What happens when a Roman dagger's hidden iron tang expands inside its ivory handle?
Explore the anatomy of the Roman pugio through cinematic 3D CGI. A Roman dagger in the London Museum collection, dated approximately AD 40–140, has an iron blade with a raised midrib and shallow grooves. Its rod-shaped tang extends into a turned ivory grip.
The museum records that corrosion expanded the iron tang, causing the ivory handle to split. This remarkable archaeological detail reveals how the weapon was constructed and how it changed after centuries underground.
This episode uses a specific surviving museum artifact as its reference. Not every Roman pugio had an identical blade or ivory handle.
Watch the camera travel through the blade profile, follow the tang into the grip, and reveal its construction using neon-lit cinematic CGI.
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