3rd century Roman soldier reconstruction in Aalen

[panairjdde]

Hello,

I would like to know what the members of the RAT forum think about the reconstruction of a 3rd century Roman soldier in the Aalen museum:



In particular I am interested in the armour with its plate(s): what is it?

More pictures are in this page: http://www.armae.com/blog/reconstitution...manie.html

[Gunthamund Hasding]

The amour is a simple lorica squamata, with some nice plates

http://www.romanarmytalk.com/rat/thread-...ata+plates

[Martin Moser]

I personally think it is very nicely done. But I might be prejudiced, being part of the group that the museum ordered the reproduction from ;-)

[panairjdde]

I personally think it is very nicely done. But I might be prejudiced, being part of the group that the museum ordered the reproduction from ;-)

I'm sure it's nice, but I have so little knowledge about squamatae that I am not sure I understand how it was built.

As far as I understand, the squamae are fixed on a leather or textile support by sewing them from the top part of the single scale; when a row is completed, a second one is sewn above it such that the scales of the top row cover the lower row in the area where they are sewn on the textile. In this way the portion of the scales that is sewn on the textile is not visible from the outside of the lorica.

In this case, however, the scales seem sewn on right side and the sewing is not covered by the other rows. Did I understand this well? What's the point of this structure?

[Gunthamund Hasding]

Salvatore,
there are some threads around about squamata if you take time you can find a lot of your questions answered do an search on the forums for this
It seems that there are instances in which the stiches between squamae were not superimposed by other scales (as the picture above). There are different scales with different number of holes suggesting very different ways of attachment and of course there are some extant preserved examples in which the scales are still stitched together.
Here is a link with interesting examples
http://www.romancoins.info/MilitaryEquip...l#squamata
the Drawings from Roman Military Equipment by Bishop & Coulston, Edition 2, 2006 © M.C. Bishop (see below), suggests the way holes were punched and of course thinking of it different rigidities which such a construction might possess

[Martin Moser]

In this case, however, the scales seem sewn on right side and the sewing is not covered by the other rows.

What you see is not sewing/thread but short pieces of wire attaching one scale to the next sideways (think of loosely stapling the scales together to form horizontal rows). The link posted above by Gelu should explain the rest.