Rare Roman armour to go on display after experts complete ‘ancient jigsaw puzzle’
Transcript
00:00 [Music]
00:25 The Armguard is a unique find from across the entire Roman Empire.
00:29 It's the only complete brass Armguard known from anywhere.
00:33 When it was found it was in a hundred fragments
00:36 and it was put together in part for different exhibitions,
00:39 but it's never been seen together before.
00:41 So here's the first time it's been put together since the late 2nd century AD.
00:46 The Armguard really helps us understand life as a Roman soldier in Scotland in two ways.
00:51 One is that it shows these soldiers were heavily armoured.
00:54 Not just the body armour and the shield and the helmet,
00:56 but for some of them, for the infantry, also the Armguard protecting your sword arm.
01:01 But the second thing is about status.
01:03 It may look green and corroded now, but at the time this gleamed like gold.
01:08 This was a real status piece.
01:10 Whoever could afford to buy or commission a piece like this was a high-ranking soldier,
01:15 somebody important in the ranks of the army.
01:18 [Music]