ABSTRACT
Bronze armour from pre-Roman Italy (c. 900-400 BCE) exists as part of a complex web of social, economic, and cultural networks. Most commonly found in mortuary contexts and votive deposits, they have a recognised connection with their nominal ‘end user(s)’ – that is, the individuals who either deposited the items or were found with them. Beyond that, there is also an assumed set of associations connected to their wider use-life and the people who carried the equipment before it was deposited – who may, or may not, be the same as the end user(s). And while there are myriad issues with identifying these users and consumers, it is almost universally agreed that Italian bronze military equipment seems to indicate (or confer) ‘elite status’ to them. Being able to deposit bronze military equipment, have it deposited for/with you after death, or presumably use it yourself in life was somehow connected with being an ‘elite’ in archaic Italy. However, beyond the use and consumption of these items as finished objects, there is another set of associations connected with these items, which has hitherto been largely unexplored. The pieces of armour, while almost certainly created in response to specific needs and input of the consumers/end users, were also the product of an equally complex web of productive processes. If possessing a piece of bronze military equipment was connected with being an ‘elite’, what did it mean to be able to produce one? This chapter explores these processes, as well as the networks of resources and nodes of control which governed them, with a particular focus on the practicalities of production and utilising literary, archaeology, and experimental evidence.
