03-07-2016, 11:56 PM
Aha! I forgot about the Jerusalem finds and the chap from legio V Alaudau. Doesn't alter the situation much though, as was remarked that the Jewish War brought in many units from elsewhere in the Empire.
I also forgot about the Bulgarian finds - although I do have the information here somewhere! In addition there is a publication ("Castellum Albaniana", by Peter Bakker & Jan Willelm Bron) dealing with numerous lorica finds from that region. Again, it doesn't make for much of a change, because the finds from Germany, Holland, the UK, etc. are so much more numerous.
One curiosity is the variant of armour which has been called "lorica Alba Iulia" from the statue found in that place in Romania. Thus far, this type of armour appears to be unique to this region (although there are reports that some of the armour from Leon, in Spain, might have the same characteristics). This might possibly (note the hesitance here) lead to the idea that some of the scale armour parts that have been found might have come from this type of lorica segmentata, rather than from a pure scale armour coat. Just a thought!
I think that the jury is still very much out on this one. Compared to the western Europe situation, excavation work in the eastern half of the continent has only recently got started. I wouldn't mind betting that, given a few decades, we might find that a very different picture starts to emerge.
Mike Thomas
(Caratacus)
I also forgot about the Bulgarian finds - although I do have the information here somewhere! In addition there is a publication ("Castellum Albaniana", by Peter Bakker & Jan Willelm Bron) dealing with numerous lorica finds from that region. Again, it doesn't make for much of a change, because the finds from Germany, Holland, the UK, etc. are so much more numerous.
One curiosity is the variant of armour which has been called "lorica Alba Iulia" from the statue found in that place in Romania. Thus far, this type of armour appears to be unique to this region (although there are reports that some of the armour from Leon, in Spain, might have the same characteristics). This might possibly (note the hesitance here) lead to the idea that some of the scale armour parts that have been found might have come from this type of lorica segmentata, rather than from a pure scale armour coat. Just a thought!
I think that the jury is still very much out on this one. Compared to the western Europe situation, excavation work in the eastern half of the continent has only recently got started. I wouldn't mind betting that, given a few decades, we might find that a very different picture starts to emerge.
Mike Thomas
(Caratacus)
visne scire quod credam? credo orbes volantes exstare.
