12-30-2014, 02:50 PM
"Jason wrote:
Pugios have been found with a gladius like hilt on rod tang pugios, but they were not made originally like that; they were just replacement handles.
How do you know that?"
There are two known pugios with replacement handles. One was found in the Walbrook and is presently displayed in the Museum of London. It has a bulbous piece of turned wood which appears to have been made for a different purpose fitted tightly over the rod tang. The replacement handle does not quite reach the shoulders of the blade. The second pugio with a replacement handle is from Vindonissa. It has a replacement guard made from the striker plate from a Mainz pattern sword handle and a grip reused from an old sword handle.
The idea of a Mainz pattern handle as a replacement handle for a pugio comes from the dagger carried by the Herculaneum soldier. His dagger had a Mainz style handle but it remains a possibility that it is actually a broken Mainz type sword which has been re-used and a new scabbard made for it. I spent a considerable time looking at it but was not able to securely determine much more than that the sheath had been made to fit it and was not a cut down sword scabbard.
Most pugios with rod tangs are found without grip plates, but a pugio with a rod tang from Usk has a normal layered handle with (presumably) two inner organic plates hugging the tang and the normal outer grip plates of inlaid iron. It is possible that the inner layers were a single block with a hole drilled down it. It is not possible to tell now. Two other grips though, show a different method of handling for pugios with rod tangs. An ivory pugio handle, again from the Walbrook, is pierced down its length for the insertion of a rod tang. One face of the handle has been recessed to accept a normal iron grip plate. This would presumably be the outer face. This handle would be somewhat thicker than a normal pugio grip and the iron grip plate would have been framed by a thin band of ivory. This find is exactly paralleled by an ivory handle of exactly the same type from Heddernheim. It is possible, although by no means certain that cheaper versions of this type of handle could have been made from wood or thick bone but if so, none have survived which I am aware of.
Crispvs
Pugios have been found with a gladius like hilt on rod tang pugios, but they were not made originally like that; they were just replacement handles.
How do you know that?"
There are two known pugios with replacement handles. One was found in the Walbrook and is presently displayed in the Museum of London. It has a bulbous piece of turned wood which appears to have been made for a different purpose fitted tightly over the rod tang. The replacement handle does not quite reach the shoulders of the blade. The second pugio with a replacement handle is from Vindonissa. It has a replacement guard made from the striker plate from a Mainz pattern sword handle and a grip reused from an old sword handle.
The idea of a Mainz pattern handle as a replacement handle for a pugio comes from the dagger carried by the Herculaneum soldier. His dagger had a Mainz style handle but it remains a possibility that it is actually a broken Mainz type sword which has been re-used and a new scabbard made for it. I spent a considerable time looking at it but was not able to securely determine much more than that the sheath had been made to fit it and was not a cut down sword scabbard.
Most pugios with rod tangs are found without grip plates, but a pugio with a rod tang from Usk has a normal layered handle with (presumably) two inner organic plates hugging the tang and the normal outer grip plates of inlaid iron. It is possible that the inner layers were a single block with a hole drilled down it. It is not possible to tell now. Two other grips though, show a different method of handling for pugios with rod tangs. An ivory pugio handle, again from the Walbrook, is pierced down its length for the insertion of a rod tang. One face of the handle has been recessed to accept a normal iron grip plate. This would presumably be the outer face. This handle would be somewhat thicker than a normal pugio grip and the iron grip plate would have been framed by a thin band of ivory. This find is exactly paralleled by an ivory handle of exactly the same type from Heddernheim. It is possible, although by no means certain that cheaper versions of this type of handle could have been made from wood or thick bone but if so, none have survived which I am aware of.
Crispvs
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