Shield boss dating / typology

[Crispvs]

Well, I am hardly in command of all of the evidence for shields, but I thought I recalled C. Valerius Crispvs having what looked like an embossed shield boss, although I can't see this in Gaham's drawing so I may be thinking of another stone. By the early second century AD decorated bosses seem to have been common. We have the two Lego VIII decorated bosses from the early second century and C. Castricius Victor appears to have an embossed boss (although it could be damage to the stone). Then there are a number of elaborately embossed bosses from other second century contexts (and I might be right in thinking that these also continue into the third century AD). Elaborate inscribed decoration also appears on second and third century AD bosses.

I am not sure about later bosses. Robert is probably better qualified to comment on them.

As to affordability, this is something I have problems with. I do not subscribe to the idea that Roman soldiers were equipped to the level that each individual was comfortable with or could afford. I feel rather that equipment was probably made in workshops with army contracts and supplied directly to units, which would then issue it to soldiers and make deductions from their pay to recoup the cost.
Further equipment would have been obtained during campaigns, as captured towns and cities were set to the task of making equipment for occupying armies, and many of these items would have ended up going back into unit stores later on.

To this we could almost certainly add a small percentage of privately purchased or commissioned equipment. The Terentius letters make it clear that people (at least those with existing military connections) could obtain military equipment privately so it seems likely that as well as workshops which worked according to army contracts there were probably other workshops which produced for what we might call an open market. How many soldiers felt the need to purchase new equipment is open to question and of those, how many needed to go outside their units' own stores is also open to question. Pliny the Elder suggests that soldiers were buying 'flashy' items of kit but many of these may have been made in their own unit workshops, as most forts show evidence workshops where casting and other metalworking activities.

There have also been suggestions that some soldiers may have added decoration to their equipment. Some items from Hod Hill have been suggested to be locally made additions for existing scabbards and the Herculaneum soldier's scabbard featured a metallic decoration which overlaid the original decoration, Further evidence that some soldiers upgraded their equipment comes in the form of a type 'B' dagger sheath plate from Mainz which is decorated on both sides, one being a slightly earlier style and the other being more 'up to date'.

It is also obvious that it would have been possible to replace a shield boss quite easily as the evidence points to their being attached with clenched nails rather then rivets. However, this may have been to allow bosses to be able to be removed from damaged shields and then attached to new shields. A reasonable number of surviving bosses do have names punched or inscribed into them but this does not have to mean that they were privately purchased, as this could have been done while a boss was already on a shield.

Does this help at all?

Crispvs