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HJB Home > Antiquities Home > The Fixed Price List > Roman Nails > Inv. # aq10931

Roman Nail (One) ca. 1st Century AD. Each of these nails was painstakingly hand-produced by the Romans within 45 years of the crucifixion, circa 33 A.D. The Romans had a specific way of producing nails, and these, from a Roman fort located in present-day Scotland, are virtually indistinguishable from the nails used in Judea at that fateful time. These Roman nails were discovered in 1961 by Professor Ian Richmond, Professor of the Archaeology of the Roman Empire at the University of Oxford, who was excavating at the site of the fortress known as Inchtuthil. The fortress housed some 5500 men, under the command of Roman general Julius Agricola. These men comprised the XX legion, one of 27 legions later responsible for building Hadrian's Wall. The nails were sent to Scotland around 78 A. D. to aid Agricola in the Roman war against the Caledonians in Scotland. In 84 A.D., because of jealously from the Roman emperor Domitian, and trouble with the German tribes, Agricola was recalled to Rome, and the legion was dispatched to Germany. The fortress at Inchtuthil was ordered to be dismantled and moved. Because of transport problems, 750,000 of the nails had to be buried on site to keep them from the Caledonians, who used immense iron swords as their primary weapons, and so valued iron more than silver or gold. The Romans were so successful that the nails remained undetected for 1900 years. The bulk of the nails are in the national museum of Scotland. Those in our possession were sent for analysis and later exported to us from the United Kingdom with an official permit naming these as nails of Inchtuthil. These are the only nails from antiquity that can be exactly dated. L. approx. 1".