Shield boss from Carlisle

[mcbishop]

Excavated from the Annetwell Street site (still unpublished and unlikely ever to be so, unfortunately), here is a rather nice shield boss for your enjoyment. Annetwell Street produced the famous sawn-off gate post and gate threshold timbers, as well as the southern end of some of the buildings found in the later (and fully published) Millennium site excavations.

Mike Bishop

[PhilusEstilius]

Thank you Mike for those pictures of that boss I find it so very interesting indeed, and are they split rings going through the studs on the flange which would make it an item that could be easily removed.
I also think it interesting just how the fixing studs are so close to the edge of the flange unusual.

[mcbishop]

are they split rings going through the studs on the flange which would make it an item that could be easily removed.

No, I think they're just bog-standard shield nails that have been hammered back over onto themselves (against an anvil?) to go back through the shield board (one has misfired and gone off sideways!). Removable shield bosses have never struck me as very likely.

Mike Bishop

[PhilusEstilius]

I know there may not be any great proof on that point however I have always had this idea about the Dubitatus one from the Tyne, this is where I think that Dubitatus did not loose his shield in the Tyne as has been said he only lost a very decorative one maybe from a bag.
It may even be my other thoughts that the poor guy might have perished in a ship wreck on the Groin in the mouth of the Tyne all those years ago, but then that would be a bit of romantic guess work I suppose. detachable ?

[PhilusEstilius]

Mike.

I have to agree with you on the clenched rivet situation of this shield boss, for I just discovered the fantastic zoom in one can get.
What I do find from this is that there is a very good lesson for re-enactors to notice from this, this is where many today think that a shield boss has to be made from very thick iron or steel.
This one is in fact not the case for the iron used here cannot have been any more than 18 guage 1-2mm possibly even less.
Indeed I have found myself from having made many of these in the past that one can even make them from 20 guage 0-9mm and still have not only a good depth but also a very good strength to the bowl.