Pilum murale
The pilum murale (plural pila muralia , dt. Wall spear ) is a wooden multi-purpose object used in the Roman army , which was used as an entrenchment post and approach obstacle when building the legion's camp .
description
The pilum murale was made from 150 to 190 centimeters long, mostly square oak beams. These bars were sharpened from their center to both ends. Then they were given a hand- to over-hand width recess in their middle that a man could embrace. In some of the pieces that were found, this recess is not quite in the middle. The diameter of various pila muralia , also from uniform find contexts, such as the Ostkastell Welzheim , fluctuates tremendously. The pila muralia found were often provided with the numbers and abbreviations of their unit.
Use as a weapon
The pilum murale is explicitly mentioned by various Roman authors, especially Caesar (100-44 BC) as a particularly penetrating projectile that was hurled from the walls at the enemy. Experiments carried out by the experimental archaeologist Marcus Junkelmann in the 1980s showed that a pilum murale 1.70 m long, 2.45 kg and a maximum diameter of 8.5 cm could achieve a maximum range of 12 m in the plane . He also found that the projectile had a tendency to lay sideways in flight. The wall spear showed the best properties when it was thrown diagonally downwards from an elevated position. This is how the ancient authors had described its use.
However, due to the technical design of the object, Junkelmann assumed that its primary use as a weapon could not have been, since the pilum murale was not optimally designed for this, but rather clumsy and unwieldy. This opinion has prevailed in the professional world today.
Use as a bulwark and obstacle to approach
The bulwark was called vallus in the Roman army and is also mentioned by some Roman writers. These valli gave the soldier the opportunity to improvise camps that were set up quickly anywhere, anytime, without having to cut down trees, transport them and drive stakes out of them. After a long, arduous day of marching, such long hours of activity for a camp occupied only one night or for a short time would have been militarily nonsensical, especially if the troops were in enemy territory. Another advantage of having your own entrenchment material with you was that the soldiers could operate regardless of the amount of wood in the respective region. Junkelmann identified the pila muralia with the bulwarks and suggested calling the wall spears valli .
As Dieter Planck - chief archaeologist of the excavations at the east fort Welzheim, which lasted from 1976 to 1981 - discovered that the pila muralia could also be used as approach obstacles in the manner of Spanish horsemen . The tests carried out by Junkelmann showed that three pegs, rammed into the ground at an angle and connected with ropes at their notches, were an effective obstacle against cavalry and infantry approaching approaching in a few minutes.
When they were used as bulwarks, the pila muralia were pushed vertically from above with both hands into the excavation of the trench of a marshal that had been raised to the wall . The tapered middle parts of the row of stakes formed in this way were connected by ropes and thus formed a coherent palisade, which made it difficult for the enemy to penetrate a night camp.
Research assumes that for every soldier two stakes were carried on the mule of a contubernium , the smallest unit in the Roman army.
Spanish rider
literature
- Marcus Junkelmann : The legions of Augustus: the Roman soldier in the archaeological experiment . Verlag Philipp von Zabern, Mainz am Rhein 2003, ISBN 3-8053-0886-8 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Dieter Planck: Restoration and reconstruction of Roman buildings in Baden-Württemberg. In: Günter Ulbert , Gerhard Weber (ed.): Conserved history? Ancient buildings and their preservation . Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 1985, ISBN 3-8062-0450-0 , p. 149.
- ^ Dieter Planck, Willi Beck: The Limes in Southwest Germany. 2nd completely revised edition. Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 1987, ISBN 3-8062-0496-9 , p. 94.