Trajan\'s Column: Helmet hanging on shield

[Titus Pontius Cominius]

Trajan's column: Grist for the mill. There's so many wonderful discussions on RAT that stem from this sculpture. And here's one more:

I was looking at pictures of Trajan's column, specifically at the dolabra in action, and stumbled on something strange in the foreground.

see:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolabra#/m...e_drum.jpg

Yes, it's on wikipedia. Ignore the text, the cast is legit.

Feast your eyes on the shields in this little piece. Obviously, we've got a few milites on road clearing duty, and naturally, they take off their helmets and affix them to their magically standing shields just over the shield boss using very strong magnets.

No, wait. That's not it.

Either the shields are laying down, and the soldiers decided to put their helmets on them in a consistent way (always on the side of the shield nearest them), or the shields are standing up and the helmets are hanging... from something.

This last weekend, I decided to test this particular setup of hanging the helmet. I used a regular scutum, and a regular gallic G. The helmets are shown with the cheek pieces splayed, which makes sense if you use the ties on the cheek pieces to tie it to... what? There's nothing there. So I put a pilum behind the shield, leaned the two items against a tent, and tied the cheek piece to the pilum. Perfect! The helmet thus hung exactly as the middle shield: Sideways, between the boss and the top of the shield.

Since all five shields/helmets are depicted in the same manner--helmet hanging on front of shield--this would seem to indicate that at least that contaburnium of guys decided to make the same field modification to their shield, putting some sort of attachment point, or they had lacing or straps extending from the handle to the top of the shield which held the helmets in place.

There was one side effect of this grouping, which was that when in this configuration, no one took my shield, pilum, or helmet as long as the three were together. I'm talking about the average miles who appropriates whatever shield and pilum that happens to be in arm's reach when ad signa is called.

PS: The guy on the far right in the picture is taking out the bathroom trash.

Matt

[LuciusSallustiusPlautus]

I'm sorry that this has nothing to do with the topic, but are there two sheild designs I am seeing? One with the traditional Legio XIIII and one with a swirl design?

p.s. Author feel inclined to ask me to remove this comment, my curiosity got the best of me

[wayne oldfield]

The helmets look like they are hung by the tie thongs on something like a small nail on the inside of the scutum. there also seem to be dacian heads on sticks on the wall behind. Head cult in the roman army?
ditto re delete

[Titus Pontius Cominius]

Possible on the shield designs. It's not an area I've researched, or even considered. There are some who have researched this sort of information, and I invite them to chime in if they have an answer. What I've seen discussed seems to indicate that maybe they were uniform, maybe they weren't. Different dye lots, different dyes, different artists drawing it, you end up with some variations. Maybe the officers didn't care what you put, as long as it wasn't too out of place, and so it's no worries, because whatever you slap on the shield, it's okay. Think nose art on allied planes in WWII.The shield emblazon doesn't serve as much a function, here-- it's not like you need to distinguish between units. Consider that some guy might say, "Hey, snorri got the coolest new design on his shield. I'm going to have that guy do MY shield." On the other hand, maybe the opio goes bezerk if you do your own thing.

Matt

[Titus Pontius Cominius]

The helmets look like they are hung by the tie thongs on something like a small nail on the inside of the scutum. there also seem to be dacian heads on sticks on the wall behind. Head cult in the roman army?

Those poor, innocent Dacians do look pretty miserable atop their poles. I think perhaps it's the haircut.

I thought of the small nail as a solution, but then there's something pointy on my side of the shield that's going to bang into my armored shoulder. I'd prefer to keep the side aimed toward me as smooth as possible, so I rejected the nail idea, plus I don't know anyone ever found evidence of such thing on the shield fragments we've found. Still, it points to it, doesn't it?

[Bryan]

Scutum would have had inside carrying straps, including a loop on the inside top for carrying over the shoulder with the hand:

[img width=250]http://www.legxiii.at/fotos/reko/fayum/Fayum%20Bau%20(15).JPG[/img]


You take the chin strap thong of the helmet, run it out, tie it into the carrying strap of the shield, and then let it hang flat on the front, with the cheek pieces open.

[Titus Pontius Cominius]

I'm gonna go with this as best answer, Bryan. It may be spot on. You all know what to do, now.