Pilum Colettes

[Matt Lukes]

Hi guys,

I was just looking at the wonderful collection of artifact images on the Exploratio website and came across this picture of three Pilum colettes:
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nd I was surprised by the projections at the corners- it makes them look like the battlements of a castle wall- does anyone know what their purpose was?

Thanks.

Matt

[Gashford]

Hi there

Just some guesses from a very amatuer blacksmith wannabe type.

Making corners like this might assist with stopping the corners splitting, might have been useful to stop the colette sliding up the shaft as it gives something to pinch easily or might simply be decoration or a combination of the three.

Corners frequently can split though and doing this would help combat that to som degree, and you get the added bonus of some decoration.

Please be aware though that this is based purely upon speculation and my own two minutes of thought given to the question

All the best

Graham

[Andrew Brozyna]

I saw these in an Osprey book and was wondering what they are exaclty. Just to be clear, are these iron examples of the typically wooden pyramid-shaped socket area of the pilum where the iron shaft meets the wooden shaft?

[Crispvs]

If I remember rightly the Oberaden pila had wedges driven in to tighten the collets onto the shafts and that in at least one of these cases the wedges were bent over the top of the collet and stuck out more or less horizontally. I have often wondered when looking at pictures of collets with corner projections as to whether these projections could have helped with the fitting of such wedges.

Crispvs

[Matt Lukes]

I saw these in an Osprey book and was wondering what they are exaclty. Just to be clear, are these iron examples of the typically wooden pyramid-shaped socket area of the pilum where the iron shaft meets the wooden shaft?

No, the colette is put over the end of the wooden pyrimidal block and wedged in place to prevent the block splitting when the pilum struck something.

I suppose instead of looking at the corners as projections we could consider the sides as having 'depressions' perhaps intended to allow the wedges to be driven down flush with the corners- otherwise the ends of the wedges would project some and maybe be more prone to loosening?

Matt