Tombstones

[mcbishop]

I have wondered if the draped style fashion originated in the east and may have followed units that were transferred to Europe, such as the eastern archers Hyperanor and Pantera shown on the Rhineland sculptures. Any thoughts on that Mike?

I don't think so as there are quite a few Balkan chaps wearing it too (like Licaius at Wiesbaden). Anyway, we all know they wore ankle-length nightdresses and pointy helmets; must be true, it's on TC :-D

Ironically I have seen a lot of re-enactors wearing cummerbunds (fascia ventralis) with undraped tunics rather than draped ones although there does not seem to be any evidence for this practice. However a Vindolanda tablet mentions a ventralem which seems to suggest that they existed into Flavian times although sadly we lack the sculptural evidence from that period.

Problem is that Ubl's original association of his 'fascia ventralis' with the cummerbund is at best tenuous and 'ventralem' could well mean any one of a dozen things, given the poverty of vocabulary in Latin. It's the same problem as the 'subarmalis' in the Carlisle writing tablet; Roger Tomlin thinks it's a type of javelin, I think it's the you-know-what, but there is nothing in the text to say either of us is right or wrong. That's the slithiness of word-juggling for you ;-)

Mike Bishop