Painted lorica segmentata ?

[Caballo]

<speaking with moderator hat on> Grateful if we could dial down the debate here? Sulla, I'm charitably assuming that you don't know that MIke Bishop wrote the main works on Lorica Segmentata as well as many other books and papers. I'd really recommend it and it is very kindly available for free together with volume 2 -http://www.scribd.com/doc/3961788/Lorica-Segmentata-Volume-I-A-Handbook-of-Articulated-Roman-Plate-Armour.
<takes moderator hat off>

Coming back to painted armour, it would also be worthwhile reading the very good value The Carlisle Millenium Project, Vol. 2: Finds , published by Oxford Archaeology North, 2009, and available from Oxbow Book by Christine Howard-Davis, with contributions from, inter alia, Mike Bishop.

It would be particularly interesting to hear any updates on the finds below from Carlisle as the conservation analysis may now have clarified the initial findings? The comments on painted armour are heavily caveatted in the report ("seem to suggest...could have.").

Quoting from the book:-

"Conservation has suggested that some fragments of armour were painted black (Pl166) which adds a new element to their appearance; it might simply have stopped it from rusting but also raises the possibility that there were times when it was nor prudent to stand out in the landscape". ( Howard-Davis et al, 2009, The Carlisle Millenium Project, Volume 2: Finds, Chapter 15 A Synthesis , page 496)

"There are, in addition, at least 14 fragments of ferrous plate, which can be identified as body armour, but are of uncertain type...None add significantly to the conclusions drawn except for a few fragments where conservation seems to suggest that some of the armour could have been painted black (see for instance Appendix 4, Iron 2757, one of two fragments from deposit 6272, associated with Building 5689 in Period 4c)." (ibid, Chapter 17, The Roman Militaria, M.C. Bishop and C. Howard-Davis, page 694).