Casgliadau Arlein

Part of the lobate bronze hinge on an iron back from the shoulder unit of a lorica segmentata of Corbridge A (or possibly B) type. Hinges of this type were used for attaching the cross shoulder collar units to the back collar plates and the breast plates, and also for attaching the three pieces which made the topmost shoulder guard. Thus eight complete hinges, or sixteen hinge leaves like the Usk fragment, were in use on any one lorica. This type of hinged fastener had been superseded by the time the Newstead style armour came into use towards the end of the first century AD. Each half of a lobate hinged fastening was fixed with five rivets. Three are visible on the Usk fragment and traces of the other two remain. The position of the rivet holes suggests that the central lobe, away from the hinge, projected considerably beyond the line of its two neighbours. The hinge leaf never had openwork ornament and the tongue between the inner and outer lobes is broad and sturdy but elegantly curved.