11-30-2004, 12:24 AM
Jason,<br>
We have one site from the "Great Jewish Revolt" that has yielded a fair amount of Roman equipment, and may give us a picture of the legionaries operating there.<br>
<br>
Gamala, in Galillee was destroyed by Vespasian in the early stages of the war. I think it was in 1981 or 2 that I want to see it, and joined in the excavation for a couple of weeks. It was headed by Shamyra Guttmann, rthe right hand man of Yagael Yadin and first modern archaeologist to investigate Masada. He told me that some parts of a helmet had been found, but already transfered to the Rockefeller Museum in Jerusalem. He gave me permission to study these and anything else. The dig itself was great, and everyone could keep a ballista ball if they liked. There seemed to be hundreds. I took a small one because I was still backpacking around Israel another few weeks, but at the point of impact it was impregnated with house plaster.<br>
<br>
At the Rockefeller museum was stored a tinned bronze cheekpiece virtually identical to the Coolus C. From what was probably the same helmet was a brow reinforcement of sheet bronze in an "L" form. Additionally, there were many arrow and scorpion bolt heads, an iron dagger handle scale of typical form, and a relatively simple gladius scabbard chape of Pompeii type. There was also a small carton of heavily rusted fragments which upon examination, I immediately recognized as a Corbridge style Lorica Segmentata! Fortunately, they had a copy of Robinson in the library, so the museum people were quite excited too! I explained that this was the farthest point East in the Roman Empire that this type of armor was ever discovered. I contacted Peter Connolly about it, but his book ancient Judea had already been published. Still he used my slides in some later lectures.<br>
I have since heard on RAT that the Gamala Segmentata had used some sliding rivets, much like medieval armor. Maybe Mike B. can shed some light on this. From the fragments I remember, I thing it was the remains of one shoulder half, from the surviving cupric alloy hardware.<br>
<br>
The significance of this find is that Roman soldiers were fairly uniformly equipped from one end of the empire to the other.<br>
<br>
As for Jewish equipment, the skeleton of one Jewish fighter at Masada was wearing ribbed bronze scale armor which had been tin plated. Fragments of shields were also definately found at Masada, reported from the "casemate walls",but I have heard very little about them.<br>
<br>
Perhaps more Roman military finds have been made at Gamala since I was there, for that was over twenty years ago. I am sure Shamyra Guttmann has passed away by now, for he was very old back then.<br>
I would love to go there and do a metal detector survey of the likely Roman camp sites there. I am sure there is much more to be found.<br>
<br>
Dan<br>
<p></p><i></i>
We have one site from the "Great Jewish Revolt" that has yielded a fair amount of Roman equipment, and may give us a picture of the legionaries operating there.<br>
<br>
Gamala, in Galillee was destroyed by Vespasian in the early stages of the war. I think it was in 1981 or 2 that I want to see it, and joined in the excavation for a couple of weeks. It was headed by Shamyra Guttmann, rthe right hand man of Yagael Yadin and first modern archaeologist to investigate Masada. He told me that some parts of a helmet had been found, but already transfered to the Rockefeller Museum in Jerusalem. He gave me permission to study these and anything else. The dig itself was great, and everyone could keep a ballista ball if they liked. There seemed to be hundreds. I took a small one because I was still backpacking around Israel another few weeks, but at the point of impact it was impregnated with house plaster.<br>
<br>
At the Rockefeller museum was stored a tinned bronze cheekpiece virtually identical to the Coolus C. From what was probably the same helmet was a brow reinforcement of sheet bronze in an "L" form. Additionally, there were many arrow and scorpion bolt heads, an iron dagger handle scale of typical form, and a relatively simple gladius scabbard chape of Pompeii type. There was also a small carton of heavily rusted fragments which upon examination, I immediately recognized as a Corbridge style Lorica Segmentata! Fortunately, they had a copy of Robinson in the library, so the museum people were quite excited too! I explained that this was the farthest point East in the Roman Empire that this type of armor was ever discovered. I contacted Peter Connolly about it, but his book ancient Judea had already been published. Still he used my slides in some later lectures.<br>
I have since heard on RAT that the Gamala Segmentata had used some sliding rivets, much like medieval armor. Maybe Mike B. can shed some light on this. From the fragments I remember, I thing it was the remains of one shoulder half, from the surviving cupric alloy hardware.<br>
<br>
The significance of this find is that Roman soldiers were fairly uniformly equipped from one end of the empire to the other.<br>
<br>
As for Jewish equipment, the skeleton of one Jewish fighter at Masada was wearing ribbed bronze scale armor which had been tin plated. Fragments of shields were also definately found at Masada, reported from the "casemate walls",but I have heard very little about them.<br>
<br>
Perhaps more Roman military finds have been made at Gamala since I was there, for that was over twenty years ago. I am sure Shamyra Guttmann has passed away by now, for he was very old back then.<br>
I would love to go there and do a metal detector survey of the likely Roman camp sites there. I am sure there is much more to be found.<br>
<br>
Dan<br>
<p></p><i></i>
