Finds of Scale Armour (lorica squamata) from Timacum Minus

Abstract

In a section of the southern gate of Timacum Minus, two fragments of lorica squamata were discovered during the excavations in 2019 and 2020. Both of them have been found in the destruction layer dated into the end of the 4th century, probably caused by barbarian raids from the left bank of the Danube after the Roman defeat in the Battle of Hadrianopolis in 378 AD. This layer was, in fact, created by the burning and destruction of tower S4, a large tower built in the reconstruction of the fortification during the reign of Valentinian I and Valens. This tower, as the one on the western gate and the one on the northern gate, closed the southern gate, creating a new defensive system with two older towers of the same gate (towers S2 and S3) from the mid-3rd century. Large tower S4 was completely demolished in the barbarian attack, only her eastern wall has been partly preserved, so the southern gate was opened to invaders and the interior of the fortress was burned down. In this layer, composed of red burned soil, charred wood, soot and ashes mixed with rubble from the towers and the southern rampart, many small finds, indicative for dating, have been discovered, but also two unusual finds. Human osteological remains were found under the rubble of the destroyed western wall of tower S4, in an unarticulated position, probably the remains of a victim of this invasion. Also, inside the fortification, beside the eastern tower of the gate, tower S3, a kind of a cenotaph or a trace of some magical ritual was found: a small ceramic pot was put upside-down and fixed with brick fragments, and a chicken egg, an iron pin and a bronze coin were placed in it. Finally, by analysing the finds from this destruction layer we can assume a fierce barbarian attack occurred, with many victims on both sides, among which also a Roman soldier wearing a lorica squamata.