Some Aspis Revisionism

[Kineas]

So...

We've all seen a dozen or so photos of the Spartan Shield in the Agora museum. What none of those photos troubled to convey is that most of the green on that shield is putty, not bronze. There is surprisingly little left of the bronze facing, and what appears in an Osprey book to be a heavily dented, massive shield is actually covered with repousse'd bronze a little thicker than paper, but MUCH thinner than the 24 Gauge bronze we've been using here in Canada. .25 of a mm, I'd guess. For those not into bronze working--that's THIN. The whole face was repousse'd. I don't think one bit was smooth or polished. Where did that idea come from? Check out the pics and decide for yourselves, though.

Shield rims from Olympia and other shrines at the Nat. Arch. Mus. were as thin or thinner. ALL were repousse'd, although that may just be because they were the best and were thus offered to the god. The same may be true of the Spartan shield. Perhaps there were oithers that were smooth--my point is, these are NOT smooth. they are beautifully worked.

All of the porpax fragments were nicely worked, thin bronze sheet--between 20 and 24 gauge, I'd say. No cast parts at all. The same went for the shield fittings.
Odd that there's so much of this stuff and I've never seen it on the list.

First shot. Note that everything that isn't "bumpy" is preservation putty--NOT bronze. Even says so on the sign.




I think this is the best shot I managed. Shot through a polarizing filter.