A spectacular brass guard that would have protected the sword arm of a high-ranking Roman soldier some 1,800 years ago has been reconstructed from more than 100 fragments found at Trimontium, the Roman fort complex in Scotland.
The extraordinary jigsaw puzzle has been pieced together by National Museums Scotland (NMS) in Edinburgh, and 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 – with brass strips overlapping like an armadillo’s scales – it is one of only three known from the whole Roman Empire, and the most intact.
I was questioning the use of brass for a bit but it seems that it was an effective armor and also quite expensive. Romans also used brass for coins, it seems.
Brass is generally a soft metal and work hardens fairly quick. Annealing brass is easy with propane but that is something the Romans probably didn’t have. (I work with brass occasionally and it’s an interesting metal.)
I’m not an expert on metals, history or Roman armor or anything, but this took me down an interesting path reading into Roman metallurgy and the history of brass. It’s been around since at least 5000 BCE, interestingly enough. Huh.