Romans Used Glue to Decorate Armor

[mcantu]

Not EB specific but I thought it might interest people here...

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2007/1...01-101-ae-0001

Ancient Roman Glue Sticks Around
Rossella Lorenzi,


Dec. 14, 2007 -- Roman warriors repaired their battle accessories with a superglue that is still sticking around after 2,000 years, according to new findings on display at the Rheinischen Landes Museum in Bonn, Germany.

Running until Feb. 16, 2008, the exhibition "Behind the Silver Mask" presents evidence that the ancient adhesive was used to mount silver laurel leaves on legionnaires' battle helmets.

"It's a sensational find and a complete stroke of luck that we were still able to find traces of the substance after 2000 years," Frank Willer, the museum's chief restorer, told Discovery News.

Willer found traces of the superglue while examining a helmet unearthed in 1986 near the German town of Xanten, on what was once the bed of the Rhine.

"The helmet, which dates from the 1st century B.C., was given to the museum for restoration. I discovered the glue accidentally, while removing a tiny sample of metal from the helmet with a fine saw. The heat from the tool caused the silver laurel leaves on the helmet to peel off, leaving thread-like traces of the glue behind," Willer said.

Willer was amazed to discover that despite such a long exposure to water, time and air, the superglue did not lose its bonding properties.

He said that other Roman battle accessories kept by the museum have traces of silver decorations which most likely had been glued to the iron with the same adhesive and technique. Unfortunately, the objects are too deteriorated to find traces of the superglue.

However, the helmet unearthed at Xanten featured enough material to determine how the adhesive was made.

"Analysis shows that the Roman glue was made of bitumen, bark pitch and animal grease," Willer said.

The finding confirms studies done by researchers at the University of Bradford and Liverpool, U.K., in the 1990s.

Analysis carried at that time on an ancient Roman jar showed that when Roman people broke their pots, they glued them back together with a compund "derived largely from birch bark."

So far, the German researchers have failed to recreate the Roman superglue.

"We think that some inorganic material such as soot, sand and quartz, might have been added to make the mixture stickier," Willer said.

[abou]

Fascinating.

[Intranetusa]

That must've belonged to quite a rich soldier...

[Senatus Populusque Romanus]

man...that is a hell of a Roman helmet

[Kagemusha]

Well the Romans could be quite posh also. This was not only reserved to warriors of other cultures.Here are couple more,though both officer/cavalry helmets:

[Reno Melitensis]

Roman super glue, maybe it is the same they used for the shields. And indeed it may have been a very rich roman citizen to have such a nice helm.

Cheers.

[The General]

Hrm, it'd be nice if you could see what those helmets used to look like back in ye day.

More colourful at least, I'd assume.

[pezhetairoi]

I suppose if you were a career campaigner, you didn't really have that many other possessions, even on garrison duty, so you could afford to lavish your savings on what you owned and what was most visible. It's a very nice helmet. Yanno, if we could figure out the composition of the superglue, we could market it. 'ROMAN superglue: Bonds longer than love can!'

[Senatus Populusque Romanus]

I seriously want that helmet...

[antisocialmunky]

I wonder how good that glue was compared to other ancient glues. Chinese rice paste glue is pretty tough, I've lost skin to that stuff and they mixed it in with the mortar they used to build the great wall.

[Spvrrina Vestricivs]

That's a seriously impressive helm.

I wonder who it belonged to? Surely not an ordinary legionary, I wonder if it was a centurion or perhaps (and my most probable owner) a signifer, with the laurel wreath added as a mark that his century had done something impressive on the field of battle, or that he had himself (like preventing the Aquila from being captured)?

[blank]

Those are quite sexy helmets

[Intranetusa]

I wonder how good that glue was compared to other ancient glues. Chinese rice paste glue is pretty tough, I've lost skin to that stuff and they mixed it in with the mortar they used to build the great wall.

I don't think it's actually raw or cooked edible rice. It's probably been burned or had some chemical reaction that occurred...extracting from it lime, ash, etc
Otherwise, it would just decompose...leaving gaping holes in the wall.