germany [attachment=1869]JuelicherFund-862x1024.jpg[/attachment]
And the Donderberg
grave
![[Image: dorch6.gif]](http://www.romanarmy.net/images/Pages/articles/dorchester/dorch6.gif)
And the same combination of dragon head buckle and tubular fittings in the original Dyke Hills, Dorchester grave
[attachment=1868]20_2011-10-07.jpg[/attachment]
Are there any other parallel finds that could help unravel more about these very similar but geographically disparate graves?
Cheers
Caballo
Re: New Late Roman buckle from Dorchester on Thames - Peroni - 10-07-2011
I seem to remember a find from the Netherlands of a similar type - It's shown in Nico Roymans' "Armed Batavians"
Re: New Late Roman buckle from Dorchester on Thames - Cheyenne - 10-07-2011
I'm trying to understand where the number 12 item in the last illustration in this thread sits on the belt - can anyone elaborate
Cheers
Re: New Late Roman buckle from Dorchester on Thames - Caballo - 10-07-2011
I interpreted it as a sword bead/ amulet- http://www.romanarmy.net/dorchester.htm it's a good question!
Re: New Late Roman buckle from Dorchester on Thames - Robert Vermaat - 10-08-2011
Quote:The dragon head buckle to me begins to look like a unit id?You mean buckles and belts like these? Just about hundreds I think? These finds are very common in NW Europe (especially inside the Empire) during the period 375-425 I think. Nothing odd, really, mostly stuff probably issued by the army.
[..]
Are there any other parallel finds that could help unravel more about these very similar but geographically disparate graves?
Unit ID? Not likely, just mass-produced stuff, more like.
Re: New Late Roman buckle from Dorchester on Thames - Cheyenne - 10-08-2011
I thought it me a sword amulet - it doesn't have any other explanation I suppose... I'd like to know what the original was made from. I have some nice bone pieces that could be made into such an amulet with the dot and ring decoration...
Something for the next spatha methinks
Re: New Late Roman buckle from Dorchester on Thames - Caballo - 10-08-2011
I've seen two sources on this- one says its made of bone, one of antler. So a bone one would be fine, I reckon.
Re: New Late Roman buckle from Dorchester on Thames - G.Pub.Britannicus - 11-04-2011
Could it be Roman gear re-used (recycled) by an Anglo-Saxon & buried in an A-S cemetery with it's last owner?
Re: New Late Roman buckle from Dorchester on Thames - Caballo - 11-04-2011
Hi Howard,
Well, it does seem as if it was a Saxon wearing it. How he got the buckle is open to conjecture- but others buried nearby also have typical late Roman buckles. So the options are that they were issued with the buckles as part of the Late Roman army, or obtained them in another way- given to them by the Dorchester Romano-Britons still living near by, stolen, recycled or some other reason.
Have a read here http://www.digdorchester.net/home.htm and hers http://www.romanarmy.net/dorchester.htm . Let me know what you think....I'm digging there next July!
Re: New Late Roman buckle from Dorchester on Thames - G.Pub.Britannicus - 11-04-2011
Thank you for the quick reply. Perhaps the Roman Army abandoned a lot of equipment when they withdrew, or gave it to Romanized Britons. The Anglo-Saxons could have acquired it by any of several means.