Meaning, if you wished to 'scale up' the shield, you would multiply the dimensions by 1.04 ( the ratio of 5ft 10 inches to 5 ft7 inches)..... so the 42 inch Dura scutum would become 43.8 inches long and 33.2 inches wide.....
Quote:I am talking 1st Cen. how big were the Auguston or Republican scuta?
...there are no intact specimens of 1C AD scuta that I know of......
The only other intact specimen was found at Kasr-el-Harit in the Fayum district in Egypt c.1900, and is believed to be in an Egyptian museum, but it has'disappeared' - it's whereabouts are now unknown.
It was of the much earlier Republican form with curved top and bottom.(Praetorians are shown carrying this 'old-style shield' as late as the mid-1st century, along with 'Attic' style helmets.....but compare modern Guard units wearing old-fashioned uniforms).
Polybius describes it as follows:
" The Roman panoply consists firstly of a shield (scutum), the convex surface of which measures two and a half feet (30 inches, 0.75 m) in width and four feet in length,(48 inches.1.18 m) the thickness at the rim being a palm's breadth. It is made of two layers glued together with bull's-hide glue, the outer surface being then covered first with canvas/linen and then with calf-skin. The upper and lower rims are strengthened by an iron edging which protects it from the cutting strokes of swords and from wear when rested on the ground. It also has an iron boss (umbo) fixed to it which turns aside the most formidable blows of stones, pikes, and heavy missiles in general. "
The Fayum shield matches this fairly closely, being 4 feet long, and over two feet wide at the chord, made from wooden ( probably Birch) strips in 3 layers, like the Dura shield. The 9 or 10 strips in the middle vertical layer varied between 2.3 and 4 inches wide; the 40 or so horizontal ones varied between 1-2 inches.The shield was thicker in the centre and flexed at the edges.There was apparently no binding ( stripped off before discarding?).
Both inside and outside were lined with lamb's wool felt, the inner overlapping the outer by 2 inches aprox. The shield had a wooden 'barleycorn' boss and full length rib attached with nails, a horizontal hand-grip and remains of two rings to attach a carrying strap.
Reconstructions of this shield are quite heavy - around 20 lbs (9 kg).