In association with Dress-ID
(see www.dressid.eu).
Short summary:
The Roman military belt was a distinct and distinctive piece of the personal equipment of a Roman soldier, characterizing him as a soldier. This is corroborated both by ancient literature and the frequency and accuracy of the depictions of the military belt on the gravestones of the soldiers. The ideological value invested in it is surely connected to its function as the sword belt, but may also have other psychological components.
The quality of the historical, pictorial and archaeological sources allow us to form a fairly accurate picture of the changes which occurred from the 1st to the 3rd century; changes that not only completely altered the look of the belt (several times), but also transformed the meaning from the sword-belt of the 1st century that was also an indicator of the soldier’s profession to an important status symbol of the soldiers, whose swords were hanging from a shoulder strap by then.
The aim of the project is to get as comprehensive a picture as possible of the production, distribution, manner of wearing and the material and non-material value of this piece of equipment for the Roman soldier. This will be attempted by combining the historical and epigraphical sources, and the pictorial representations of belts with the archaeological finds of the separate components of the belts.
The basis for the research are two catalogues comprising the published monuments with representations of military belts and the published archaeological finds of belt pieces from excavation reports from the whole Roman empire.
In addition to discussing typological features and analyzing the distribution and dating of the different types, questions on the production, distribution and social significance of this distinct piece of equipment will be discussed in the book. A comparison of components and semi-finished products of the military belt might answer questions on the local production and the formation of local variants. The question of the uniformity of the equipment of the units and the spread of belt fashions will also be addressed, as will be the differences between the belts of legionary and auxiliary infantrymen and cavalrymen.
I have been accepted with this project as exterior graduate student (buitenpromovenda) by Prof. Willem Willems at the Faculty of Archaeology at the University of Leiden.
