Corbridge A Breastplates - to cross or not cross diagonally?

[Matt Lukes]

Svlla, Hibernicvs has hit the nail on the head D

Yeah but how wide are his breast plates in relation to the back plates? And at how much of an outward angle are the mid-collar plates mounted on the upper back plate? Both of these things dictate the amount of angle necessary for the breastplates to meet. I've actually photocopied and cut out the diagrams of all the Corbridge Hoard upper sections and assembled them to see how they'd have had to have worked and they ALL need some angling- no amout of twist makes a difference because the breast plates are all narrower than the back so unless there's an inordinant amount of overlap on the back, the breastplates simply CANNOT meet vertically. Have a look:



This is Cuirass 1 of the Corbridge Hoard. The two halves joined with the back plates all horizontal, which the vertical fasteners demonstrate must have been the case, the mid collar plates' positions have the breastplates angled out. When the mid-collar plates are simply curved, in the second picture, the breast plates don't meet because they're narrower than the back plates. If you force the breastplates together, third and fourth pictures, the mid collar plates are bent in and the whole thing is just a mess. If, however, you simply bring the breastplates together angled, nothing is distorted, and the shape is that of the human upper body- pictures five and six. All the Corbridge cuirasses are this way- the mid-collar plates are mounted such that the breastplates are angled outwards at least some, in the cases of cuirassess 3 and 4 it's quite significant. Thus if the back plates are horizontal, the breast plates MUST come together at an angle, there's no other way. How modern recreations are put together is the thing that's confusing this issue- how they are isn't evidence of anything other than that's how the makers did it. Only examining REAL segmentatae can it be demonstrated how the design worked. :wink: