Metallographic examinations of the Roman Republican weaponsfrom the hoard from Grad near Šmihel
Keywords:
Šmihel; 2nd Cent. BC; Roman Republican period hoard, weapons, gladius, pilum, catapult bolt, iron, metal-lographic examinationsAbstract
Five objects were chosen for metallographic examinationsfrom the hoard of Roman weapons found at Grad near Šmihel,dated to the end of the 3rd or in the first half of the 2nd centuriesBC. The sword, catapult bolt, and simple rod with an unsymme-trical point predominantly have a ferrite or ferrite pearlite mi-crostructure. The shafts of two pila with flat hafts also have aferrite microstructure. The point of one of the pila is made froma soft (ferrite) center and a hard pearlite layer on the surface.Evidently the earliest pila already had a hard point with a softshaft, as was noted in much later historical sources. The relati-vely poor quality of the weapons (soft steel) is explained by therapidity of production, considering also that the catapult boltsand simple rods with an unsymmetrical point were probably weaponsfor one-time use.
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