Some must-see goodies

[mcbishop]

Well, let's begin with the truly excellent Gered uit de Grond. If you like catalogues of small finds, you'll love this one. If we leave aside for the moment that somebody appears to have trashed a Roman fort and carted off the spoil, the goodies rescued and then published by detectorists (with the help of various archaeologists) are stunning. Amongst the assorted military junk are four pages of lorica seg fittings (including a ferrous hinged fitting! A one-off or a completely missing class of find?!), spearheads, daggers, swords, scabbards, and so on; you name it, they have it. There is a website where you can order the book or sample the pages of the catalogue. Did I mention it was full colour?

I thought that was as good as it gets, but oh no... Another Dutch report (De Meern*) not only includes a complete 2nd/3rd-century spatha with scabbard fittings but also a complete spear (head, shaft, and butt), the head being inscribed. It is 1.95m long and had (I particularly liked this) a fungiform butt. After we published these things in the Corbridge Hoard report I was told I was wrong and that they were not butts but practice catapult bolts (!!!).

Have a nice (and Roman-military-equipment-filled) weekend.

Mike Bishop

*The best bit is that you can have this one as a free download.

[Vindex]

I saw a copy of the small finds book at the weekend and was so enchanted I forgot to take the details, so thank you very much for that.

All for fungiform butts! :woot:

Thanks for sharing.

[Robert]

I have the said book (and that report, as I will be making that spatha, blade is nearly done and the linden wood for scabbard and hilt are in stock) and am glad to say they did not trash a Roman fort.
The story is thus: During a large scale development, parts of the Roman fort of Albaniana (Alphen ad Rijn) were excavated. A portion of the riverbank outside the fort was not excavated, the ground was removed during the development and dumped at another site. Detectorists soon got word there was a lot to be found in this dump, first many surface finds, but then they also dug pits into the dump to get at the deeper strata. A great many finds were recovered and some detectorists reported their finds to archeologists. A sort of cooperation evolved, as the archeologists realised this was not the normal type of detectorist vandalisme and many nice finds were reported, unfortunatly all out of their context and thus impossible to date. Then, two detectorists decided it would be a good idea to collect these finds in a single book as a reference to others, helping them class things they found. They spent a great many hours carefully photographing and measuring the finds and grouping these, this book, which is almost totaly pictures, is the result. A grand effort, to be sure!

[mcbishop]

I have the said book (and that report, as I will be making that spatha, blade is nearly done and the linden wood for scabbard and hilt are in stock) and am glad to say they did not trash a Roman fort.

I stand corrected. Blame my rusty Dutch.

Mike Bishop

[Robert]

Oh, that's OK mile: ! At least you read Dutch, which is great! That way, you can also understand the report on the spatha. Great find, too, but I can imagine you like the spear, as these are soooo rare.
Did you see there were over 30 ! correctly identified fugiform buttspikes in that book on pag 74 and 9 on pag 73?

[Caballo]

Thanks Mike. Wouldn't a fungiform spear butt make a lot of sense on horseback? I seem to recall one being found near the Antonine wall??

[Augustus Janus]

Wow that is one informative piece of work even if I can't read Dutch. The preservation of the spatha and spear is fantastic. Thanks for this Mike and Robert
.

[Vindex]

Well, let's begin with the truly excellent Gered uit de Grond. If you like catalogues of small finds, you'll love this one.

Mine arrived today and it is a surfeit of riches! Think I am in love with this book...