14 Kilograms of Roman Chainmail Found Near the Fortress of Bonn in Germany Were Used to Repair Damaged Armor

Near the site of the ancient Roman legionary fortress in Bonn, Germany, archaeologists uncovered a 14-kilogram cache of chainmail, dated to the 2nd–3rd centuries AD. The remnants of the armor were discovered in the context of a Roman vicus, a community associated with military garrisons.

The Roman army was a logistical machine that demanded massive material resources, especially metals for weapons, armor, and tools. The difficulty of transporting and producing these materials in frontier regions fostered a culture of self-sufficiency, in which recycling played a crucial role. This cache in Bonn, composed of at least four different armors, provides insights into the reuse and repair strategies of the time.

Recycling in the Roman army was not limited to melting metals to create new objects. In the case of chainmail, its reuse involved a more artisanal process: damaged fragments were employed to repair other garments, similar to patching textiles. Chainmail, made from interlinked iron rings, could not be melted down without disintegrating the material, making it indispensable as a “donor” for other armors.

mail armor bonn roman — Map of the excavation areas of 2008 and 2012 at the vicus near the legionary fortress in Bonn. In total five strip houses were discovered; their fronts lie beneath the modern road and could not be studied, but all other parts of the buildings were documented in detail. Credit: C. Koppmann

During excavations in 2008 and 2012, archaeologists found this collection of armors in a pit located outside a house in the vicus of Bonn. Analyses using computed tomography and X-rays revealed a complex structure composed of rings of various sizes, arranged in a pattern typical of European chainmail of the era. The investigation identified pieces from several different armors, some complete and others fragmentary.

The discovery suggests that the armors were intended for repairing military equipment in local workshops. The location, near the legionary fortress, reinforces the hypothesis that artisans from the vicus worked closely with soldiers on tasks such as equipment maintenance.

While caches of military materials on Roman frontiers were common, the Bonn collection is exceptional for its size and state of preservation. Unlike other finds associated with ritual or funerary contexts, this one appears to have been a storage depot for armor repair materials, abandoned during the planned withdrawal of the community in the 3rd century AD.

The absence of evidence of violent destruction in the vicus suggests an organized abandonment. In many cases, the Roman army preferred to bury heavy materials they could not transport, likely to prevent them from falling into enemy hands.

This behavior aligns with the context in Bonn, where the vicus was systematically dismantled, leaving behind this collection of armors.

From the use of iron nails in construction to the reuse of armor fragments, the Roman army maximized the available resources. This practice was not only a response to material constraints in frontier regions but also an economic strategy.

On a broader scale, archaeological evidence shows that recycling was not uniform across the empire. For example, in areas with abundant metal supplies, objects might be discarded without reuse, whereas in resource-scarce regions like the Germanic frontier, material economy was much stricter.

According to researchers, the cache illustrates how local artisans processed military waste, especially scrap metal. It also suggests that waste management and recycling were not limited to smelting scrap for raw materials but included the repair of chainmail armor. By the mid-3rd century AD, the vicus was systematically dismantled and cleared, much like other military sites across the Roman Empire.

The armors, now preserved at the LandesMuseum in Bonn, add to an expanding corpus of chainmail from various contexts within and beyond the Roman world, contributing to our understanding of the economic and military organization of ancient armies.

SOURCES

Wijnhoven MA, Koppmann C, Becker H. Recycling and repair on the Roman frontier: a hoard of mail armour from Bonn. Antiquity. 2024;98(402):1592-1609. doi:10.15184/aqy.2024.178