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 puzzle was put together by National Museums Scotland (NMS) in Edinburgh, and the arm shield will now go to the British Museum’s upcoming exhibition about life in the Roman army.
Made in the second century – with copper strips overlapping like an armadillo’s scales – it is one of only three known from the whole Roman Empireand the most intact.
While most armguards were made of iron, which was more functional, brass would appear gold on the wearer’s arm, indicating a soldier’s rank on the battlefield.
Dr Fraser Hunter, the NMS’s chief curator of prehistory and Roman archaeology, told the Observer: “It’s absolutely amazing. You get the sense of the protection this person had – and also the prestige. It would have shone gold and would have looked absolutely spectacular when he wore it.”
It was discovered in 1906 by James Curle, a solicitor and antiquarian, on the site of the Trimontium Fort in Newstead, near Melrose in the Scottish Borders. He thought it was a guard for the chest and shoulders, but he could find no parallels. It was identified as an arm guard in the 1990s, but it has only now been reassembled.
Hunter said that, when they started working on some of the fragments, he realized they had “the complete thing”: “The British Museum exhibition was really the impetus to give us the time and the resources to do all the bringing pieces together.”
It is most likely a critical part of a legionnaire’s kit, he believes: “We know that there [were] legions in the garrison at the time. Because of its luster – and copper was an expensive metal at the time – it is probably a high-ranking centurion.”
He added that the scaled-down design would have deflected any blow, while underpadding took most of the force: “Your right arm was completely protected.”
He added that, in about 180 AD, the Romans were facing upheavals and unrest in Scotland: “There is a literary reference to barbarians killing a general and his troops.”
While all the fragments have been in the NMS collection for over a century, one part had been on display for 25 years and another part was on loan to the Trimontium Museum. Fragments of it lay in storage.
Bethan Bryan, the NMS’s artefact conservator, said the puzzle was “an extreme challenge and a labor of love”.
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It took about three weeks to complete and sometimes seemed impossible because some of the fragments are small. “Staring at the same things for three weeks takes a toll on your eyes and your brain,” Bryan said. Yet every last piece found its place.
The metal is in a good state of preservation, but patterns in the corrosion give clues to where the leather and padding were attached. Fragments of the original lore still survive.
The arm guard seems to have been left behind when the Romans left Trimontium. Before that, about 2,000 people would have lived there and in the settlement around it.
The arm guard was kept in the headquarters of the site’s latest fort. Hunter explained: “This is where the commander would brief his own officers. But this is also, apparently, where repairs were done – a workshop for military equipment. When the building was abandoned, any equipment that was considered surplus to requirements just got dumped.”
