Chainmail:any evidence for NON-riveted

[Dan Howard]

Last year I had the opportunity to examine the Kirkburn mail shirt in person as part of my PhD research. I also spoke with the curator about Gilmour’s comment. A quick search in the BM administration rendered the X-rays and unpublished information.

Hi Martijn. When do you expect to have your thesis finished? I'd very much like to read it.

[martijn.wijnhoven]

Last year I had the opportunity to examine the Kirkburn mail shirt in person as part of my PhD research. I also spoke with the curator about Gilmour’s comment. A quick search in the BM administration rendered the X-rays and unpublished information.

Hi Martijn. When do you expect to have your thesis finished? I'd very much like to read it.

Hi Dan,

I still have two wonderful years ahead to dedicate to mail armour. Also talking with a publisher, because I do want an adapted version of my thesis to be published as a book.

Best wishes,
Martijn

[Thomas Aagaard]

Sign me up for getting my hand on a electronic copy of the PHD or the book when it is done.

[Robert]

Sorry Rab, I stand corrected. No offence meant :oops:

[Renatus]

Somewhat off-topic but the reference earlier to the Lexden Tumulus reminded me that a good many years ago I had seen, presumably in the Colchester Museum, a fragment of mail from the Tumulus with a small D-shaped buckle attached to it, similar to those found on a lorica segmentata. I have not seen this since in any publications relating to Colchester (not that I have looked very hard), so I was pleased to find this picture online:

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/409968372302864689

My thoughts, when I first saw the buckle, were that it could have been Roman and that the mail shirt (if that is what it was) might have been a diplomatic gift. This may be old-hat to other members of this forum and/or those who have studied mail but I wonder whether anyone else has any thoughts on this.

[Thomas V.]

I have not seen this since in any publications relating to Colchester (not that I have looked very hard).

If you shouldn't have seen it yet,be advised that the chainmail section of a British Archaeological Records article about the Lexden Tumulus is available on the homepage of The Mail Research Society: [hide]http://www.themailresearchsociety.erikds.com/pdf/tmrs_pdf_27.pdf[/hide]. The PDF mentions and depicts the buckles. Maybe the article is of interest to you.

My thoughts, when I first saw the buckle, were that it could have been Roman and that the mail shirt (if that is what it was) might have been a diplomatic gift. This may be old-hat to other members of this forum and/or those who have studied mail but I wonder whether anyone else has any thoughts on this.

In [hide]Cross Channel relations in the British later Iron Age[/hide] Andrew Peter Fitzpatrick adresses the possible origins of the Lexden Tumulus chainmail (p. 332-337).

[Renatus]

In [hide]Cross Channel relations in the British later Iron Age[/hide] Andrew Peter Fitzpatrick adresses the possible origins of the Lexden Tumulus chainmail (p. 332-337).

Fitzpatrick is cautious about the possibility of the mail being a Roman lorica hamata and, although he later (p.514) alludes to the possibility of some of the material from Lexden being diplomatic gifts, he does not do so specifically in relation to the armour. Is there evidence elsewhere of Roman mail being secured by buckles?

[Dan Howard]

It is possible that the shoulder doubling of the hamata was secured on the back with buckles. Erik's reconstruction was based on the Colchester pieces.
http://www.romanarmytalk.com/20-roman-re...hmidt.html

[martijn.wijnhoven]

My thoughts, when I first saw the buckle, were that it could have been Roman

The association of mail armour with buckles is not typically Roman, but already occurred from the 3rd or 2nd century BC onwards. The oldest example comes from Fluitenberg, the Netherlands. I wrote a short paper on this find which also contains a photograph of the buckle:
http://www.academia.edu/1463123/Over_sta...luitenberg

Cheer,
Martijn

[Renatus]

The association of mail armour with buckles is not typically Roman, but already occurred from the 3rd or 2nd century BC onwards.

It was not the presence of the buckle but its form that led me to speculate that the armour might be Roman. Do we have any unequivocally Roman mail with buckles?

[martijn.wijnhoven]

From the top of my head... no Roman specimens come to mind, while I can think of several from the Iron Age.

The Lexden mail remains also contain a type of hinge unknown from Roman examples.

[Renatus]

That probably puts paid to my idea, then.