• ARCHAEOLOGY
  • Military science The Corpus Equitum
    • The equipment of the Romans troops
    • The experimental project
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  • Historical context
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The experimental project in Roman military archaeology

A pilot in Roman military archaeology was started.

Objective is to imitate the horse harness of a Roman armed trooper (eques legionarius) as used at the beginning of the first century of our era, but also the armour of the horse as described hereabove. This is not an easy and every day job: only the United Kingdom and Germany have undertaken this (Ermine Street Guard/the Troop, Dr. Markus Junkelmann, a.o.)

At Malagne there are Berber horses that spring quasi directly from the Roman congenials in Northern Africa. The Berber horse is always thought of as an excellent battle horse, either by the Nordafrican people as by the French army and even by the German army. The Berber has proven to be stable, not shier, it is vigorous and forceful and it possesses durance. Its beautiful skin embellishes the overall emanation of the trooper. Malagne is administrator of the Belgian Association of the Berber Horse (Association Belge du Cheval Barbe, www. abcb.be)

Experiments that are executed on a regularly base at the Archeopark Malagne, confirm the capacity of the Roman troopers and showed the need to control the horse but at the same time also the weight of the human body (to which should be added about 25 kilos of equipment and other luggage).

Thanks to experiments we succeeded in finding answers to questions that appeared during preparations. But yet others remain still unanswered...

A kind word of thanks to Mr Gauthier Clerens, the discoverer of the Corpus Equitum Legionis X Equestris, for his cooperation to the trooper project in the light of the archaeological experiment and for his help by the drafting of this text.