Actual Balteus Buckle and Apron Terminus Construction

[Matt Lukes]

Avete Omnes,

I just got the COOLEST items in the mail today- a couple of actual Roman artifacts: a luniform Balteus buckle and an apron or standard studded strap terminus. Both are in pretty nice shape for objects that are probably 1800 years old and their construction really surprised me; the buckle is actually made of SHEET bronze- it's not solid. I've always expected these to be fairly thick bronze, but they're not- the portion by the hinge is thick- ~3mm, but beyond the ridge that forms the inner edge, it's actually less than 1mm thick. The front edge that makes it appar to be thick metal is actually shaped sheet metal. What's more, the base portion that has the hinge loop appears to be soldered on- the left one is missing- and the hinge loop itself is VERY thin, only about 0.5mm, and is simply curled into place- not soldered or anything. Have a look:

Obverse



Reverse (hollow!)



Hinge Loop



There's one more cool thing about this buckle- it appears to have been marked by its owner- there are a series of lines made up of dots on the body of the buckle:





I can't really make any letters out yet, but I'm still looking.

The strap terminus is interesting too- it's VERY thin sheet bronze (~0.5mm) with a fairly solid tip- obviously it was made by hammering a thicker piece of bronze flat. The concentric circle decoration is interestign as well- the small dent in the very center shows that the circles were made by a compass-like tool:

Obverse



Tip side view



Basically, these artifacts give an intersting insight into at least one form of each of the Balteus buckle and strap terminus that no doubt differs from the solid castings and thick metal versions produced for reenactors today.

I'm actually really keen to try and make a replica of the buckle especailly and to see just how well it stands up to use. I don't have easy access to the thickness of bronze that would be necessary, so I'll have to use brass and take its 'softer' nature into account when evaluating my results. I'll let you all know!

Valete

Matt

[FlaviusCrispus]

Ave, Matt--

Great close-up photos of these two nice pieces! Now I'mThat's just the kind of detail level we need. It looks like you buckle is definitly inscribed with the owner's name (I can make out an I and part of a V, I think).

I fact, I have a buckle very similar to yours. Now I'm going to double-check it to see if there is any dotted lettering on it, as on yours...

Do you mind if I copy the photos and post them on the Leg VI REAL GEAR page? I'll be sure to give you a credit.

[Matt Lukes]

Be my guest Dave- I'm always happy to share information

Matt

[Matt Lukes]

It looks like it was just wishful thinking to consider those 'markings' to be the former owner's name- in looking at the dots and scratches closer and from both ways, I see now that it's actually just decoration- they're feathers or maybe palm fronds or something:



You can't see them so well in the digital image, but I can now see them clearly on the actual buckle- oh well

Matt

[TFLAVIUSAMBIORIX]

yes, that is what happened to me with my collection of belt plates, I looked through them and thought I had a name, it turned out on closer examination to be a phallic symbol. I guess dotted decoration is fairly common. we see what we want sometimes, still, neat construction on your piece, most of mine are sheet metal plates, but two are cast plates.

[Magnus]

Great pictures Matt. That really is a great insight into how they were possibly made.

Where did you pick those up?

[Matt Lukes]

That's interesting John- I guess 'dotted' decoration is more common than we thought.

I got them from the Source Of All Things: ebaY, my dear Magnus, ebaY :lol:

Matt

[A_Volpe]

That's fascinating, thanks so much for sharing!

I still can't believe you were able to make out the dotted-designs on the buckle. I would have looked right over them or thought them deterioration marks...Just amazing!

As for the Phallic symbol with T. Flavius Ambiorix's plates - Maybe that IS the Roman's name...Biggus Dickus??

So sorry I couldn't resist that... :twisted:

[ursinius]

Matt,

Why wouldn't the pendant be casted as was the more obvious way the romans used for this items?

A similar decorated buckle has been found at Augst in Switserland. It' published in the book "at arma" with lots of other Augst roman military stuff.

