Re: Compiled Shields

["dbarrass_2000" <david.barrass@ed.ac.uk>]

Shields

I only have a problem with tower shields.  I think of a tower shield
as something that covers the entire body and is essentially something
you shelter behind whilst reloading your crossbow (an example is a
parvase)  Could you rename it scutum or large rectangular?

 The legionary shields, your tower shield, (and the earlier shields
they were based on) I have seen are wood, just like the rest.  There
are several preserved in deserts (the Fayum shield) or bogs (a large
oval Celtic shield); they're essentially plywood with a painted
leather covering.  
This seams to have been the standard way the ancients made their
shields, the ply stopped the entire shield splitting along the grain
of the wood.  Metal would have been either too heavy or too thin to
have been of use.  There are a few metal shields found by
archaeologists, but in all cases they have been re-interpreted as ones
for ceremonial purposes or the wooden core they were actually built
around has rotted away

David