A highly decorated Roman silver dagger unearthed last April from a burial ground in Haltern, Germany, has been restored and looks so good you’d think it was a replica. Unearthed complete with its original scabbard and belt, the 1st century pugio is a unique find in the European archaeological record.
Fresh out of the ground.
Fully restored.
The front of the scabbard and the hilt are decorated with finely wrought inlays of silver wire. The thinnest of the silver wire pieces are just .15 millimeters thick. They were placed in herringbone, chevron, diagonal, vertical and horizontal patterns creating dazzling geometric designs, leaves, diamonds, semi-circles, rectangles. Red enamel and red glass circles and triangles dot the sheath and hilt.
Its narrow blade shape and method of manufacture classify it as a dagger of the Vindonissa type, in use from northern Italy to the North Sea to southern England during the first half of the 1st century. It was manufactured in the Roman province of Noricum (modern-day Austria and Slovenia).
As spectacular as it is, this piece was not a decorative accessory. It was a military dagger worn by legionaries, non-commissioned officers or centurions, for close-quarters combat, and there are signs of wear of the blade, areas of silver loss during use. Elements on the knob that would originally have been silver were lost and replaced by brass, and the rings that connected it to the belt are abraded from the leather ties that rubbed against them for years.
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