06-04-2009, 04:40 PM
Quote:Well, most of what you observe simply confirms what is known already. To sound a note of conservatism, I have some doubts about the whole shield surface being repoussed. Could it be that the rim is repoussed, and the face, with so little of the original material, be merely corroded? How certain is this observation?
The Etruscan examples are certainly smooth-faced......
Secondly, the votive example you described with an off-centre porpax does not appear so to my eye; and measurement with dividers shows the porpax to be pretty much plumb centre.....
I share your suspicion that, over time, shields got lighter, and that later examples in particular ( such as the Olynthus example, which is reported to have been made od 'plywood' strips, like Roman scuta) were relatively light. This would be consistent with the general lightening of Hoplite equipment over the centuries.....
I find myself agreeing with Paul here. I can neither make out the repousse on the face (in contrast to the rim, it just looks corroded), nor does the porpax on the miniature seem off-centre. And this confirms what seems to have been the case for shields right down into the Hellenistic period, which is that the bronze facing was largely decorative in nature, and would have been too thin to confer much defensive capability.
Ruben
He had with him the selfsame rifle you see with him now, all mounted in german silver and the name that he\'d give it set with silver wire under the checkpiece in latin: Et In Arcadia Ego. Common enough for a man to name his gun. His is the first and only ever I seen with an inscription from the classics. - Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian
He had with him the selfsame rifle you see with him now, all mounted in german silver and the name that he\'d give it set with silver wire under the checkpiece in latin: Et In Arcadia Ego. Common enough for a man to name his gun. His is the first and only ever I seen with an inscription from the classics. - Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian
