Pompeii Gladius and Scabbard - Work in Progress

[Crispvs]

Another Pompeii type locket from the Guttmann collection (which I am working on a reconstruction of at the moment) had thin strips attached either side of the cross hangers. Like the locket currently under discussion the cross hangers have disappeared. The wide embossed strip running along the top of the locket is very similar and it originally had three thin strips horizontally attached, one either side of the upper cross hanger and one above the lower cross hanger. All four of these strips appear to be the same length and end short of the sharply curving part of the locket, meaning the none of them are likely to have been overlaid by vertical strips which may originally have been present. Of the three thin strips, only the one which lay above the upper cross hanger survives complete. The one which lay below the upper cross hanger has disappeared and the one which lay above the lower cross hanger survives only as a small fragment. This lower strip appears from the photo I have to have been soldered on (I cannot see any sign of riveting). However, both of the strips lying either side of the upper cross hanger had been attached with rivets. Where the lower of these was attached the head of one small rivet (or nail if you prefer) is still present along with a small hole where the other rivet (or nail if you prefer) had passed through. The effect seems to be almost identical to that seen on the locket Barry is reconstructing. Therefore, whether or not the small rivets/nails had any constructional role, on this basis I believe that there would originally have been thin strips flanking the cross hangers. I will see if I can scan the photo of the other Guttmann locket tomorrow and post it up so you can see what I mean.

Barry, on the subject of forming the terminal knob (perhaps 'cup' might be a better term) most of those I have seen or have seen pictures of seem to have a horizontal rib embossed around the top on the cup. However, one of the examples from Vindonissa has a narrow metal (round or 'D' section) ring attached to the top of the cup in place of the apparently normal embossed ring. If you were to do this, forming the terminal might be a little easier than trying to emboss this part.

Crispvs