An 1800-year old Roman Arm Guard Reconstructed from 100 Fragments
The National Museums Scotland (NMS) in Edinburgh has pieced together an extraordinary jigsaw puzzle. The arm-guard will now be loaned to the British Museum’s forthcoming exhibition on life in the Roman army.
Made in the second century, this Roman brass artifact has brass strips overlapping like an armadillo’s scales. It is one of the three known to exist, and the most intact of the three. While most armguards were made of iron, brass would have looked golden on a soldier’s arm, indicating their rank on the battlefield.
According to Dr Fraser Hunter, who is the principal curator of prehistory and Roman archaeology at NMS, the discovery is incredible. He stated to the Observer that the find gives us an understanding of the protection and prestige this person had. The object would have shone brightly with its gold surface and would have looked absolutely magnificent when worn by its owner.
In 1906, James Curle, a lawyer and antiquary, discovered an object at the Trimontium fort in Newstead, located near Melrose in the Scottish Borders. Curle initially believed it was a guard for the chest and shoulders, but he could not find any parallels to support his theory. Later in the 1990s, the object was identified as an arm-guard, but it was only recently reassembled.
A Hunter’s Discovery and the Intricate Restoration of an Ancient Roman Arm Guard
Hunter discovered that they had “the complete thing” as they began working on some of the fragments. He believes that this is a crucial part of a legionary’s kit and that it probably belonged to a high-ranking centurion due to the glamour of brass being an expensive metal at that time.
The scaled design of the armor would have deflected any blow, while padding underneath would have absorbed most of the power. As a result, the right arm would have been completely protected. The British Museum exhibition provided them with the necessary time and resources to bring all the pieces together.
He added that, in about 180AD, the Romans faced upheavals and unrest in Scotland: “There’s a literary reference to barbarians cutting down a general and his troops.”
All of the fragments have been a part of NMS’s collection for over a century. However, one of the parts was on display for 25 years, while another section was on loan to the Trimontium Museum. Some of the fragments had been kept in storage.
Bethan Bryan, the NMS’s artefact conservator, said that the jigsaw puzzle had been “an extreme challenge and a labour of love”.
It took approximately three weeks to finish the task, and at times, it felt challenging because some of the fragments were very small. Bryan mentioned that staring at the same objects for an extended period can be taxing on the eyes and the mind. However, they were able to complete the puzzle, and every single piece found its proper place.
The metal’s good preservation reveals where leather and padding were attached. Some bits of original leather remain. The Romans left behind an arm-guard at Trimontium, where around 2,000 people once lived. The arm-guard had been kept in the headquarters of the site’s latest fort.
Hunter explained: “It’s where the commanding officer would brief his own officers. But it’s also, it seems, where repairs were being done – a workshop for military equipment. When the building was abandoned, any equipment that was deemed surplus to requirements, they just dumped.”
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