09-16-2011, 05:56 AM
Ah - you may think the Deepeeka dagger is big, but the Antonine period blade from Tuchyna is over a foot long - and that's not including the tang!
If you do get another dagger, I would suggest getting one with a frame type sheath, as I know of no evidence so far for the continuation of type 'A' and 'B' sheaths into the second century AD. The latest known depiction of a pugio is on the stele of C. Castricius Victor and unfortunately as far as I can tell from all the images I have ever seen of it, it is not depicted with sufficient detail to allow its type to be identified. However, it seems to be fairly clear that frame sheath carried on in use, but exactly what form those sheaths took is open to debate. The Titelberg, Exeter and Dangstetten sheaths probably all date to before AD50 and it would be naive to think that frame sheaths underwent no development over the next seventy or so years (in fact there are significant differences between these four examples, along with another from Tarent to divide them into at least three separate types, but, neither I nor anyone else has so far done this as far as I know due to the surviving sample being so small). By time the Techyna dagger was deposited, frame sheaths had undergone quite radical changes, certainly in construction and possibly also in form, but when these occurred and if they all occurred at once is unknown at present.
Therefore, I would tentatively suggest that either you do without a dagger for this impression (not all soldiers carried them anyway) or stick with the one you already have on the basis of the possibility that such sheaths and hilt types may have entered service as early as the second quarter of the second century AD (after all, the Techyna example is unlikely to have been new when deposited, but then again, as the bottom of the sheath is missing we do not know if it had the type of terminal found on the later Coptal Court and Kunzing examples or something more closely resembling the disc shaped terminals seen on earlier sheaths - you pay your money and take your choice I suppose).
Crispvs
If you do get another dagger, I would suggest getting one with a frame type sheath, as I know of no evidence so far for the continuation of type 'A' and 'B' sheaths into the second century AD. The latest known depiction of a pugio is on the stele of C. Castricius Victor and unfortunately as far as I can tell from all the images I have ever seen of it, it is not depicted with sufficient detail to allow its type to be identified. However, it seems to be fairly clear that frame sheath carried on in use, but exactly what form those sheaths took is open to debate. The Titelberg, Exeter and Dangstetten sheaths probably all date to before AD50 and it would be naive to think that frame sheaths underwent no development over the next seventy or so years (in fact there are significant differences between these four examples, along with another from Tarent to divide them into at least three separate types, but, neither I nor anyone else has so far done this as far as I know due to the surviving sample being so small). By time the Techyna dagger was deposited, frame sheaths had undergone quite radical changes, certainly in construction and possibly also in form, but when these occurred and if they all occurred at once is unknown at present.
Therefore, I would tentatively suggest that either you do without a dagger for this impression (not all soldiers carried them anyway) or stick with the one you already have on the basis of the possibility that such sheaths and hilt types may have entered service as early as the second quarter of the second century AD (after all, the Techyna example is unlikely to have been new when deposited, but then again, as the bottom of the sheath is missing we do not know if it had the type of terminal found on the later Coptal Court and Kunzing examples or something more closely resembling the disc shaped terminals seen on earlier sheaths - you pay your money and take your choice I suppose).
Crispvs
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