11-21-2012, 05:25 PM
I was asked by Doc in another topic regarding the type of inlay in a beltplate that I showed pictures of, I also showed a replica of the plate with inlays that I had put into it. The colours were based on small traces on the original and the green in the centre area is the same as the red in the outer decoration which has been a kind of paste very similar to modern epoxy resin.
This green is more of a Turquoise in nature and indeed may well have been one of the ingredients used in the original along with some kind of resin that set after being put into the plate, for Turquoise is a semiprecious stone that is opaque and greenish that consists of hydrated copper aluminium phosphate that may have been crushed into powder and used as an inlay mixed with a resin.
This particular plate was found along the Stanegate Frontier that could very well place it into the Flavian period therefore this gives us a plate of 1st century with coloured inlays. Here are again pictures of this plate and the reproduction.
[attachment=5852]easyshare2125Medium.jpg[/attachment]
[attachment=5853]DSC01802Small.JPG[/attachment]
[attachment=5854]DSC01803Small.JPG[/attachment]
This green is more of a Turquoise in nature and indeed may well have been one of the ingredients used in the original along with some kind of resin that set after being put into the plate, for Turquoise is a semiprecious stone that is opaque and greenish that consists of hydrated copper aluminium phosphate that may have been crushed into powder and used as an inlay mixed with a resin.
This particular plate was found along the Stanegate Frontier that could very well place it into the Flavian period therefore this gives us a plate of 1st century with coloured inlays. Here are again pictures of this plate and the reproduction.
[attachment=5852]easyshare2125Medium.jpg[/attachment]
[attachment=5853]DSC01802Small.JPG[/attachment]
[attachment=5854]DSC01803Small.JPG[/attachment]
Brian Stobbs