Roman Military Clothing (2)

[Conal]

Hi

Colour Plate C figure 1 has a straw hat ....... anyone (Mr Sumner?) know what this is based on ?

Looks very Chinese

Cheers

Conal

[Tarbicus]

Check out this thread:

link from old RAT

[Conal]

Cheers Tarbicus

Read it but Graham does not state where he got the hat on the Legionary ??

[Graham Sumner]

Hello Conal

As stated in the other thread, as far as I know there are no depictions of Roman soldiers of any period wearing straw hats surviving from antiquity. The hat in my illustration is therefore based on those seen in a number of mosaics, especially from North Africa but nothing from a military context or dated from the first or even second century AD.

The soldiers shown marching on Trajan's Column have their helmets off and attached over the chest. In such circumstances a soldier marching on a hot day might have worn a hat to keep the sun off. It would not be regulation issue but is the sort of thing soldiers do because they generally have more common sense than the regulations.

A number of hats do survive from Egypt but they are in felt I have never seen a straw one although what might be a hair-moss cap has been found at Vindolanda. If it is a hat it looks more bizarre than a straw one!

If there is anything else I can help with I will try my best.

Graham.

[Tarbicus]

I have never seen a straw one although what might be a hair-moss cap has been found at Vindolanda. If it is a hat it looks more bizarre than a straw one!

Hi Graham, is that the one which has also been possibly identified as a centurion's crest?

[Graham Sumner]

Hi Jim

No it is something different. It appears in Vindolanda Research Reports Volume 3. 1993. Plate XIII

John Peter Wild says it is paralleled by a similar 'cap' from the late Flavian fort at Newstead. Both items have been classed as baskets!
I have never seen the Newtead version but only the top or bottom half of the Vindolanda type survives. It looks like a scalp and I think even one suggestion was that it was even a hairpiece!

I seem to recall that the people at Vindolanda thought it could also be the Roman equivalent of the Australian hat with the corks hanging from it, to keep the midges away from the face and if you have ever been to Vindolanda you will know what they mean!

Graham

[Primvs Pavlvs]

I have never seen a straw one although what might be a hair-moss cap has been found at Vindolanda. If it is a hat it looks more bizarre than a straw one!

Hi Graham, is that the one which has also been possibly identified as a centurion's crest?

Jim I think this is really a Roman merkin!

[Tarbicus]

Baskets? hock: Hmm.

Interesting that moss hair should find two uses above the forehead, potentially. Thanks.

[Conal]

Thanks

I was recntly in China and saw a few hats which were very similar to the ones shown on here ... seems likley that once someone got a weaving they came up with a similar solution to the subject.

I have seen one in a Halstat wagon grave which looks almost identical to a chines coolies hat.