Colchester Archaeological Report 2: The Roman small finds

Fig 154 Decorated front plate of an iron dagger scabbard (2:3)
Dr Graham Webster has contributed the following
note on the scabbard plate: Some fifty decorated
scabbards are known to date. They all have different
designs and the quality of their workmanship also
varies. It is common for the space provided to be
divided into panels with a long thin triangle to the tip
and three rectangular panels in the upper part. The
Colchester example with its palm tree in the lower
panel and a temple front with columns and pediment
in one of the upper ones is closely paralleled by one
from Vindonissa (Gonzenbach 1966) but in a cruder
version. Gonzenbach shows how the temple design
was derived from the much finer bronze repousse
plates attached to officers' scabbards. Afine example
of one of these is the so-called Sword of Tiberius
found in the Rhine at Mainz and now in the British
Museum (A Guide to Greek and Roman Life 1929, fig
101). This is said to be a special commemorative gift
to the officers who served with Germanicus on his
German campaign. The same temple front motif is
135
found on other scabbards from Gloucester (Hassall
and Rhodes 1974, pl 6c) and Zwammerdam in
Holland (Haalebos 1981, afb 4). The quality of the
Colchester scabbard is much superior to these others,
as is evident from the published photograph of the
one from Gloucester (the others can only be judged
from drawings). This could be due to a difference in
date since the quality of equipment generally tended
to decline from the Claudian period.
Spear (Fig 155; 4230)
4230 Fig 155 SF LWC 3185(C), J949. Make-up or dump. Period4.
The iron leaf-shaped head of a spear (hasta). Part of the
socket is missing but would appear originally to have been
split (Goodburn 1974, fig 40, 5). Length 129.5mm, width
27.0mm.
Ballista bolt-head (Fig 155; 4231)
4231 Fig 155 SF BKC 6020, J285 L35. Dump and levelling
deposits. Periods 3/4/5a. A socketed corroded iron ballista
bolt-head. The head is square in section, the socket circular
and split. Length 81.5 mm.