5th century cataphract from France- help needed

[Caballo]

The dating I had came from Guy Halsall "Here is a photo I took in the Archaeological Museum in Lyon last Spring. It is of the tombstone of a cataphract from the fifth century. The cavalryman is followed by an unarmoured infantryman with a large oval shield. Noteworthy is the evident lack of armour of our cataphract, apart from a lavishly-plumed helmet and possibly some protection to the torso, although that (like the whole depiction) could be no more than convention. Certainly he has a long stout spear, or a lance. Perhaps the cataphracti of the fifth-century west were ‘shock’ lancers rather than especially heavily armoured…" To be fair, he is a Professor of History at York University, where his doctoral research was in the archaeology and history of the Merovingian region of Metz (north-eastern France and southern Germany), c.350-c.750. Profile here http://www.york.ac.uk/history/staff/profiles/halsall/.

Thats not to say that he is infallible- except of course on one of his marathon attacks of Peter Heather on barbarian migrations....

His blog is here http://600transformer.blogspot.co.uk/201...stion.html Always thought provoking and worth a read, even (perhaps especially?) when you don't agree.