08-14-2010, 01:17 AM
Quote:Nice work!!
You can find every thing about early pugiones here:
http://gladius.revistas.csic.es/index.p ... ew/193/195
http://gladius.revistas.csic.es/index.p ... ew/194/196
It's in spanish. If you want to ask some spanish word, dont hesitate to ask me.
These are excellent papers. Whoever is interested in the origins of the pugio should download them, even if they do not read Spanish, just for drawings.There are decorative elements I have never seen elsewhere. I think it was also Cesar who posted a link to another article in Spanish about the Montefortino a few years ago. There are versions in that publication I have never seen anywhere else either. Fortunately I can read some Spanish, even though it has been awhile since I really tried, and I've forgotten way too much.
A device similar to a pugio frog was found at Castillejo. The shape is of a vertical rectangle with a triange shape on the long side. The apex of the triange ends in a large disc. This disc shaped end of the piece has a spike through the middle. If this spike was turned back and long enough, it could have, in conjecture, held a pugio through the scabard rings at a diagonal angle if the belt was under tension. The diagonal angle would match the ring positions on the Titelberg pugio sheath of the Early Pricipate. The shape however, is also similar to what appears to be a belt buckle on the right side of a belt worn on the Aemilius Paulus relief, in a position similar to later Imperial period belts. The relief shows two triangular shapes coming together to form an elongated X shape with a dot in the middle. The Castilljo piece, again conjecture, may be the male, and therefore overlaping piece of a similar buckle that is made in two pieces. Both the Castillijo finds and the Paulus relief are roughly contemporary.
Ralph
