Republican Legionary Lorica Hamata

[Vergilius Salomonis Dextro]

Hi folks,
I'm new here, though not new to assembling legionary kit. I've pretty much finished assembling my mid-1st C CE legionary kit and have been collecting additional pieces for a Republican legionary as well, mostly focusing on the Marian/Late Republican era. I have a nice set of lorica hamata but I have noticed that in a lot of depictions of republican-era hamata, the s-shaped hooks that secure the shoulder doubling are replaced with a rectangular plate (I've included a picture). For the life of me, I cannot figure out what this is based on, be it iconography or archaeology. Does anyone know a) the source(s) for this type of fastening and b) how it actually works in securing the shoulder doubling (e.g. which side it hinges from, how it connects to the mail, etc.)?
Thanks!

[Arius]

I'm surprised that nobody answered this so far. I might be way late but here you are:
Your picture didn't get posted but if it's what I think it is then it works like this: The plate fastener has a button at its centre that fixes it onto the body of the mail shirt. Either end of the plate has a diagonal (or L shaped) slot that buttons on each shoulder reinforce are slid on to.
These plates exist in archaeological finds from Romania, Bulgaria, France and Italy (3rd to 1st century BC) and are also commonly shown in sculpture. The Ahenobarbus altar from Rome, for example. They are shown very clearly on the reliefs from Pergamon and on the warrior statues from Entremont and De la Cloche in France and Este-Baratella in Italy.

- Harry