Tank from Ksour Essef

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Tank from Ksour Essef

The Ksour Essef tank is a Hellenistic bronze tank that was found at Ksour Essef in Tunisia . It is now in the Bardo Museum in Tunis .

description

The shell is made of gilded bronze . It is in two parts and consists of a chest armor and a back armor. It is similar to the Samnite three-disk plate armor and is a further development of the same. Two discs are arranged on the breast plate, which are slightly curved outwards to provide space for the chest muscles. In contrast to the three-pane plate armor, the lower plate is missing, instead the head of a helmet- wearing Athena is shown. The back armor is designed similarly and the entire surface is richly decorated. Tendril-shaped motifs are attached around the panes and the head and between them . The armor was closed around the body with chains and plates around the waist as well as with leather straps , which are held by bronze fittings on the chest piece, over the shoulders.

classification

The tank was found in February 1909 in a grave in Ksour Essef in what is now Tunisia, the ancient Carthaginian territory. It dates from the 3rd century BC. However, it was not made in any Carthaginian workshop, but in a bronze foundry in Campania , where there was a center for such work in the 3rd century. Presumably a soldier of Hannibal took the armor with him as booty and - contrary to the custom in Carthage at the time - ordered that it be given to him in his grave.

literature

  • Alfred Merlin : Découverte d'une cuirasse italiote près de Ksour-Es-Saf (Tunisie). In: Monuments et mémoires de la Fondation Eugène Piot 17, 1909, pp. 125-137 ( full text ).
  • Gilbert & Colette Charles-Picard: Carthage, Life and Art. Reclam, Stuttgart 1983, ISBN 3-15-010316-9 , p. 205 plate 25.