iron cuirass

[Iain]

Originally Posted by Kubur

The Celts and the Vikings....never

The Romans, it's another story...

Hi Kubur, I'm aware of these expeditions and they of course do offer fascinating possibilities. However, I still find the difference in construction and form of the cuirass to be quite different from a 1st century AD Roman armour, particularly in terms of how it fastens at the side, the riveting etc. Obviously if there was a connection one could expect changes over time, but I am a natural skeptic.

But who knows, perhaps archaeological work in the region will turn something up one of these days. Given the relationship with Ethiopians and even the presence of Ethiopians in Roman ranks, it would be interesting to see anything similar in those regions.

In any case its fun to speculate but I'm unaware of any archaeological evidence yet found for a Roman presence in the Lake Chad area. So, an intriguing possibility but given the general panoply of Bornu arms shows direct Mamluk influence it would be an odd holdover.