The Armour Archive

I was just wondering if anybody knew of a historical context for solid shoulders on a suit of Cambridge type A Lorica. Thanks for any input!

Ave!

Nope, never seen solid shoulders on any Roman armor! You mean like a one-piece dished pauldron, right? There are some nice ones from Bronze Age Greece, several centuries before Romulus and Remus, but they don't even survive into the Archaic or Classical eras, much less the Roman Empire.

The articulated ones are nicer, anyway! Heck of a lot easier to make, too.

Vale,

Matthew

PS: Corbridge, not Cambridge! Senior moment? (I should laugh...)

I would have thought he meant like the ones on a lynthorax.

Ah! That's actually conceivable. One of the finds from Chichester (I believe) is an apparent upper shoulder guard that is all one piece rather than 3 plates hinged together. While it has been interpreted as part of a set of plate shoulders attached to a mailshirt (and I feel that the long rivets sticking out of the bottom support that, at least possibly), it could just be from a sub-type of Corbridge lorica segmentata.

Note that there are still lots of old plans and reconstructions of the Newstead lorica, which shows the collar plates all riveted together, with a one-piece upper shoulder guard. We now know that this is incorrect and that the Newstead actually had big ornate hinges, but the reconstructions do function perfectly well with the solid plates. The hinges don't really serve much use. In fact, they tend to break! Five of mine have broken, and I just rivet those plates together. Still works fine.

Valete,

Matthew