The Gurthalter and the Roman Suspension System

Originally it was my plan to wait a few posts before getting into a discussion on the roman suspension system on wagons and carts. I wanted to show/discuss some of the wagon-bronzes and their purpose, before actually discussing the suspension system itself.

David Reads comment on my quick-post about the Internet-article: “Roman Traction Systems” made me realize, that this web-log need some more pictures (and posts), especially (perhaps) of carvings, to show what my thesis is all about, and therefore the discussion of the suspension system might be a good place to start.

The primary archaeological material in my thesis is what I earlier on called “the “roman pictures” of roman wagons”, and here I am most concerned with the roman carvings. The group of roman carvings with wagon-scenes is quite large, and it is represented in as well imperial art in Rome as in the grave-sculpture (tombstones and sarcophagi) of common people in the northern roman provinces. It is in this last group we, most often, find some detailed carvings of roman wagons.

A detailed study of all the, to me, known (published) carvings is what I am doing in my thesis, and therefore this post mainly concerns some carvings showing the suspension system. But first a word on the suspension system it self.

The suspension system on roman wagons is a much discussed area of the wagon-construction. Röring et al. presented the system in the late 1970’s early 1980’s reconstruction of the wagon from the Wardertal, Macedonia (now in Cologne/Köln, Römisch-Germanisches Museum). This wagon-reconstruction is mainly made on the basis of metal-finds, which is the same situation as two other wagons that I have knowledge of: The reconstruction of a two-wheeled cart in the Hungarian National Museum, Budapest, and a reconstructed part of a wagon in the Intercisa Múzeum in Dunaújváros, south of Budapest, Hungary. In the last case the reconstructed part is only the small front-section of the wagon whereto the metal-fittings belong.

As Dr. Weller and David Read mentions in the Roman Traction System-article a lot of bronze-fittings for the suspension system have been found across the roman provinces and they are often given the German name “Gurthalter” (I have not yet seen an English name for these metal parts). They exist in more forms, with one or two “arms”, and have various kinds of decoration, some including bronze statuettes. A one-armed is shown on the photo left and a two-armed type is used in the reconstruction of the wagon from Dunaújváros (see photo).

Now for the iconographic part.

I have found some examples of carvings in which I belive the Gurthalter is shown. In the begining, before I saw the carvings my self, I was not sure about the small details I saw in other persons photos. Now after having examined the carvings my self and knowing these details are parts of the original carvings, I do not doubt, that we actually have roman iconography showing this particular detail of the roman wagon construction.

Three carvings, one in Belgium and two in Hungary, show a detail which most of all is to be characterized as a “Gurthalter”. The wagons are all seen from a sideview and therefore only the metalpart, the Gurthalter itself, and not the wooden construction underneath it is visible. Of the three carvings only the one from Belgium (here below) show the function of the Gurthalter; here a rope, the one giving the suspension, is tied to the Gurthalter.