Corbridge A Breastplates - to cross or not cross diagonally?

[marsvigilia]

[My question to you is this - how exactly do you suggest that the Romans reduce these bits of metal to a form that the locals could not re-use? Any way that would render the metal unusable would be disastrously expensive in terms of time and resources - much simpler to bury it and hope it's not found.

The value of the metal scraps isn't necessarily in what use the Roman metalworkers intended, but what the locals could re-process these raw materials into.

It's been a while since I've leafed through the Hoard report at the local Uni, but I recall that there was a bunch of stuff that would qualify as 'scrap' by nearly anyone's definition )bent nails, broken projectile points...)

When nails have to be made by hand, a bent nail can be restaightened and reused. So that is not necessarily trash. Segmentata could easily be smashed to a crumpled mess with a sledge or similar tool. The spear tips could have all the tips broken off. The coins? Are you seriously telling me that the coins were considered trash?

The box? Do you think the Romans used wooden boxes like we use plastic trash bags? There may have been assorted odds and ends, and of only middling value, but this was clearly not trash.

Bury trash sure. But in a sturdy wooden box? Come on this is realy a very poor line of reasoning.

But if armor is made that directly and deliberately contradicts the known historical evidence, how are these not fantasy pieces?