Gaesum-Soliferrum

[Caturix]

Hi!

I've readed that the Gaesum/Soliferreum in origin was a gallic weapon, developped in Late Hallstatt-First La Tène.
Often the classical authors speak about it a a carachteristic celtic missile.

Curiously, I haven't been able to find pictures of genuine gaullic gaesum/soliferreum, but only iberian ones.

Do you know when I can find pictures of gallic Gaesum?

Thank you for your time.

[Steven M. Peffley]

Hi Gioal,
They are two different types of spears or javelins from different times as far as i know.
The Soliferum was an Iberian or Celt-Iberian javelin about two meters long made of one piece of iron. Most of these have a very small, four-sided, pyramidal point a few centimeters long, sometimes with the corners extended into short barbs, though there are examples with a small bladed point.
These date generally between 300 BCE to 100 BCE. A good source is anything written by Sanz.
The Gaesum dates to much later, Late Imperial times - about 300 CE. This seems to be about the length of a Pilum ( 215 cm ) with a socket and longish shank, ending in a head shaped like a long barbed arrowhead about 15 cm long. Connolly illustrates one in "Greece and Rome at War" and i think that there is an illustrastion in Warry's " Warfare in the Classical World".
What might be what you are looking for, and closer in time and area, are the long shanked spearheads found at La Tene in Switzerland. These spearheads are long - 38 cm to 76 cm. They are socketed, have a long shank much like a Pilum, but usually have a good sized, slim leaf-shaped point often with a mid-rib. Vouga's original monograph on the finds at La Tene shows a number of these.
These also show up ( usually two of them ) in alot of the Celtic warrior graves in the cemetary at Montebibile in Northern Italy.

[Caturix]

Thank you Steven...

Actually in these days I have found informations that plenty resolved my questions.

Tha Gaesum and the Soliferrum, 2 meters long iron bar with barbed arrwhead-like tip, are actually tha same thing.

One is the celtic name (Gaesum is for Romans "Tela Galliarum"), the other is the roman one see Julius Pollux, in the "Onomasticon" (Vocabularium) (cfr. VII, 156)

In these days I found that the first Gaesa have been found in Celtic sites of VI-V B.C. (cfr. Grand Bassin II à Mailhac, Aude).

Actually they are absolutely the same tipology of the Gaesa founded in Iberian and Celtiberian area in III B.C.

In fact, as the classical sources said, these javelins where concieved by Celts, and later exported in Iberia, where, due to the richness of iron, they were widely used by Iberian and Celtiberian warriors.

The kind of javelin you speak about (socketed, long shank, pilum-like) are the sauniae, or saunion, actually the "father" of the roman pilum and a javelin of Umbro-Sabellian origin, that the Gauls adopted in Italy in the IV B.C. and spread in Europe in III.

[Crispvs]

If the weapon featuring a long iron socketed shank and a large barbed head is indeed correctly identified as the gaesum, I think that it is unlikely that it was intended for use as a javelin. The large barbed head would not enter a body nearly as easily a smaller head and there might be a purpose to the long iron shank that the visual similarity to the pilum might disguise. As someone who has handled a reproduction gaesum on a number of occasions, I would say that rather than being suited for projectile use the large barbs lend themselves very well to the purpose of hooking a shield to pull it away from the holder's body to open it up to attack from either the same weapon or the weapon of another soldier. The heavy iron of the shank would also accentuate the force delivered by a thrust with the weapon to land a much heavier blow. Therefore I feel that it is much more of a 'line of battle' weapon than a projectile weapon.

Sorry if this is slightly OT.

Crispvs

[Paullus Scipio]

I would agree with you that the broad-headed weapon with long socket often identified as 'gaesum' ( in 3 C AD and later) is more likely a hand-to-hand weapon rather than a throwing weapon,judging by the shape of the head. I also agree that the similarity of long socketed weapon to a 'pilum' is superficial. The long socket in this instance is likely to be for the purpose of avoiding the head being cut of by sword or similar weapon, assuming this idea of hand-to-hand weapon is correct.

[Conal]

The long socket in this instance is likely to be for the purpose of avoiding the head being cut of by sword or similar weapon

How easy is it to cut a spear shaft with a sword?

I have read this a number of times in relation to pilum type weapons but have always harboured doubts of the efficasy of this. In the throws of I would expect that it is more likley to be knocked from your hand rather than cut through as it would require more resistance than being hand held for a sword to bite sufficiently.

[Caturix]

The term "Gaesum" came from the indoeuropean root *ghei, "to put something in movement".

You an find the same root in the germanic "Gaida" "spearhead".

The main carachter is something that is hurled/fired/thrown.

However "Gaesum" and "Soliferreum" are synonyms, so Gaesum is an all-iron javelin.

