The Excavations at Dura-Europos Conducted by Yale University and the French Academy of Inscriptions and Letters 1928 to 1937. Final Report VII : The Arms and Armour and Other Military Equipment

This is a paperback reprint of the first edition, which appeared in 2004, published by British Museum Press. The ancient city of Dura-Europos, destroyed by a Sasanian Persian siege in the AD 250s, was an important regional center of commerce, government and military control under the Seleucid, Parthian and Roman empires. During excavations in the 1920s and 1930s it became famous for finds such as a painted synagogue and early Christian chapel. Not the least spectacular of the discoveries in this 'Pompeii of the Syrian Desert' were the remains of the town's garrisons and siegeworks and massive quantities of military artifacts. The latter comprise perhaps the most important single collection of arms, armor and other equipment to survive from the Roman period, a collection which is exceptional in its size, diversity and state of preservation. Its colorful painted shields and horse armor, for example, are unequaled in the vast Roman empire or in neighboring lands. It also holds vital importance for our knowledge of the material culture of the military in the eastern frontier lands of the Roman world. This book provides a complete catalogue of the military artifacts, most of which are now housed in Yale University Art Gallery, and analyses and assesses their cultural affiliations and uses. The archaeological evidence from the site is combined with the equally rich and rare textual and representational evidence in the form of papyri, graffiti and wall-paintings, not to mention the buildings of the city themselves, to examine the ways in which material culture actively creates and expresses identity, in this case of Roman soldiers of Syrian origin. Cover 1 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Contents 6 Illustrations 8 Tables 12 Summaries in English, French, German and Arabic 14 Acknowledgements 22 Preface 24 Plates 26 Part 1: Discovery and context 34 The assemblage and its potential 36 Aims of the present research 40 Previous work and publications 41 Methodology 42 Organization of the Report 42 Notes on illustrations, conventions and terminology 43 The historical and geographical context 43 Deposition, recovery, recording and preservation 58 Preparations for a siege, and the subsequent fighting 63 Supplementary sources for soldiers and warfare at Dura: visual representations 72 Part 2: The assemblage 80 Military dress and horse harness 82 Catalogue: Fittings from military dress and horse harness 105 Helmets and head protection 134 Catalogue: Helmets and head protection 137 Armour 143 Catalogue: Armour 149 Edged weapons 173 Catalogue: Edged weapons 178 Shields 192 Catalogue: Shields 204 Shafted weapons 221 Catalogue: Shafted weapons 222 Bows, arrows and archery tackle 224 Catalogue: Bows, arrows and archery tackle 232 Torsion artillery 242 Catalogue: Catapult ammunition 249 Part 3: Discussion 264 Deposition and transformations of the material 266 Composition and attribution of the assemblage 269 Cultural distinctiveness, interaction, convergence and identity in martial material culture 275 Manufacture, supply, use and repair of equipment at Dura 287 Evidence for the use of equipment in combat 289 Reconstructing the appearance of third-century Roman soldiers at Dura 289 Conclusion and prospect 293 Future research 295 Afterword 295 Bibliography 297 Tables 308 Concordances and indices 312 Concordance of known provenances and catalogue numbers 312 Concordance of museum locations and accession numbers with catalogue numbers 315 Index of materials of manufacture and embellishment 333 Index of references to catalogued items 333 General index 335 This is a paperback reprint of the first edition, which appeared in 2004, published by British Museum Press. The ancient city of Dura-Europos, destroyed by a Sasanian Persian siege in the AD 250s, was an important regional centre of commerce, government and military control under the Seleucid, Parthian and Roman empires. During excavations in the 1920s and 1930s it became famous for finds such as a painted synagogue and early Christian chapel. Not the least spectacular of the discoveries in this 'Pompeii of the Syrian Desert' were the remains of the town's garrisons and siegeworks and massive quantities of military artefacts. The latter comprise perhaps the most important single collection of arms, armour and other equipment to survive from the Roman period, a collection which is exceptional in its size, diversity and state of preservation. Its colourful painted shields and horse armour, for example, are unequalled in the vast Roman empire or in neighbouring lands. It also holds vital importance for our knowledge of the material culture of the military in the eastern frontier lands of the Roman world. This book provides a complete catalogue of the military artefacts, most of which are now housed in Yale University Art Gallery, and analyses and assesses their cultural affiliations and uses. The archaeological evidence from the site is combined with the equally rich and rare textual and representational evidence in the form of papyri, graffiti and wall-paintings, not to mention the buildings of the city themselves, to examine the ways in which material culture actively creates and expresses identity, in this case of Roman soldiers of Syrian origin.