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Continental Celtic warrior 50BC-1st century AD
#1
Hello all,

I was wondering if the experts here could tell me what kind of equipment would be good for a wealthy continental (Western Europe- Northern France, Belgium,...) celtic warrior in the period of the Gallic wars and the following decennia.

I was thinking to base the woolen tunic on the Thorsberg find. It looks very much like the tunic on the Vacheres statue. Trousers (also wool) perhaps also like the Thorsberg ones.
Rectangular woolen sagum.

I'm not sure about the fabric, though. Checkers seem to be overused by reenactors...


I'd very much appreciate your views on the following items:

-Helmet

-Sword

-Belt

-Footwear

-Is there any evidence for leg bindings worn over trousers?

-Were neck torques regulary worn by the celtic warriors in Northern France-Belgium? Most torques I've seen worn by reenactors are British finds...

Thanks very much in advance for your advice!

Best regards,
Jef
Jef Pinceel
a.k.a.
Marcvs Mvmmivs Falco

LEG XI CPF vzw
>Q SER FEST
www.LEGIOXI.be
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#2
Clothing is a really difficult thing. I agree with a tunic like the Vacheres statue. It looks similar to the thorsberg tunic but i won`t do it completly like it. The tunic of the statue looks like wrapped around under the end of the chainmal, so maybe the tunic is wider and dagged/slitted in the middle.
The trousers are a bigger problem. I won`t use the horsberg trousers. Better you look for a wider bracae like the vacheres warrior wearing. But be carefull with pattern. Maybe a panama weaving for late latene (there are some finds)

Helmet: Helmets are not common also in rich graves. If you are looking at south west germany near the belgium border you can take a mannheim coolus. This type of helmet was found in celtic graves in your time frame (there was a topic here in this forum with some good articles).

Sword: Type Ludwigshafen or maybe a simpler iron late latene type.

Footwear: there is not much evidence for celtic shoes of the late latene period. But theres is a shoe pendant from wederath in south west germany. This shoe seems to be closed and a bit like a roman calceus.

Belt: If you wear a sword take the belt construction which was suggested by andre rapin.

For Belgium maybe you take a look at the works of Anne Cahen-Delhaye.

If you need pictures or titles of books for further reading contact me per PM.

Regards Patrick
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#3
Jef, are you going for Asterix or Ambiorix??? :roll:
AgrimensorLVCIVS FLAVIVS SINISTER
aka Jos Cremers
member of CORBVLO
ESTE NIX PAX CRISTE NIX
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#4
The differences between the armament of LT D and that one of the LT C2 is the result of a tactical evolution, that also revolutionize the way to make war (cfr. Rapin in a lot of his jobs).
At the actual state of the knowledge it is impossible to define a “standard” armament for the LT D - some weapons were also transmitted through different generations, and these weapons are found in more recent contexts (cfr. necropolis of Giubiasco) - but the external aspect and the quality of the weapons are always a mark of a higher status.
The artistic representations of LT D warriors doesn’t help very much. The great Celtic statuary of southern France show principally noble warriors of the south of previous periods.
The warrior of Mondragon (Vaucluse) dated 1st century BC is not useful for the clothing, because he is “grecian dressed”, with a sayon (not comfortable in combat) but useful for the representation of the shield and the hilt of the sword.
The warrior of Vachères and that one of Paris are representations of Auxiliares of the Roman army in the LTD2b period, where the armament is inspired from the Roman ones, and the Nautes parisiens is an imperial representation of a commercial elite.

BTW, to have an idea of the appearance of a rich warrior of the Gallia Belgica at the beginning of the empire, the bronze foil statue (h. 50 cms) found in the sanctuary of Saint-Maur is useful.

Speaking of the armament, a very valuable job it is the article of T. Lejars " L'armement des Celtes en Gaule du Nord à la fin de l'époque gauloise" (free pdf). It is a very complete article, with the drawings of the LT D finds in the north of the Gallia, with good references.

You can find in this forum a photographic gallery of Celtic LT D helmets, with helmets found also in the North (ex. The helmet of the Rouvray Forest in Normandy).

I know that I have not answered to all yours requests, but I hope that this can be useful.

Best

S.M.


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SM.

ὁπλῖται δὲ ἀγαθοὶ καὶ ἀκροβολισταί (Strabo,IV, 6, 2)
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#5
sorry two answers
I like LH
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http://www.alauni.at/ (member)
http://www.kelten.biz/ (my HP on German)
http://www.kelti-living-history.com/ (my HP on Slovenian)
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#6
Ligus: great text! Most of item and articles i know, but you collected them very well together!
I just wann't to remember on the point of the geographical area of this topic question (Nord-West regions)and if you look on the linked items (articles) here: there are detailed differences of the celtic items between 50 BC to the Augusteian time; but after Augustus (the end of Lt D2 - ab. our time beginning) i don't know any continental celtic items more.
My tunic is woven in panama style - i linked it here on RAT. BUT the panama is rare for this time periode; most of the textiles of this time are in tabby, than some of them are in twill 2/2 too, panama is very rare. It goes card-woven belts and ornaments on the tunica, too. About the throusers: there are evidented slim throusers of the gallic warriors - the wide variante is good only for the cavalery but not for the normal warriors. The typical gallic throusers are slimm, very slimm like Thorsberg throusers and i have evidence for the striped patterns and chechered paterns of them, both of them.
The tunic are 1. normal variante 2. wide gallic variante in the form of the gallic coat or gallic tunic - in this point they are simillar to the roman tunic but they have sleeves (the roman tunic of this time have sleeves, too, but they are rare evidented - i know the Martihal's epigrams and he wrote about tripple-weaving Patavian's tunic from Patavian region they were with longs sleeves and very warm, made by "gausapina" textile-style that means:1. felted 2. heavy wool 3.hairy wool.
Leg bindings:
could be an interpretation of the style of some gallic statues - they have checkeered patterns on their throusers.
But in your focus time they aren't evidence for leg bindings in the way of later galloć-roman variante.
Of course, we forged the cucullus and the paenula garment. Booth of them are evidented in your focus time. But in the same time you can wear the lacerna and the sagum, too.

My sword scabbard of the Lt D1/D2 is for sale and it is evidented in the Nord-West regions of the continental Europe.
It goes not for my native Slovenian impression because of the scabbard form because of the end of it. BUT: i saw this type of scabbard on the exhibition in Völklingen and i have foto of this item (made incognito!!) and it look like my scabbard! And this year on february, on my first Slovenian's museums presentation in museum Tolmin, the dr. Andrej Gaspari says to me, that exactly this type of the scabard is evidented for the Nord-West lands of the continental Europe.
So, it is for sale!
You should to order the sword but i can give you details for it, tha it will be good together with the scabard. The sword is 103,5 cm long.

I will get new sword (maded of the old one) and a new scabard with details exactly good for my Slovenian area.

For the clothes of this time there are some figures and statues.

Joze
I like LH
______________
http://www.alauni.at/ (member)
http://www.kelten.biz/ (my HP on German)
http://www.kelti-living-history.com/ (my HP on Slovenian)
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