The weapon with long iron socketed shank and a large (not always) barbed head is more correctly defined "Saunia" or "Saunion", and the first exaples of this kind of weapon are finded in Villanovian context.

However, the Saunion/Saunia is also defined by the Greeks as a javelin.

[Conal]

Rather than Gaesum what about the term Anjon?

[Caturix]

Rather than Gaesum what about the term Anjon?

It's germanic, and came from "ango", that means "hook/harpoon".

An Angon actually is the same of a Sanunion, with the only difference that AFIK Angon have always a barbed point

[Crispvs]

The problem I still have with the identification of the weapon with the long iron socketed shank and large barbed head as a javelin is that the barbs on the head are much too large to make it really viable as an effective missile weapon. After all, surely the ability to penetrate a target is the primary function of a javelin. Barbs that wide would actually impede the ability to penetrate. Certainly a javelin might have small barbs, but these barbs are simply too big for it to be believable as a javelin. Whaling harpoons only developed barbs of that size when it became possible to fire a harpoon out of a gun, the extra force this provided allowing a much larger object to penetrate the whale.
I have no doubt as to the accuracy of the source you quote, but I would still contend that this weapon has simply been misidentified. It may be that we do not even have the ancient name for this weapon. The soliferrum certainly existed but I do not believe that this is it. I think that this is yet another case of an item with no name being matched up with a name with no item, which has led to double ended pointed wooden stakes mistakenly being called 'pila murali' (wall javelins). This is not correct as the wooden stakes are clearly not javelins and we know men could carry two pila murali at the same time as the rest of their equipment on the march. In the same way, we have archaeological evidence of a weapon with a large barbed head and a long socketed iron shank which we do not know the name of, and we have descriptions of a weapon which may have been superficially similar. Somewhere along the line someone matched them up with each other. That does not make the identification correct though. It is not an all-iron weapon, requiring as it does, a wooden haft, and it is extremely heavy for something which would be intended to be thrown, to say nothing of the very large barbs, whose actual use I suggested above.

Crispvs

[Conal]

What about the spiculum & plumbata they had barbed heads, were they considerably smaller than those of the Anjon/Gaesum? Illustrations I have seen do not appear to show a vast difference.

[Caturix]

Actually, IMHO Gaesum, though most of them are barbed, didn't have a so big head that would give any penetratiopn problem...

[Crispvs]

I think that the weapons in the picture you have posted up are indeed likely to be gaesa / soleferra. They seem to be all-iron weapons and the heads are of a size and shape to penetrate quite easily. In fact I think your picture proves what I have been suggesting: that the weapon with the socketed shank and large barbs was not a gaesum but something else we do not know the correct name for. It is clearly a different weapon to the ones yu show in the illustration which do indeed seem to match with the description in the sources.

Crispvs

[Caturix]

I think that the weapons in the picture you have posted up are indeed likely to be gaesa / soleferra. They seem to be all-iron weapons and the heads are of a size and shape to penetrate quite easily. In fact I think your picture proves what I have been suggesting: that the weapon with the socketed shank and large barbs was not a gaesum but something else we do not know the correct name for. It is clearly a different weapon to the ones yu show in the illustration which do indeed seem to match with the description in the sources.

Crispvs

Ehemmm... it's 3-4 posts that I'm saying: the weapon with the socketed shank isn't the Gaesum/soliferrum, but the saunia/saunion.

In Celtic context, you can find it in the III B.C. in Cisalpine, and in II B.C. in Transalpine.

It's a weapon hat was taken by the Celts from Umbro-Sabellian, but it's very ancient (first examples in villanovian necropolis).

In Italy archaeologist use to call it "Type-Pium" or "Proto-Pilum" Javelin.

[Conal]

I cant see any point in trying to be prescriptive:

(1)Seeing that Gaesum means a type of spear (non specific?) then anything that is used as such can be called so?
(2) Saunion is I understand an Iberian word for a javelin, so really can be applied to any and all such.
(3) Soliferrum is a Latin route of iron so could be applied to any fairly iron based javelin/spear, suited well to the Iberian all metal javelin.
(4) Angon has old German routes related to hook/spike so is happily applied to anything with a barbed tip.

I can only see a small link between the "pila" found in Gaulish graves spanning the Alps and the "Angon". This being the socketed long shank as the heads are of different design.

I would be loath to believe that the Angon was not a throwing weapon due to the barbs as they appear on shorter socketed weapons which are more obviously javleins so no doubt they expected them to penetrate, if they didn't then why did they make them? Also some longer shafted weapons have smaller more streamlined barbs indicating that the design may not have been specifically for hooking shields though I do not doubt duality of purpose as it has been noted that Romans have used pila in close combat when necessary.

some examples;

http://www.dokpro.uio.no/Rygh/R211.jpg

http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgur ... 0%26um%3D1