Making Pteruges (or at least trying to make Pteruges!)

[madoc]

The only opinion I have given is that pteryges might have been leather and that leather has protective qualities too. I used the example of leather on shields as an example of the people of the time utilising it for it's qualities.

I did provide the reports from sites, giving details of finds. All of these sites have shields with leather used in the construction. It says "leather". Rather than believe the experts and trust their judgement, some people here seem to know better.

Where people have re-constructed items, with the leather, then they do indeed seem to possess better protective qualities. They are no doubt wrong as well.

I repeat again that there is no evidence of what pteryges are made of. You _don't_ actually know. There are sculptures, which some believe to be artistic and some don't, and that's it. The examples made by different people are as different as the people themselves. Does it make any one interpretation less valid than another ? Some of you seem to think so.

oh, by the way, I never said that the doncaster shield _was_ Roman. Here's my post:

More likely Roman though, eh ?
Boss with four equally spaced rivets are not always roman in origin, but they are the usually found in roman contexts (not Iron age ones). There are also the rivet sizes. Of course, it was also pulled out of a Roman fort, beneath the Antonine defences.

In other situations, where an item is pulled out of a Roman context with Roman characteristics then it is most likely to be considered Roman.

I am still chuckling over the idea of britons armed with very sharp scissors (or as one lady on our forum said with garden shears) .. wasn't there a gladiator called a "scissor" ? Maybe we got his weapon all mixed up .......