Chapter 3 presented an overview of the chronological, geographical and site-level spatial patterns evident in weaponry and horse gear finds from non-military contexts in the eastern Rhine delta. Before proceeding in subsequent chapters to link these patterns with specific types of use and significance, I shall first examine how weaponry and horse gear production was organised during the Roman period and discuss the symbolic significance of the decorative elements. These two aspects are important because production underpinned possibilities for use, while symbolic imagery enhanced the significance that soldiers and other users attached to weaponry and horse gear. They also help us to identify the extent to which ‘military’ objects were manufactured specifically for the Roman army or were also intended for civilian use.

THE PRODUCTION OF WEAPONRY AND HORSE GEAR

The early 5th-century Notitia Dignitatum mentions 35 fabricae, manufacturing centres for military equipment during the late Roman period. The specialist nature of these centres and their spread across the empire points to a centralised system of production in the 4th and 5th centuries. Although this picture was initially thought to apply to the entire Roman period, there is evidence of a more diverse system, involving production in army camps, canabae, towns and rural settlements in the frontier region itself. Clues to the nature of regional and local production are quite wide-ranging. For instance, there is epigraphic evidence of private weapons producers, while finds from army camps point to self-sufficiency. Oldenstein has developed a useful model that satisfactorily integrates the range of production levels (private, self-sufficient and empire-wide). He believes that supplies of weaponry and horse gear to the imperial frontier zones evolved in a rather uniform fashion, with four distinct stages.

The first three stages cover the early and middle Roman period. The first begins with the Roman army's occupation of a particular region. Because newly conquered territories were not in a position to immediately embark on large-scale production of military equipment, weaponry and horse gear were imported from Italy or Southern Gaul.5 In the second stage, which is linked to the end of the offensive phase, arms supply gradually became less dependent on imported material.