[split] Phalanx warfare: use of the spear

[Paullus Scipio]

Thank you Crispianus/Ivor for your most informative post, which I regard as fairly authoritative, given your longstanding interest in all things leather. Well done !
As both Paul B. and Crispianus point out, to be effective against leather, a weapon must be razor sharp, and on a battlefield very few are, and those that are don't remain that way for long!

Dan Howard wrote:
"Except the Zulus. Around the time of Shaka they replaced their longer iklwa with the shorter assegai and changed to close-quarters underarm thrusts."


I'm afraid you have that the wrong way round, Dan. 'Assegai' is a generic word for spear ( from the Berber?), and generally refers to a lightish dual-purpose spear around 6 ft long used for both throwing and stabbing ( in effect a 'longche/lancea'). Shaka's reform was to invent what was effectively a sword with a blade up to 2 ft/60 cm long mounted on a short shaft and overall a sword-like 30inches/75 cm long. This weapon could not, of course, be thrown and necessitated hand-to-hand combat. Shaka named this new type of assegai 'iklwa', an onomatopoeic word supposedly reflecting the sound it made as it was withdrawn from the victim's body. The older weapon continued in use as a preliminary 'missile weapon' and for skirmishing. [see e.g. "The washing of the spears" Donald Morris]

As Bryan has pointed out, this weapon was used overarm as well as underarm in swordlike fashion. Anyone who has watched the film "Zulu", in which real Zulus played the part of their ancestors will have seen 'iklwas' being used overarm.

I am curious as to why you assert that leather armour in a Graeco-Macedonian context would be 15-20 mm thick ? Do you have evidence for this - I don't know of any - or are you basing this on what thickness is necessary to be relatively 'weapon-proof'?

Bear in mind that throughout history, right down to modern armoured vehicles, few defensive measures are designed to be fully 'weapon-proof', for degree of protection is but one of many factors........

In my view, most T-and-Y corselets will probably have been around 5 mm thick, and 10 mm for overlapping 'double breasted' types based on a number of factors.......