INITIAL PROJECT SCHEDULE

David Andrew Pearson

TITLE: LORICAE ROMANAE

TOPIC:

A discussion on the construction, decoration and function of Imperial cuirasses of the first two centuries A.D. The problems in dealing with archaeological and iconographic evidence.

WHY COMPUTERISE: I wish to publish this material electronically because of the difficulty in finding quality material on this topic. Further, because of the escoteric nature of the topic, by making it available on the Net may further induce others of a like mind to develop or become interested in this field of study. Most of the current material related to this topic on the Net, has little substance or is rubbish and not pertinent to any tertiary inquiry.

WHO IS IT FOR: This home page is designed to be relevant for tertiary students, especially those in Art History, Classics and Archaeology at a undergraguate level. Additionally, because the assignment uses many digitized images, perhaps this may also be relevant to other groups who may only be remotely interested in this topic. At this stage I have only spoken to a small number of people concerning this topic. People were either not remotely interested or found it very interesting, depending apon their background interest. No electronic competition at this stage.

EASY TO USE:

COGENT PLANNING: The layout is broken up into ten distinct sections. See below for an overall plan of the assignment or look at the work which is currently available in the coursework file.

Introduction: explaining the aims of the essay
Context:
- Brief history of the Roman Army, explaining the social distinction between the citizen legions and the auxilia. This distinction later relates to the types of armour used and by whom;
- Tabulated data showing Roman army numbers and the organization of frontier provincial armies;
- Map of empire with pertinent points brought up in the essay; and
- Discussion on Roman Fabricae, indicating location, use, regional variation in armour types rather than as Webster suggests being uniform through-out the empire.
Muscle Cuirass:
- Origin (Greek);
- Construction (iron & bronze);
- Who used this type of armour (high ranking officers and emperors);
- Lack of archaeological evidence;
- Iconographic evidence;
- Decoration inferred from the various iconographic evidence; and
- Images ie. Relief; Officers & men of the Praetorian Guard (Musee du Louvre), Statues; Prima Porta Augustus (Vatican Museum), Augustus (Archaeological museum Berlin) & Drusus (Cagliari Museum).
Scale (Lorica Squamata):
- Origin (near east);
- Construction;
- Archaeological evidence;
- Defence, advantages/disadvantages;
- Who used this type of armour;
- Iconographic evidence;
- Decoration inferred from the various iconographic evidence; and
- Images ie. Grave Stelae; Q. Sertorius Festus, L. Sertorius Firmus, T. Calidius Severus. Drawings showing; scales and how they could be attached, different types of scales.
Mail (Lorica Hamata):
- Origins (celtic);
- Construction;
- Defence, advantages/disadvantages;
- Who used this type of armour;
- Archaeological/iconographic evidence;
- Decoration inferred from the iconographic evidence; and
- Images ie. Metopes; infantry and cavalry (Trainani at Adamklissi); sculpture; Gallic Officer (Musee Calvet, Avigion), Tombstones; (Wiesbaden), archaeological finds (Carlingwark Loch).
Segmented (Lorica Segmentata):
- Origins (Roman, gladiatorial);
- Construction (Corbridge type 'A')
- Defence, advantages/disadvantages;
- Archaeological record;
- Construction (Corbridge type 'B');
- Iconographic evidence verse Newstead type lorica;
- Decoration inferred from the iconographic evidence; and
- Images ie. Reconstruction drawings Corbridge types 'A' & 'B' and how they were found, Newstead type, archaeological evidence, fittings.
Problems with the Evidence:
- The limits of what can be inferred from iconographic evidence; and
- The limits of what can be inferred from archaeological evidence.
Conclusion
Bibliography
Other Images

CONFUSING: To make it easier to navigate through my pages, I intend to have hotlinked end tables at the end of each section (this should also indicate the original order in which they were intended to be read). I will also have further links to relevant sites around the world which I will bring up in the text. I have not yet decided how to design a 'contence' page allowing relevant images to be found in the work (perhaps a database).
OVER-AMBITIOUS: I believe that I am well on schedule with this topic. At this time I am waiting for the technology to be explained so that I may proceed with my work. I do not believe that my topic is over-ambitious given that I can put the right amount of time into the assignment.
CAN WE JUDGE ITS FINISHED APPEARANCE: No. However, by looking at the incomplete pages of html, a judgement of the layout and length may be ascertained. Keep in mind that there is still more text, icons, background and the digitized images to be added at a later stage.
IS AN UPGRADE PATH AVAILABLE: It is difficult to know at this time. However, I would suggest that there is not very much additional information available in English on this topic. I have read most of the relevant material in English. However, if I expanded the question into other closely relevant topic like Roman Helmets I could upgrade this assignment substantially. I could also expand the topic by providing more images and 'gadgets', but I think there would come a time when this may only detract from the final product.
WHAT ARE THE SNAGS IN THE PROJECT, BEARING IN MIND THAT NONE CAN BE PERFECT: I would like to add music and vedeo to introduce my topic, however I believe that this would take to much time to down load and there would be to many problems involved. Also this may not allow a group of users without the right facilities to download this work. I also believe that by putting too may images into the assignment, this may disrupt the continuity of the text. Because of this issue, some images migh be placed at the end of the assignment in a 'image bank'.
IS THE PROJECT CONCEPTUALLY SOUND: I believe that it is conceptually sound given access to the materials needed and enough time to complete the task.
WHAT IS YOUR SCHEDULE: Most of the hard work on researching the topic is complete, I need only to write a conclusion and the final section on the iconograhy verses the archaeology evidence. The text will change when I start to edit the material and I will add things which I believe to be missing. I would like to start digitizing my images next week if I am shown how. I will also start to look at backgrounds in the near future when we are taught how to use the technology.
DATABASE: At this stage the only need for a database that I can think of is to list the images which I have used in my work.

END