Squamata closing plates

[markusaurelius]

Hey there,

Does anyone know if these plates were ever found in a context later than the 3rd Century? Did they just disappear again in the 4th century onwards? It seems like a very practical & decorative method of attachment. And the 4th century liked decorative.....
[attachment=11355]Romanmailclaspingplate.jpg[/attachment]

[Sextus Saturninus]

It is actually a chest plate / gorget to be worn on top of armor. They were used primarily in the third century, and were heavily decorated. The top closing pin survives that was used to lock the two plates together much like on a Newstead cuirass. That's all the info I have. The third century experts can say a lot more than I can

[Sextus Saturninus]

Also, before you lose the ability to edit your first post, I think you should move it into a better section than " Rules and Announcements "

[markusaurelius]

Thanks Jason. I probably didn't elaborate enough on my original post. I know what their function is, but was wondering if anyone knows if there is a context that shows their use later than the 3rd Century.

EDIT:

Rats I can't figure out how to put it in the right forum....

[Sextus Saturninus]

Some things popular in the third century went out of style in the fourth, and from what I have gathered, this is one of those cases.

P.S. You edit your first post and it will show your title and location. Then you can edit it.

[PhilusEstilius]

I think that we have to be practical about things when we start to throw dates around on Roman armour, in fact even archaeologists do cover themselves by saying an artifact is 1st to 2nd or 3rd to 4th in period .
Therefore we just can't say that a type of armour was here in the 3rd but not in the 4th as if at the stroke of midnight at the end of the century a thing was no longer in use for this is just being a bit to rigid in our thinking.
All we are doing is to base our ideas on various items that come from one context or another and could the archaeologists be right when they say it may be 3rd or 4th century for these things might still have been there one or even two decades into the next century.

[Crispianus]

All the Dates I have seen indicate 2-3rd century AD... although I would guess such pieces could still exist in the early 4th even if not still being manufactured.....

Source: Garbsch "Römische Parade-Rüstungen" 1978 has numerous examples

would be interested to know what others have to say on this.....

[markusaurelius]

One can certainly speculate or surmise that these pieces lasted well into the 4th Century (very likely IMO). I'm more curious if there are any known examples with a find context that pushes that date into the 4th Century more definitively. There are quite a few examples around, but I'm just not familiar enough with the published works to know if the dating is that exact.

[Sextus Saturninus]

All the finds are dated around the third century, some being really late second century, showing up around the time of Septimius Severus, but I cannot think of a fourth century example.

[Crispvs]

"Rats I can't figure out how to put it in the right forum...."

Easy - avoid the 'New Topic' button at the top of the screen nest to 'Recent Topics' like the plague. It always links to 'Rules and Anouncements'. I have asked Jasper to disable it several times but there seems to be some difficulty in doing so.

To post a new thread in the correct place, go the forum you mean the post your thread in. Once you are in that forum, hit the 'New topic' button in the forum itself. Again, do not touch the one at the top of the screen.

It is important to realise that in RAT's present form, there are two ways to post new topics - one right and the other wrong.

Crispvs

[Flavivs Aetivs]

You can change the post location when you hit that button, but nevertheless it defaults to rules and announcements if you don't change it.