Show here your Roman soldier impression

[Tasciavanous]

Right I've converted the format so



since this photo was taken I've removed the galvanising, remade the doubleing on my hamata and replaced the chest hooks with some of Len Morgan's rather nice silvered ones. Next on the list is re making the scabbard of my spatha. [/img]

[FAVENTIANVS]

Glad to hear the improvements you made (specially de degalvanizing...)!

Behold the famous vertical grip scutum! Good job!!!

Is VICVS your group?

[Tasciavanous]

Yep you got us in one I'm a Vicus type. Was it the Danum that gave it away?

[FAVENTIANVS]

Whats the Danum?

[Tasciavanous]

Its the sheild, based albeit a bit loosely on the Doncaster (or Danum) find. As far as I know we are the only group that reconstructs it.

[FAVENTIANVS]

Ah ok! Yes I think so, it's the first time I see it non drawn! Is it easy to handle, march and kinda fight?

[Tasciavanous]

Is it easy to handle, march and kinda fight?

At first it took a bit of getting used to but now I love the vertical grip! its very easy to handle and is awesome for fighting, the hand grip is (as on the original) slightly offset to the top and being a vertical grip any blows deflect downwards rather than "pivoting" the shield board into your shoulder and face like you often get with a horizontal grip.
But when it comes to marching the grip is less than ideal. But on the original there are quite a few unexplained rivets, and I'm now thinking it was for some kind of carrying harness. How that harness worked I have no idea but I'll be sitting down to try and work out a possible system some time in the nearish future.

[FAVENTIANVS]

Aha! Interesting... Like the kite shaped Norman shield, that had different grips for different ways to handle it depending if fighting, marching or riding on horseback?
Can you post pics of those different positions? It'll be really interesting... and really experimental archeology! 8)

[Tasciavanous]

I'll definitely post pictures when I get round to doing it but it might be a while till I have the time to do it properly-and lets face it that's the only way to do it.

[Peroni]

Tasciovanus said "As far as I know we are the only group that reconstructs it".

I was a member of The Vicus and helped Madoc with the design of the reconstruction of the Danvm shield. I too thought that the Vicus were the only group to use it.

Imagine my dissappointment when I chanced upon a French website of another auxiliary group using the same shield!

http://www.auxilia.fr.fm/

Kind regards,

[Antonius Lucretius]

About that Danum/Doncaster shield. I've read somewhere that the vertical handgrip is being questioned nowadays.
If only I could remember where I read that...

[Peroni]

With regard to the grip on the Danvm shield rumoured not to be vertical,
I had another look at the archaeological drawings made by P Buckland.
(also the person who made the first reconstruction)

The scale on the drawings gives a dimension of 825mm for the length of the iron grip/batten. This would be far too long to have on the shield horizontally. (Buckland states that the shield would be approximately
2' x 4' (610 x 1250mm). The find was also in-situ in a vertical position.

The shield has a vertical handgrip of iron and is similar to another vertical iron grip from Newstead. On this evidence Buckland suggests it may be a cavalry shield (Newstead’s associations with cavalry).

Therefore I can only conclude that it was originally vertical.

A full report on the shield can be found in:
Roman South Yorkshire: A Source Book by P.C. Buckland
Dept of Archaeology and Prehistory
University of Sheffield 1986
ISBN 0-906090-26-2


The drawings etc can be seen on the Vicus website here:
http://www.vicus.org.uk/

look under resources/making a shield. The find drawings are there.

Regards,

[Mithras]

Hey, I was born and grew up in Doncaster! That shield was the only Roman thing in the museum, apart from a skeleton in a stone coffin. Its been 20 years since I've been back.

Could you point me to the reconstruction on that French site? I can't navigate that thing for toffee!

[Peroni]

If you go into 'acces public' on the homepage, then click on 'calendrier'
you will be taken to the events pages. At the top of the screen there is a button entitled 'Sorties et activites passees'

click this and you can view photo's of past events. The shields you're looking for are the plain green, straight-sided ones decorated with a brass/bronze spina.

Regards,

[Peroni]

There is a funerary stele in the Hungarian National Museum, Budapest
detailing a soldier carrying a shield with a vertical grip. The soldier standing on the left.

http://rubens.anu.edu.au/raid5/hungary/ ... CN6090.JPG


Note also that he has his baldric over the right shoulder hanging his scabbard on the left.

Regards,