RomanArmyTalk

I am looking for good photos of the original shield boss of Junius Dubitatus found near the mouth of the River Tyne; the info from the BM is here.

This is the boss the Deepeeka sells a reproduction of.

Will appreciate help - you could email the pics to kyrychenkoATlineoneDOTnet

Thanks,

From "Roma Vitrix", the shield boss of Junius Dubitatus, legionnary from Leg VIII Augusta :

wow, thats fantastic...so is this common, this degree of detail, arent they usually just metallic and plain?

Thank you, Cuniculus, great detail on the fragments. Too bad they did not detail the rest of the umbo. Any personal photos from the BM anyone? :wink:

Alex, I know you said you wanted original pics but Connolly's "Greece and Rome at War" has a good depiction on page 231, if you have it. If you could magnify it a little the detail is good enough to copy.
Hope this helps.

enjoyed the photos on legXI web site, thanks.

Alex,

Here's my two.. I will email you the hi-res photos :wink:

There is a similar boss at Mainz IIRC too.

If you are making a reconstruction, sometimes a good line drawing is better than a photograph. There is one of them of this particular shield boss in 'The Guide to the Antiquities of Roman Britain', published by the British Museum. There is another drawing of a round shield boss from Kirkham, which is also decorated, in the same book.

The book sometimes appears second hand and is certainly worth tracking down. However there may well be other line drawings of this umbo in other publications.

Len Morgan then with the Ermine Street Guard wrote a short article on reconstructing the shield boss, illustrated with quite a good black and white photograph of his version of the original (it was adopted for use by the XXth Legion) in the Guards Bulletin 'Exercitus' spring 1982 vol 1. No4.
Copies might still be available from the Guard via the address on their website.

There seems to be as many decorated shield bosses as undecorated ones and some are far more elaborate than this particular one.

Graham.

Many thanks to everyone for the info and the photos. Yes, I agree that a drawing might be more useful for a reconstruction, and a good one from B&C 2 is available here. I just wanted to look at the real thing closer

Ok, I see the brass and the darkening. How did they do it? Obviously not photoetched, though it seems to have that good of quality. What makes the selective stain?

Alex,

Here's the similar boss from Mainz (picture taken with a wide angle lens)
If you send me a pm with your email address I will email you the hi-res detail photos

Cheers
Luc

Alex,

just noticed your email address :oops:

Cheers
Luc

FYI the one at Mainz is not 'similar', it's an electrotype copy. I'll send you my hi-res pic as well.

Quote:Ok, I see the brass and the darkening. How did they do it? Obviously not photoetched, though it seems to have that good of quality. What makes the selective stain?

All tinned, then removal of the tin coating in selected areas reveals the underlying brass. Rather like those wax crayon pictures we all did at school!

Thanks for that memory, Peroni. Those were simpler days.

So just mechanical means, like a scraping tool, then?