Mária T. Biró: The Bone Objects of the Roman Collection. (Catalogi Musei Nationalis Hungarici. Seria Archeologica 2; Budapest, 1994)

I. BONE CARVINGS DECORATING WEAPONS AND MILITARY EQUIPMENT

I. BONE CARVINGS DECORATING WEAPONS AND MILITARY EQUIPMENT (1. Pommels. 2. Hilt guards. 3. Hilts. 4. Scabbard slides. 5. Scabbard chapes. 6. Ferrules. 7. Bow stiffeners and plates.) The investigation of Roman military history — considering conquest and territorial expansion as an economic and social mission — is the key of the Empire's history. It took more than a hundred years until the research of military history — after the evaluation of sources and epigraphic finds and after the often spectacular arcaheological results of excavations of camps and limes constructions — has come recently to the archaeological evaluations of the everyday life of the Roman army and the small accessories of military gear. Besides the fundamental researches of Oldenstein

21 and BAR Int. Ser. 336, 394, 476

22 several minor contributions have come to light in this field.

23 The identification of the bone carvings worn on the weapons and uniform of the soldiers requires in most cases serious investigation. Decorative bone carvings are accessories of metal, wooden, leather and textile objects. After the decay of these materials the designation of these accessories — whether they had a functional or decorative part — presents a problem in itself. Owing to their small size contemporary representations can seldom Fig. 1. The use of scabbard slide help in their specification. Even the most life-like statues or frescoes can not grant the archaeologist the representation or indication of a button, pin-head, loop or fastening ring. Still, the rich find material connected with the army can be identified with much greater safety than the personal belongings of the Romanized native population or citizens. Among the bone carvings of the Roman Collection it is the finds to be ranged among weapons and military gear where uncertainty and the number of objects with unknown destination are the least. Almost all types of objects have their well-interpretable analogies (made of metal or bone). The employment of the majority of objects can be reconstructed from contemporary representations. With military gear we need not reckon with waves in fashion. The soldiers enlisted came from different parts of the Empire and with their characteristic tactics they enriched those of the Roman army while with their weapons they made the archaeological finds of the Roman army more colourful. With bone carvings it is above all Eastern impacts that one has to take into consideration. It was in the East where the employment of ivory was the most obvious. It is not by chance that the bone structural details of Roman swords and daggers were made clear by Asian, moreover by Inner Asian parallels.

24 The results of researches on the Migration Period were similarly important on the basis of which the bone reflex bow covers of the Roman army being of Eastern origin could be determined.

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