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<p>[QUOTE="Plumbata, post: 3230662, member: 96864"]Ceramics are still rather mysterious to me, thanks [USER=38412]@7Calbrey[/USER] for posting your new finds (I like the Unguentarium!) and thanks [USER=76086]@Ken Dorney[/USER] for the IDs.</p><p><br /></p><p>The Roman Plumbata, a fascinating piece of ancient military technology, is one of my personal favorites (can ya tell?).</p><p><br /></p><p>Also referred to as Martiobarbuli, or "The Little Barbs of Mars", the Lead-weighted Iron-tipped Plumbatae were carried by soldiers in Rome's Legions to be deployed as a cross between a javelin and an arrow, thrown underhand like Lawn Darts instead of overhand like their heavier throwing-spears or javelins. Each soldier equipped with Plumbatae carried 5 of the war-darts within the hollow of his shield, which could be retrieved and hurled swiftly and effectively; able to achieve very high trajectories to land behind shields or defenses or on a flat trajectory to strike accurately when more proximal targets appeared. They were made to wound more-so than directly kill, with the weighted barbed head lodged in the victim making engaging in effective combat impossible. They were very useful against mounted troops, where the plumbata's bouncing-around while lodged in the horse's flesh drove the them mad, making them uncontrollable. Their primary era of use was in the later Empire but I'm hazy on the details of their use in earlier Greek and later Byzantine times.</p><p><br /></p><p>They had a fletched wooden shaft, and were 1.5-2 feet in length. An impressive element of classically "Roman" practical engineering was how the lead weight at the base of the barbed iron head also formed the socket into which the wood shaft was fixed. This was adequately strong for handling by the Romans, but the force of impact and/or subsequent trampling by enemy troops would easily cause the shaft to be broken or lead socket portion to bend, making it much less likely that if a Plumbata missed its mark it could be recovered and used by the enemy. A very clever bit of technology! The weapon was apparently used to some degree by the Byzantines until sometime in the 7th century.</p><p><br /></p><p>I bought my first Plumbata when I was 15 in '03. At the time I considered it a distant dream to one-day be able to acquire 5 of the rarities; the full compliment carried by a designated Roman legionary. I now own 7, plus partial examples and others lacking lead but likely to have been used in the same manner. The ones with reliable provenance are from Serbia.</p><p><br /></p><p>The 11.5 inch barbed javelin in center arrived a few days ago, and could be a Germanic "Ango" or Roman adoptive equivalent; used by the Late Roman military when their ranks swelled with Germanic soldiers whose culture and experience altered the toolkit of the Roman army. Even if they didn't draw blood they would have been very effective at penetrating shields and then getting stuck, thus denying the enemy of the use of their shield which would have to be discarded, then making them extremely vulnerable. Fun stuff.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]843527[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="Plumbata, post: 3230662, member: 96864"]Ceramics are still rather mysterious to me, thanks [USER=38412]@7Calbrey[/USER] for posting your new finds (I like the Unguentarium!) and thanks [USER=76086]@Ken Dorney[/USER] for the IDs. The Roman Plumbata, a fascinating piece of ancient military technology, is one of my personal favorites (can ya tell?). Also referred to as Martiobarbuli, or "The Little Barbs of Mars", the Lead-weighted Iron-tipped Plumbatae were carried by soldiers in Rome's Legions to be deployed as a cross between a javelin and an arrow, thrown underhand like Lawn Darts instead of overhand like their heavier throwing-spears or javelins. Each soldier equipped with Plumbatae carried 5 of the war-darts within the hollow of his shield, which could be retrieved and hurled swiftly and effectively; able to achieve very high trajectories to land behind shields or defenses or on a flat trajectory to strike accurately when more proximal targets appeared. They were made to wound more-so than directly kill, with the weighted barbed head lodged in the victim making engaging in effective combat impossible. They were very useful against mounted troops, where the plumbata's bouncing-around while lodged in the horse's flesh drove the them mad, making them uncontrollable. Their primary era of use was in the later Empire but I'm hazy on the details of their use in earlier Greek and later Byzantine times. They had a fletched wooden shaft, and were 1.5-2 feet in length. An impressive element of classically "Roman" practical engineering was how the lead weight at the base of the barbed iron head also formed the socket into which the wood shaft was fixed. This was adequately strong for handling by the Romans, but the force of impact and/or subsequent trampling by enemy troops would easily cause the shaft to be broken or lead socket portion to bend, making it much less likely that if a Plumbata missed its mark it could be recovered and used by the enemy. A very clever bit of technology! The weapon was apparently used to some degree by the Byzantines until sometime in the 7th century. I bought my first Plumbata when I was 15 in '03. At the time I considered it a distant dream to one-day be able to acquire 5 of the rarities; the full compliment carried by a designated Roman legionary. I now own 7, plus partial examples and others lacking lead but likely to have been used in the same manner. The ones with reliable provenance are from Serbia. The 11.5 inch barbed javelin in center arrived a few days ago, and could be a Germanic "Ango" or Roman adoptive equivalent; used by the Late Roman military when their ranks swelled with Germanic soldiers whose culture and experience altered the toolkit of the Roman army. Even if they didn't draw blood they would have been very effective at penetrating shields and then getting stuck, thus denying the enemy of the use of their shield which would have to be discarded, then making them extremely vulnerable. Fun stuff. [ATTACH=full]843527[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]
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