Lorica Segmentata Hinge Question

[Doug Strong]

Are lorica segmentata hinges specific to LS styles? What I am really getting at is can you identify the type of LS from the surviving hinge? If a hinge turns up in an archaeological dig can they tell if it is Corbridge or Newstead or Kalkriese or something else? Or conversely if one were reproducing a Newstead, for example, would there be specific hinges that would be more at home on it than on a Corbridge?

I'm not sure if there are different answers to the two versions of the question above but I am curious about both.

[mcbishop]

Are lorica segmentata hinges specific to LS styles? What I am really getting at is can you identify the type of LS from the surviving hinge? If a hinge turns up in an archaeological dig can they tell if it is Corbridge or Newstead or Kalkriese or something else? Or conversely if one were reproducing a Newstead, for example, would there be specific hinges that would be more at home on it than on a Corbridge?.

Yes the hinges are distinct to the variants - Kalkriese are small and not lobate, Corbridge are small and lobate, Newstead large and lobate. Hinged fittings (hinged buckle and strap fittings) look very similar between Kalkriese and Corbridge types but can be distinguished (there are no hinged strap fittings for Newstead).

Mike Bishop

[raeticus]

Mike,
any comments to the images from Carnuntum I posted on www.romancoins.info under the body armour section of the roman military equipment section ? To improve the text to the images...

Andreas

[Doug Strong]

Thanks Mike. That is an easy system to remember. What about the triangular openings on some large hinges. Is there a distinction between Corbridge and Newstead? So I am clear, I am referring to the ones in this pic from the above site. [url:2cyaoag3]http://www.romancoins.info/DSC_0070.JPG[/url]

[mcbishop]

any comments to the images from Carnuntum I posted on www.romancoins.info under the body armour section of the roman military equipment section ? To improve the text to the images...

It's part of the material excavated by Oberst Max von Groller in 1899 in the Waffenmagazin (weapons storeroom) at Carnuntum - a rampart-back building that appears to have burnt down and which contained shelving (the voids for the uprights were preserved in the deposits) upon which was arranged various types of military equipment (sorted by room). The segmentata is a mixture of Newstead and Corbridge types but there was also a range of segmental armguards, scale, mail, helmets and vast amounts of other stuff.

It was published in summary form in von Groller's important Römische Waffen in 1900 - the diagram of types of scale in Robinson's Armour of Imperial Rome comes from that report - but only a fraction of what was found was illustrated. The material was 'lost' for the best part of a century but has re-emerged in the last decade.

The important thing to remember is that, unlike the Corbridge Hoard, which was junk, this was possibly battle-ready stuff intended for use.

Mike Bishop

[Matt Lukes]

Thanks Mike. That is an easy system to remember. What about the triangular openings on some large hinges. Is there a distinction between Corbridge and Newstead? So I am clear, I am referring to the ones in this pic from the above site. [url:3qbjm0w7]http://www.romancoins.info/DSC_0070.JPG[/url]

Not per se- small lobate 'Corbridge' type hinges can have the triangular cutout as well as can the large 'Newstead' hinges, although I don't know if there are any Newstead hinges known without that feature. It's an uncommon one on Corbridge hinges though. In the image you linked to the one on the left is a Newstead, the one on the right is a Corbridge (an ugly one).

[mcbishop]

Thanks Mike. That is an easy system to remember. What about the triangular openings on some large hinges. Is there a distinction between Corbridge and Newstead? So I am clear, I am referring to the ones in this pic from the above site. [url:3h5hgeoo]http://www.romancoins.info/DSC_0070.JPG[/url]

Some Corbridge type hinges had triangular piercings (although Robinson's theory that they were the earlier form is not only incapable of proof (the archaeological evidence cannot provide such subtleties) but also unlikely, given what we now know about the Newstead forms) and this feature is prominent on all Newstead hinges so far known. My guess is that it's a regional characteristic and that the Newstead type was developed in that area (wherever it might have been)... but that's just a guess.

Mike Bishop