Unarmed Cananefates? Roman military equipment and horse gear from non military context in the civitas Cananefatium.

Abstract: During the last decade an unprecedented amount of excavations of Roman period rural settlements took place in the presumed civitas of the Cananefates, which covers a great part of the modern day Dutch province of Zuid-Holland. A number of these excavations yielded substantial more metal finds than is common for the region, including an unsuspected amount of Roman military equipment and horse gear, a find category that until recently was almost nonexistent in the region. In the neighboring Dutch Eastern River Area, the heartland of the Batavians, Roman military equipment and horse gear from civilian context has always been a prominent find category and has been the subject of extensive research (Nicolay 2007). In order to test some of the ideas from that research, a survey was conducted of all military equipment from the Cananefatian from non military context and held against the existing theories. The comparison yielded some interesting similarities and differences between...Show moreAbstract: During the last decade an unprecedented amount of excavations of Roman period rural settlements took place in the presumed civitas of the Cananefates, which covers a great part of the modern day Dutch province of Zuid-Holland. A number of these excavations yielded substantial more metal finds than is common for the region, including an unsuspected amount of Roman military equipment and horse gear, a find category that until recently was almost nonexistent in the region. In the neighboring Dutch Eastern River Area, the heartland of the Batavians, Roman military equipment and horse gear from civilian context has always been a prominent find category and has been the subject of extensive research (Nicolay 2007). In order to test some of the ideas from that research, a survey was conducted of all military equipment from the Cananefatian from non military context and held against the existing theories. The comparison yielded some interesting similarities and differences between both regions and provided enough questions to challenge some of the existing theories. Throughout the Roman period differences in horse gear remain very high. However, against expectations for the later periods the Cananefatian region features relatively more military equipment than the Batavian region. This sheds additional light on the questions about the role of the veteran, the pacification of the Rhine frontier and the theory about rearming of the population during the unrest of the 3rd century.Show less

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Unarmed Cananefates? Roman military equipment and horse gear from non military context in the civitas Cananefatium.