Inlaid Beltplates.

[PhilusEstilius]

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.
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[mcbishop]

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.

That is a really nice reconstruction, Brian, but I have to disagree over the dating: all the stratified examples that have come to light have been 2nd century. There are examples from Corbridge, Birdoswald, Chesters, and Carlisle (the last of which has turquoise in the centre motifs and green in the outer ones) in the north, and several further south (including Manchester, Holt, Brough, Staxton, and two from Caerleon). The one from Staxton is white in the centre and red on the outsides. The one from Birdoswald features in an enormous detailed close-up in the new English Heritage guide to the site.

The three strange things about these plates are that 1) you only ever find the buckle plate (no ordinary belt plates); 2) they are all virtually identical, right down to the square sprue stub in the centre of the underside; and 3) they are only so far known from Britain.

I wrote a short note on them in Arma many years ago:

'Early enamelled belt plates from Britain' Arma 4, 1992, 17-19

Was this an excavated find or a metal-detected one, Brian?

Mike Bishop

[PhilusEstilius]

Mike.

This plate was a metal detecting find and I am aware of some of the ones you mention, however where you say that only ever buckle plates are found I have come across what may well be a beltfrog plate of the exact same pattern.

I am currently waiting to get hold of photographs of this other piece and will update you on this when I get hold of them.

[66kbm]

Not quite a belt plate but an enamelled strap end was found at Exeter, if military it would be mid to late first cent though i am unsure of the date of it. Aparently an allmost identical onewas found at Chesters. Sorry but i have no pic, only a drawing of it from Roman Finds From Exeter by N Holbrook and P Bidwell.
Kevin

[PhilusEstilius]

Kevin.

The strap end you mention from Exeter may well be of 1st century however the one from Chesters might be considered as 2nd century being Hadrians Wall area, however this piece of a one also comes from the Stanegate and could be considered 1st century with coloured inlays so why not beltplates.
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[66kbm]

A drwaing of the strap end i spoke of earlier.
Kevin
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Kevin
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[markusaurelius]

Don't want to draw this off topic too much, but are there later Roman examples of inlaid belts? IE. 4th to 5th Century

[mcbishop]

Not quite a belt plate but an enamelled strap end was found at Exeter, if military it would be mid to late first cent though i am unsure of the date of it. Aparently an allmost identical onewas found at Chesters. Sorry but i have no pic, only a drawing of it from Roman Finds From Exeter by N Holbrook and P Bidwell.

It supposedly came from a late-1st-century pit cutting the underlying barrack blocks so a couple of scenarios present themselves: it dates to the time of the fortress and was disturbed by the pit; it dates to the time of the town and has nothing to do with the fortress. Of course, other scenarios are possible. It is certainly one of the pieces of evidence for the beginnings of a taste for enamel on military belt fittings in the late 1st/early 2nd centuries (but don't forget the army had long been used to the technique being employed on dagger scabbards).

Mike Bishop

[mcbishop]

this piece of a one also comes from the Stanegate and could be considered 1st century with coloured inlays so why not beltplates.

This is a fairly bog-standard 2nd-century type of enamel-inlaid buckle plate. Oldenstein illustrates several from the German frontier with a reasonably close parallel from the Saalburg (Oldenstein 1977, Taf.64,827). Just because it comes from the Stanegate doesn't mean it is 1st century; it could equally be 4th century if it doesn't have an excavated context ;-)

The problem here is that we do not have as yet a 'smoking gun': we have enamelled belt plates from the early 2nd century (like the piece in the Corbridge Hoard) and other enamelled fittings (dagger scabbards, strap ends) from the 1st century, but no stratified evidence for enamelled belt plates in the 1st century. Ultimately, the considered study of military equipment has to be evidence based.

Mike Bishop

[PhilusEstilius]

I have to say that for no stratified evidence for enamelled belt plates from the 1st century may be a more bold statement than one might imagin, for it appears that the Romans did use enamel in their 1st century brooches and indeed their dagger scabbards but never got around to putting it into belt plates.