daggers and daggersheats

[maarten]

Dear friends,

Im am writing an artcile about Roman Daggers and Daggersheaths from the Netherlands. So far 13 have been published. About 30 new ones have been found. My goal is to say anything about the decoration, ornamentation, chronology, and productionmethod of the daggers and sheaths. Next to that I hope to be able to say anything about the distribution.

As far as I can see now two motives were very popular along the lower Rhine, the haringbone motive and the acanthusmotive, both in silver.
I would very much appreciate if anyone can help me with Information about daggers and daggersheaths from other countries or give information about look a likes. Hereby and hereafter some Dutch sheaths

thanks in advance

Maarten

[maarten]

and some others from the netherlands. the first one is a xray of a very interesting sheath from Alphen, teh second one is from Nijmegen, the third one also form Alphen. any comments are welcome

[maarten]

an some more, the first one is from Alphen, the second one is from vechten

[maarten]

The central part from Velsen, a very old find from Randwijk near Arnhem, the third second one is from Valkenburg and the fourth one from Leeuwen

any information is welcome

thanks

Maarten

[LUCIUS ALFENUS AVITIANUS]

Thanks to share the pictures.

Intersting the second one, it's made in copper alloy.
You have a nice corpus, with tipical patterns. It's intersting the one called Burgers zoo, because seems that the silver have partially fused, making some "balls". Not?

Can you put some more pictures on Velsen pugio, please...?

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

The X-ray from Alphen looks interesting. Are there more pictures with more detail of that?

[maarten]

The dagger Called Burger Zoo was found in Alphen in the Rhine. It was probably burned during the Batavian revolt together with de principia and thrown into the river together with all the buildingmaterial. The silver has melted out during the fire.

I'm going to make more pictures soon and put them on the RAT. There is no better picture of the X ray from the Alphen sheath, but I'm working on a drawing with more detail. it will follow.

Does anyone know of any look a likes of these sheats from Holland or has any information about sheats from abroad. Any info on other sheats is welcome.

Maarten

[sulla felix]

Very nice pictures Maarten,

I have recently been considering attempting to make a sheath like the Leeuwen.1 above (also seen in Bishop & Coulston's book). Do you have any more information on this one. It looks like a brass sheath and handle - is that correct?

The article sounds great - good luck with it.

[Peroni]

That's right Barry, copper-alloy with beaded wire decoration. It's the only copper alloy grip that I can recall.

Maarten's photo shows what appears to be the blade in the scabbard back-to-front. This one shows the front face of the grip plate with its decorative rivets on the pommel expansion.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b242/ ... eeuwen.jpg

[sulla felix]

Thanks Ade,

So that is not a punched decoration but an applied decoration, presumably soldered or rivetted into place?

And thanks very much for the picture.

[Peroni]

soldered. :wink:

[Crispvs]

Maarten,

Sorry not to have contributed to this thread before or replied to your e-mail. I have been very busy recently and have not had time to look through my resources yet. Thanks very much for the photos by the way!

Off the top of my head, the Valkenburg sheath is very similar to some of the Vindonnissa sheaths and these display marked similarities to some of the sheaths from Chester, suggesting that they are more or less contemporary. I believe these sheaths are generally believed to be from the third quarter of the 1st century, but I would have to get my hands on more of the archaeological dig reports to be sure.

I'll have a look at what Scott and Obmann suggest for stylistic dating and try and get back to you in a day or two with something more relating to more of the sheaths you have displayed(pending nappy changing and baby feeding).

Crispvs