Musculata Images

[ValentinianVictrix]

"I'm stunned no one has mentioned this Roman suit of armour in the British Museum, dated to the 3rd Century AD."

Actually it is on a cover of a book of mine from 1997! I also think it has been mentioned in threads elsewhere on RAT.

It was originally captioned in the Museum as Roman parade armour but the British Museum website now says it may have been used in military ceremonies. It is not clear if the "helmet" now displayed with the "armour" was found with it or not. There is also no mention that I have seen that these finds came from a temple to Sobek only that the armour was found in a grotto near Manfalut along with other crocodile mummies. Perhaps there was a temple there?

There are at least two other crocodile skin helmets found in Egypt. My only thoughts on these and the 'armour' is that they appear to be fashioned to look like armour rather than crocodiles, i.e why make headgear to look like a helmet with cheek pieces etc.. rather than keep it looking like a crocodiles head? But who can see into the Romano Egyptian mind?

An amusing side-note is that a costume based on this 'armour' appears briefly in the film 'Cleopatra' (1963) so it has been known about for years.

Interesting that the BM website links you to another suit of leather 'armour' from South America but to save Dan getting all hot and bothered, it looks like a leather coat to me and it did have a bullet hole in it so I guess it did not work either!

Graham.

Sorry, I completely forgot about your book Graham, and I must add I find your books invaluble when it comes to Roman military dress.

by the way, when are you going to complete the series, I'm particularly interested in the Late Roman one!