The Excavations at Dura-Europos conducted by Yale University and the French Academy of Inscriptions and Letters 1928 to 1937: Final Report VII : The ... Arms and Armour and Other Military Equipment) - Hardcover

James, Simon

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0714122483 ISBN 13: 9780714122489

Publisher: British Museum Press, 2004

Synopsis

James (archaeology, U. of Leicester, UK), whose PhD dissertation was on this material, has written a thorough account of the Roman and other arms and armor that were discovered at Dura Europos, a Roman site abandoned in the 3d century AD following a siege by the Sasanian Persians. The book, which is well illustrated with b&w and some color plates, is divided into three parts. In the first, the discovery of the artifacts, the historical context, and the physical context of the finds are described. The second section is devoted to the artifacts themselves, with description of each type--including military dress, armor, horse armor, helmets, edged weapons, shields, shafted weapons, bows and arrows, and torsion artillery--and a catalog with drawings and descriptive entries on each piece. The third section contains a concluding discussion of the use, manufacture, and repair of the equipment; evidence for the use of the equipment in combat; and other themes. An extensive bibliography, concordance, and indexes are included. Distributed in the US by the David Brown Book Company. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

About this title

Review:

"...a thorough publication of this extremely important collection"
--Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 95 (2005)

"...altogether a work of major importance"
--Minerva, November/December 2005

Synopsis:

The ancient city of Dura-Europos, destroyed by a Sasanian Persian siege in the AD 250s, was an important regional centre of commerce, government and military control under the Seleucid, Parthian and Roman empires. During excavations in the 1920s and 1930s it became famous for finds such as a painted synagogue and early Christian chapel. Not the least spectacular of the discoveries in this 'Pompeii of the Syrian Desert' were the remains of the town's garrisons and siegeworks and massive quantities of military artefacts. The latter comprise perhaps the most important single collection of arms, armour and other equipment to survive from the Roman period, a collection which is exceptional in its size, diversity and state of preservation. Its colourful painted shields and horse armour, for example, are unequalled anywhere else in the vast Roman empire or in neighbouring lands. It is also holds vital importance for our knowledge of the material culture of the military in the eastern frontier lands of the Roman world.

This book provides a complete catalogue of the military artefacts, most of which are now housed in Yale University Art Gallery, and analyses and assesses their cultural affiliations and uses. The archaeological evidence from the site is combined with the equally rich and rare textual and representational evidence in the form of papyri, graffiti and wall-paintings, not to mention the buildings of the city themselves, to examine the ways in which material culture actively creates and expresses identity, in this case of Roman soldiers of Syrian origin.

About this edition

• Publisher: British Museum Press
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0714122483
• ISBN 13: 9780714122489
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 456