Carnuntum Jahrbuch 2017, pp. 127-136, 2018/12/05
Zeitschrift für Archäologie und Kulturgeschichte des Donauraumes
In 2009, a grave stela – depicting an auxiliary soldier armed with a sword – was salvaged at the site of the Roman necropolis of Leithaprodersdorf (province of Burgenland). The featured stela was found reused, as part of a late Antique inhumation burial of the 4th century AD. Similar with most of the Leithaprodersdorfer stelae is the fact that this inscription indicates the deceased’s local ancestry. Despite his local lineage, the Roman influence is unmistakable due to the cloak (paenula) and weapon he wears, as well as his service in a Roman auxiliary unit. As a result of new additions to the CIL III Pannonia/Austria, this stela can be dated to the late 1st, or early 2nd century AD. A similar, but somewhat longer time-frame is attributed to this representation due to the proposed classification of the sword as a longsword (spatha) Straubing- Nydam type, “Newstead” style. Finds from the Pannonian region, as well as more remote provinces prove that the distribution of these longswords dates mainly from the second half of the 1st into the first half of the 2nd century AD, at the latest. The frontal, standing pose of the soldier stands out clearly from well-known tombstones of the northwest Pannonian Limes region.
