02-21-2008, 09:41 PM
Quote:The helmet is all wrong, with McBride oddly persisting in the 'circular earcaps' that in the past were wrongly drawn on an earlier Osprey reconstruction of the Intercisa helmet.
I was puzzled by that helmet too and couldn't find anything from my sources to confirm its authenticity. Like you said, this book is 12 years old but I'm not so sure that McBride was to blame. The author, Simon MacDowall, has other multiple, faulty reconstuctions from his two other Osprey books on Late Roman equipment. McBride did not illustrate those so I suspect the author is ultimately responsible.
Another item that caught my eye was how short the tunic sleeves are on this Visigoth and on other Germanic figures drawn by McBride. What's the source for this ? I thought Roman and German tunics were virtually indistinguishable from each other - both having long, tight sleeves. But the book plates show loose, baggy sleeves which end at the mid-forearm :?
~Theo
Jaime
