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Herculaneum soldier article in Ancient Warfare
#16
Quote:Publishing commissioned artwork online when the ink is barely dry is perhaps a bit much. Besides, it's not like we're asking anyone to fork over the amount some traders ask for a copy of HRR! However, you own the copyright to the image Graham, so I'll leave the final decision up to you.

Thanks Jasper, that will make me look like the bad guy! :roll:

However I agree with you. The soldier was in the ground for two thousand years and was excavated nearly thirty years ago. So I am sure some people will be happy to wait a few more weeks for the magazine to circulate before any images from it are posted here. And if they can not wait well, if they are serious and willing to spalsh out and make a replica then they can surely invest a small amount beforehand and purchase the magazine.

Thats a bit extra please for advertising Ancient Warfare!!! Big Grin

Graham.
"Is all that we see or seem but a dream within a dream" Edgar Allan Poe.

"Every brush-stroke is torn from my body" The Rebel, Tony Hancock.

"..I sweated in that damn dirty armor....TWENTY YEARS!', Charlton Heston, The Warlord.
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#17
Exactly. There's another reasoning that reenactors might want to consider: if you want more detailed discussions of equipment, then encourage us to publish them by buying such issues. Big Grin
Anyways, I don't want to be a party pooper, so I'll make a useful contribution to the discussion. The tombstone of Annaius Daverzus was mentioned above. Here's a hi-res photo of the sword (clickable).
Greets!

Jasper Oorthuys
Webmaster & Editor, Ancient Warfare magazine
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#18
Quote:One easy question to answer, sadly there is no publication on the textile finds.
Hi Graham! Thanks for the info. Smile
I wonder: An anlysis was made, though? For all I know about ancient woolen textiles, the colour they display in situ is, when found in western & southern European climate, certainly not the original colour, when the find was exposed to any kind of humidity, like rain, or, in this case, body fluids. Heat will have a similar result. That´s why such an analysis seems to me mandatory before one comes to any conclusions about what the colour of the fabric was. Smile
Many tunics from egypt have ornage stains where the bodies were not dried out properly. That´s why I was wondering....
Thanks! Christian
Christian K.

No reconstruendum => No reconstruction.

Ut desint vires, tamen est laudanda voluntas.
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#19
Here's part of a post I put up on the AW site, but which may be of some interest here.....
AW III.2 "Alexander's Funeral Games"

"I can't resist saying what a superb Issue this is!
I thoroughly enjoyed it, cover to cover.
Raffaele D'Amato's article on the Herculaneum soldier was extremely interesting, since that particular soldier has long been of interest to me.
One jarring note was Raffaele's positive identification of the man as a 'classiarius'. Raffaele quite properly points out that he could just as easily be a retired veteran. Raffaele gives the man's probable age as 40-45 ( though the original report gave his age as 35-40) Either way, his age points to a veteran rather than a serving 'classiarius'. In fact he was originally identified, from the changes etc to bone structure, as likely to have been a legionary cavalryman. Raffaele suggests that this occurred as a result of holding lumbers between the knees, but this seems unlikely for two reasons: first ask any carpenter how practical it is to hold a large piece of timber this way while working on it with hand tools; second, this is an unlikely activity for a crewman aboard a ship.....building a ship in a shipyard maybe, and even then it would not be something done on a daily basis - note the activity causing the abnormality had to be 'continuous'.

In addition, the ossification of his instep indicated a man who had done a lot of marching in caligae, not very likely in a sailor/marine!

Further, if the man was from a ship, and sent ashore to help the evacuation, why would he have with him a bag containg an adze/hammer and several chisels? ( the tools are just generic carpenter's tools, there is nothing particularly 'naval' about them) Or carrying so much money?

All of this suggests to me someone/a veteran who has hastily gathered his valuables - his military 'memorabilia', his money, and his tools of trade - and like the others has hastened to the beach hoping to evacuate, as being a bit more likely than that he was a 'classiarius'....

I would therefore tend to favour the original identification of 'retired ex-legionary cavalryman, previously an infantryman', though of course 'classiarius' is possible.

The fragment of wool possibly adds another morsel of evidence to the 'tunic colour debate'.
The 'orange-red wool' was particularly interesting, because I have a 'tunica' which was originally hand-dyed red with a vegetable dye, and after several years it has faded to exactly that !! - an orangy-red, slightly salmon colour!!
"dulce et decorum est pro patria mori " - Horace
(It is a sweet and proper thing to die for ones country)

"No son-of-a-bitch ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country" - George C Scott as General George S. Patton
Paul McDonnell-Staff
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#20
I was asking our medic about the precise meaning of 'ossification' and it appears it is a fusing of the bone,
a natural thing. Much like the hardening of ribs from cartiledge to bone in an infant.
I am guessing that the wearing of caligae would cause artificial ossification, if this is the case, the fusing of bones due to the flat footed nature of the Roman step perhaps?

Or is there a different meaning of this term in this case?

BTW, I really enjoyed the article, and the clarrification of the question on the scabbard decoration was quite enlightening.

More like that please! 8)
Visne partem mei capere? Comminus agamus! * Me semper rogo, Quid faceret Iulius Caesar? * Confidence is a good thing! Overconfidence is too much of a good thing.
[b]Legio XIIII GMV. (Q. Magivs)RMRS Remember Atuatuca! Vengence will be ours!
Titus Flavius Germanus
Batavian Coh I
Byron Angel
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#21
I have a remark to the article "From Herculaneum's ashes" by Dr. Raffaele D'Amato. I posted this also at the AW forum but without picture:

On page 44, third column he describes the dagger of the soldier and compares it to gladiatorial daggers found at Pompeii. I guess he refers to the ones shown on the attached photo. These types of daggers were used as a secondary weapon by gladiators having a long weapon as their main weapon such as the retiarius (which he mentioned in his article) and the hoplomachus (fighter with a hasta). Here he wrote murmillo instead but this one did not use a dagger but a gladius because that was his main weapon. In many old books the authors were not too sure about the names of the various gladiator types but since Junkelmann everybody agrees that the murmillo is the one with the scutum and gladius and with an angular crest on his helmet while the hoplomachus wear a helmet similar to the thraex helmet only without the griffin head and fought with a hasta and a parmula (small round shield).

BTW, I enjoyed the article nonetheless.
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#22
The hilts of the Pompeii daggers look more Greek than gladius-like.
Pecunia non olet
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#23
Actualy there were three gladiatorial daggers found in the barracks of Pompeii.
Two of those were around 30cm with blades of 20cm length, while the third was a little above 40cm with a blade of 29cm.
As the Herculanean blade is even longer with 46cm it could very well have been the longer blade of a Murmillo.
Also which gladiator type uses a longer or shorter blade cant even be decided by looking at the iconographic sources, but this would be a duscussion better suited to the ancient combat sports forum.
Olaf Küppers - Histotainment, Event und Promotion - Germany
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#24
Although this topic is indeed dated, I'd like to buy this AW number, perhaps is still available on the market.
Someone knows what number is it?
Thanks
Marco

Civis Romanus Optime Iure Sum
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#25
Quote:Although this topic is indeed dated, I'd like to buy this AW number, perhaps is still available on the market.
Someone knows what number is it?
Thanks

AW III.2, April/May 2009, pp.42-47
M. Caecilius M.f. Maxentius - Max C.

Qui vincit non est victor nisi victus fatetur
- Q. Ennius, Annales, Frag. XXXI, 493

Secretary of the Ricciacus Frënn (http://www.ricciacus.lu/)
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