Scutum from Dura-Europos

The dry climate enables very good conservation conditions for organic materials such as wood.

Since the city housed a Roman garrison and was lost during a siege, a particularly large number of weapons were found during the excavations.

The scutum is a rectangular arched shield that measures 105.5 by 41 cm and is mainly made of wood.

In the center of the shield is a hole that was probably cut in the wood after the board was made, the umbo (central boss) is missing.

The east side, on the other hand, is on a steep slope and did not need a city wall, but here it appears to be a gateway to the Euphrates.

This action was not hidden from the Romans, and they dug their own tunnel to meet the enemies underground and to fight them.

Remains of twenty Roman soldiers with full equipment were found in the tunnel, but only one corpse of a Sassanid.

In the preliminary report of the excavations it was assumed that the tunnel simply collapsed and buried the soldiers.

[2] The Sassanids then continued to build the tunnel until tower 19 and the wall partially collapsed, probably only a few hours, at most a few days later.