Do you know something about the original wherabouts of the 2 items? got them om ebay?

sebastiaan

LXG

[Matt Lukes]

"I have a vewy good fwiend in Wome called Biggus Dickus..." :lol:

I don't know if casting is the more obvious way Sebastian- I'd think it would require a lot more facility and energy to melt bronze than to hammer it into sheets. Of course I can't say anything for sure- it's just supposition on my part. I can say, however, that the terminus must be hammered and not cast- it's very thin the middle and thicker at the top and very thick at the bottom- the 'ball'. It's possible it began as a rough casting and was hammered into shape and its edges cut with a chisel.

Unfortunately, I know nothing of the origin of thes items- they're from Europe, but I don't know exactly where. It's in teresting to hear that a similar Balteus buckle exists- I'll have to see if I can find a copy of that book.

Well here's my first attempt at a reproduction of the buckle- the one on the bottom's mine :wink:





I didn't get the inner edge 'rib' right, but I know how how to make that correctly next time. It's made from sheet brass cut and hammered (a lot) and the small bit at the base with the loop is soldered on. In all it took about 4 hours to make (that's why I haven't made the second loop part yet)- of course that included experimental time, time to fix the experiments, etc. :lol: so any future ones will go a little quicker.

Matt

[Dean Cunningham metalsmit]

I think the bottom part is actually supposed to be one piece as seen on this web site.

http://www.romancoins.info/MilitaryEqui ... gulum.html


I also think the buckle part was made from a piece of bar or rod stock hammered flat in the center and draw out and scrolled on the ends which is much easier than starting with an ingot pounding it into sheet and then upsetting(thickening) the scrolled parts. The post would be beaten into a long 2-3 mm thick rectangle them split 2/3's of the way down into 3rds and the two sides would them be drawn out a bit and scrolled away from the post tip(as seen on the cast buckle with the inlaid plate. Or the rectangle can be fullered and drawn out one side forming the post tip and the other forming the part that is formed into a tube that attaches to the hinge pin as seen on the buckle that is also hand forged on the site I've referenced. That is how I would guess it was done and have done a couple myself. The interesting thing is that the cast buckles imitate hand forged work like the scrolling.

Dean

[Matt Lukes]

I think the bottom part is actually supposed to be one piece as seen on this web site.

Yeah, I got that impression from the tiny projection on the 'inner' edge of the loop part- it extends past the centerline and therefore had to have once been physically connected to the 'other side'. I just figured since the connection is only pretty minor, I'd make it in two parts and just solder the connection- my little cheat so I could at least get one side in place today

Thanks for posting the link too Dean- I've been there before, but hadn't remembered that there was an almost identical buckle there- now I know what the 'spike' should look like.

I used a 0.064" thick piece of sheet brass and just 'turned-up' the inner edge and the scrolled parts- which actually proved fairly effective- and hammered the rest out to eventually about 1mm thick at the outer edge. I did however start with an already luniform cutout- so turning up the inner edge wasn't as easy as it would have been had I begun with a rectangular piece and curved it as you've suggested. I'd planned to try that method next- nice to know that it works :lol: I'm sure it'll be MUCH easier and quicker.

I still can't quite get why the base with the hinge loops is a separate piece, soldered to the buckle body- it seems a rather weak attachment for an area that could at times be under a lot of stress. Then again, the scrollwork couldn't have easily been done this way were the buckle a single piece. I wonder if the broken left portion is why my buckle ended-up in the ground...

[ursinius]

matt,

I can post a drawing of that swiss buckle soon I hope.

Just for the record, without any context and origins known of the pendant, it could be a pendant for horse harness or an other roman object as well. (We will assume that it is an authentic roman piece).

Sebastiaan.

[ursinius]

Matt. cannot find your ad at the market place section, you have got a link or URL or so? i am always interested in new sources for equipment for leg X gem...

Sebastiaan.

[Matt Lukes]

Yeah, I suppose I should have included other options for the 'identity' of the pendant too- and honestly being another sort of decoration than actually hanging from something would explain a few things like why the part at the top that would normally be the suspension loop is actually two separate pieces, why there are two holes in the body, ostensibly for fasteners like rivets, and why it's so incredibly thin. I've seen the style before in images from a museum, although admittedly the top is different.

Matt