RomanArmyTalk

For next year I plan to have a reproduction made of the gilded silver belt set found in the hoard of Roman silver from Traprain Law hillfort. The hoard as a terminus post quem in the early 5th century AD.
It is on display at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.

http://www.nms.ac.uk/collections/image.p...&scalemode=

The set is made of one buckle and attached (?) stiffeners, 4 other stiffeners, one strap end (the middle one).
It bears similarities with finds from Roman Pannonia. I find also that buckle shape looks very similar to Quoit Brooch style buckles found in Brittany at Pont-de-Buis and Saint-Marcel. The buckle has remains of leather on its back.

On Fectio's website:


It is nearly all I got however. The report on the hoard find by Curle is old, it dates from 1923 and nearly impossible to get.
I would need detailed pictures and information of dimensions. Can anyone help?

It is especially hard to figure if the stifferners are part of one block or were separate.

If you google excavations at Traprain Law there are sites where you can get hold of info' and pic's which may be of some help to you.

I don't recall seeing that one. Thanks for the link!

I gotta get me one of these

Cool!

Quote: The report on the hoard find by Curle is old, it dates from 1923 and nearly impossible to get.

I know the book (Curle, The Treasure of Traprain. A Scottish Hoard of Roman Silver Plate 1923) is impossible to get, but maube the dig reports hold a clue?
Go here:
http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/

Go to Archives:
http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archives/

keyword search:
"Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland"

You"ll have to agree to their terms to use the site by now, I think

You'll get 3 hits, one of them being:
"The Society of Antiquaries of Scotland"

The link opens to their page with publications:
http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archives/view/psas/

This is the one you want:
Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland
Vols. 1-141 (1850-2011)

The Traprain Law publications are:
Cree, J E 1923 ‘Account of the excavations on Traprain Law during the summer of 1922’, Proc Soc Antiq Scot, 57 (1922–3), 180–226.
Cree, J E 1924 ‘Account of the excavations on Traprain Law during the summer of 1923’, Proc Soc Antiq Scot, 58 (1923–4), 241–85.
Cree, J E & Curle, A O 1922 ‘Account of the excavations on Traprain Law during the summer of 1921’, Proc Soc Antiq Scot, 56 (1921–2), 189–259.

I scanned the articles for images but did not come across the belt.

Cheers Robert, I only had seen one of those three reports. Very interesting stuff. Weapons, metal work, tools. I'd love to see a nice votadinian impression, there is definatly quality stuff to do with the Traprain assemblage.
Still nothing about the hoard unfortunately.

I did google it compulsively. There are nice pictures from other part of the hoard, I got also one picture of the belt from the old NMS website which Ill upload when I go home. There seems to have been a conference about the hoard and its context a couple of years ago, no proceedings out yet, and not more about the belt.

Edit:
That article http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/cata...18_226.pdf has a nice inventory of metal objets found at Traprain, save for the hoard.

Hi guys,

Quote:I know the book (Curle, The Treasure of Traprain. A Scottish Hoard of Roman Silver Plate 1923) is impossible to get

Just checked, the Bavarian State Library in Munich has it. I'll be back in Munich in Summer, so could get my hands on it sometime in August or September ... does that help?

Quote:Hi guys,

Robert Vermaat post=337560 Wrote:I know the book (Curle, The Treasure of Traprain. A Scottish Hoard of Roman Silver Plate 1923) is impossible to get

Just checked, the Bavarian State Library in Munich has it. I'll be back in Munich in Summer, so could get my hands on it sometime in August or September ... does that help?

That would be great, in case I can't find more information until then. Many thanks!

Edit :
The finds from the NMS old website - http://nms.scran.ac.uk/database/results....43pgesk137

The buckle page - http://nms.scran.ac.uk/database/record.p...chdb=scran


http://nms.scran.ac.uk/database/media.ph...983428.jpg&

The best picture I have of it so far, but not really detailed either...

Please ping me again in August then, I'll probably forget otherwise :-P

Fantastic- not sure how I'd missed this buckle, but I had- thanks for sharing it. One comment was that there is a similar buckle found in Hungary- any leads, provenance or pictures? Would be good to make a comparison, as the Traprain Law buckle has some very distinctive features which I haven't seen elsewhere.

Quote:The best picture I have of it so far, but not really detailed either...

I found another:
http://www.nms.ac.uk/collections/details...=15&tot=41

[attachment=7228]silvergiltbuckleTraprainLaw.jpg[/attachment]

Imagine how different our Late Roman kit would be if this one had been found before the more common brass-plate belt most of us wear.

I think it was found earlier - but for whatever reason, it didn't get the publicity it deserved. I for one had completely missed it. Now, which manufacturer can make a replica....

I've known this one for 20 years (Böhme publication). Yet as it is an exceptional shape, I wouldn't choose this one to be typical for a Late Roman belt-set.

Hmmm, there must be a lot of info hidden away in publications we never see. :neutral: