It is a real rarity: in Kalkriese in Lower Saxony, archaeologists have discovered a Roman armor for the rails – armor made of metal plates. The approximately 2000 year old find is the oldest and most completely preserved tank of this type to date and enables completely new insights into the equipment of Roman soldiers. It also reveals something about the tragic fate of its wearer.
For a long time the Roman legionaries only wore chain mail as armor in battle. However, in the early imperial era, the invention of the rail armor provided more effective and convenient protection. With a weight of around eight kilograms, it was only half as heavy as chain mail and could be manufactured faster and more efficiently. If parts of this upper body protection made of metal plates were damaged or lost during combat, they could be quickly replaced. The rail armor thus brought economic and logistical advantages in supplying the Roman armies. Up to the 4th century the rail armor was part of the standard equipment of the Roman legionaries.
Find on the ancient battlefield
But what the Roman rail armor looked like in detail and how it was made was only partially known. There were contemporary images of this armor, but archaeological finds of rail armor are extremely rare. The best information so far about the technical details of this protective armor was provided by six halves of rail armor that were found in Corbridge, England. However, they date from the 2nd century AD and therefore not from the early days of this new development in Roman soldiers’ outfits.
Now a find from Kalkriese in Lower Saxony provides completely new insights. During excavations on the ancient battlefield of the Varus Battle, archaeologists came across a more than one meter large block of stone in which a larger piece of metal appeared to be hidden, as the first X-rays in the customs office of the Münster / Osnabrück airport suggested. In order to reveal more details, the entire block was brought to the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS in Fürth. Hort is home to the world’s largest publicly accessible computer tomograph. The so-called XXL-CT opens up the unique possibility of fully capturing large-volume objects in three dimensions – this also applies to the find from Kalkriese.
The track armor is complete and in surprisingly good condition
The recordings revealed: The find is an almost complete Roman rail armor. According to the current state of knowledge, the Kalkrieser rail armor consists of 30 individual plates, only four to five plates are missing. “So far it is the oldest and the only surviving Roman rail armor. This find gives us completely new insights into Roman armaments technology, ”says Salvatore Ortisi from the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich. The track armor is currently being uncovered and restored panel by panel. The individual components of the armor are compressed by the pressure of the overlying earth, but are largely intact.
“Despite the poor conservation conditions due to the acidic and sandy soil in Kalkriese, the complexity of the rail armor is relatively well preserved,” reports Rebekka Kuiter, restorer at the Kalkriese Museum and Park. “The hinges, buckles and the bronze fittings are clearly visible. And we even have organic components, such as leftovers from leather. ”According to the dates, the rail armor is around 100 years younger than the finds from Corbridge, England.
(Video: Varus Battle in the Osnabrück region)
The find thus provides valuable information about the early forms of this armor. Even then, the plates were connected in a similar way to the later versions. The discovery reveals an outstanding quality of craftsmanship that should make it extremely comfortable to wear, the researchers explain. However, there were clear differences in the structure of the armor: In contrast to the English model, the armor from Kalkriese was more like a vest or a tank top that left the upper arms free. The Roman armourers seem to have readjusted here later.
A legionnaire as a prisoner of war
The find from Kalkreise not only reveals something about the Roman armament technology, but also gives clues about the fate of its wearer. The archaeologists found a so-called neck violin – a Roman fetter – in the neck and shoulder area of the armored rail. It consists of metal clasps that fix the hands to the neck and thus severely restrict the prisoner’s ability to move. Typically, these restraint instruments were mainly put on prisoners of war, who were then taken as slaves. From the discovery of the neck violin near the armored rail, the archaeologists conclude that a Roman legionnaire was tied up here by the Germanic victors of the Varus Battle with the Roman symbol of submission.
“The rail armor is not just a unique archaeological find, but also part of a tragic scene that is depicted here,” explains the archaeologist and managing director of the Kalkriese Museum and Park, Stefan Burmeister. “In addition to all the previous Roman finds from the battlefield, we see for the first time an individual fate on the Kalkriese site that shows the terrible side of the war.”
Source: Museum and Park Kalkriese