Help with Roman cavalry and melon beads in Germania

[Viventius]

I wonder if anyone (particularly the German members of RAT) can help with tracking down a picture of a Roman cavalry using melon beads as decoration on their tack? I have heard there's a German museum exhibit which shows this, so can anyone help at all?

Best wishes,

Sandra

[LUCIUS ALFENUS AVITIANUS]

Hello, Sandra

Not german, but i think i can help. Here you are:



I don't know the original source for the reconstruction. Any ideas?

[LUCIUS ALFENUS AVITIANUS]

The source of the picture is

http://www.romancoins.info/milit-horse-1.jpg

[John Conyard]

This is based on http://www.romanarmy.com/cms/component/ ... Itemid,94/

but are there other examples, in Spain as well as Germany?

[jvrjenivs]

yeah, that reconstruction is in the Valkhof Museum, Nijmegen, the Netherlands. I never understood why Junkelmann choose this chamfron to use, as all other equipment is based on a set found in the Netherlands. At least as far as I remember I didn't see this chamfron in the excavation report of that site. I'll recheck it when I'm home, just to be sure.

[Medicus matt]

This is based on http://www.romanarmy.com/cms/component/ ... Itemid,94/

but are there other examples, in Spain as well as Germany?

The carving's not conclusive use of beads. Any actual finds?

[Peroni]

Not sure about the stationing of horse at Vindolanda, but many blue glass melon beads have been found within the fort complex there. Some quite large ones.

Melon beads are known to have been used as decoration for dolabra sheaths, so large melon beads on horse harness would be quite feasible.

[Viventius]

Wow, thank you all so much for all this I knew RAT would have the answers!

[John Conyard]

Cheers Adrian.

The melon beads at Vindolanda are found in a military context, and I use such beads for closing drawstrings, helmets etc. But a few may find their way on to a horse.

[Graham Sumner]

I don't know the original source for the reconstruction. Any ideas?

Yes, I think the idea is an interpretation of sculptures like the tombstone of Flavius Bassus from the Ala Noriconium as John has indicated http://www.romanarmy.com/cms/component/ ... Itemid,94/
(see also the cover of, Equus: The Horse in the Roman World, by Ann Hyland). However other re-constructions show this feature as if it is made from a textile material. Who knows for sure? The example of Bassus shows a mixture of large and small 'whatever' rather than something all the same size as in the Nijmegen reconstruction, whether that has any significance or not.

Graham.

[mcbishop]

I wonder if anyone (particularly the German members of RAT) can help with tracking down a picture of a Roman cavalry using melon beads as decoration on their tack? I have heard there's a German museum exhibit which shows this, so can anyone help at all?

Fraser Hunter of the NMS has recently drawn my attention to an article reporting a four-wheeled two-horse wagon burial from near Karanovo in southern Bulgaria* that includes melon beads amongst the finds. Before anybody says 'cavalry, Bishop, not carts!' what surprised me was that the burial also contained what I would normally have described as cavalry pendants (types 1l and 2a from my cavalry equipment article), as I have never seen them associated with driving harness before... which just goes to show you live and learn. Whilst I am not about to advocate the sort of mishmash of the die-hard auxiliaries-always-used-legionary-stuff-and-it's-all-a-mess brigade, I do think there is room for anticipating some sort of interchange of harness equipment when horses are used. The key thing is of course the use of horses as draft animals, rather than any of the other alternatives, like mules or oxen, so whilst the cart furniture is pretty bog-standard, the horse decoration clearly was not.

Mike Bishop

*Ignatov, V. 2009: 'Ein römischer vierrädriger Wagen aus dem Dorf Karanovo, Bezirk Nova Zagora, Südbulgarien', Archaeologia Bulgarica 13:2, 31-51

[John Conyard]

Many thanks Mike. This is all interesting stuff. Basically I want to decorate at least my horse with melon beads and I need more evidence.

"The Roman Jewellery from Vindolanda" by Birley and Greene has sdome good stuff on beads. Generally melon beads are slightly larger than other beads, with larger holes in them. So given their military context they could be used for fastening draw strings etc. So for example over the weekend I was using a bead to close my helmet, four to close my purse, and one attached to the end of my knife scabbard. The last is now lost somewhere in the sand of the riding school. A few of us use beads in this manner. They look especially good closing helmets.

Bennet in "Conquerors of the New World Horsemanship" suggests melon beads for horse harness. Good old Titus Flavius Bassus certainly seems to be using some. But these could be something to do with where he's from (Noricorum), his religion, ethnicity etc. etc. Bennet says such beads are common in Iberia, but I don't know his sources. Perhaps our Spanish members could help?

[LUCIUS ALFENUS AVITIANUS]

Hello,

Doing a little google-research, seems there a strong association between melon beads ovesized (20 mm and over) and military camps.

I think here you can find some info:

http://books.google.es/books?id=zY4g1kf ... avlinks_s#

At Spain, Petavonium is te camp of Ala II flavia and have beeb excavated. There are too melon beads into the material. There is a book about the glass findings, perhaps there are more info:

MARTINEZ GARCIA, ANA BELEN: "El vidrio en el campamento romano del Ala II Flavia Hispanorum Civium Romanorum en Petavonium (Rosisnos de Vidriales) 1999. 97 p. (Cuadernos de Investigación; 14). ISBN 84-86873-68-1. 9,02 €. Instituto de Estudios Zamoranos "Florián de Ocampo"

[John Conyard]

Two strings of beads were made up today, and the overall effect will be something like ......

[attachment=0:1i5c1lry]<!-- ia0 new horse.JPG<!-- ia0 [/attachment:1i5c1lry]

[John Conyard]

The beads are now decorating lots of things.

[attachment=0:36tkd40u]<!-- ia0 melon beads 1.JPG<!-- ia0 [/attachment:36tkd40u]