German bog spears

[Conal]

I have seen the odd illustration showing these spears as quite long ...i.e. at least two or three head heights above the head, in some longer.

Does anyone know if any definative lengths of shafts from the bog finds please?

[Medicus matt]

I have seen the odd illustration showing these spears as quite long ...i.e. at least two or three head heights above the head, in some longer.

Does anyone know if any definative lengths of shafts from the bog finds please?

Take a look at the online Engelhardt

[url:h5meqhh0]http://www.archive.org/details/denmarkinearlyir00engeuoft[/url]

The passage on spears gives 9ft as an average, with the range being between 8ft and just over 10ft. In a section on Vimose bog finds he talks about shafts ranging between 9ft 4" and 11' 4".

Diameters are usually about 1".

[Conal]

Thanks .. thats very useful.

He suggests that the length of some spears indicates cavalry use.

[Robert Vermaat]

Take a look at the online Engelhardt
[url:16avbcky]http://www.archive.org/details/denmarkinearlyir00engeuoft[/url]
The passage on spears gives 9ft as an average, with the range being between 8ft and just over 10ft. In a section on Vimose bog finds he talks about shafts ranging between 9ft 4" and 11' 4".

Engelhardt made the surprising comment (p. 57) that

The great length of these spears renders it probable that they have been used by
horsemen rather than by foot soldiers, who at any rate would have great difficulty in wielding weapons of that length.

I think we can put that assumption to rest, for sure? I certainly have no such assumed difficulties with my 9ft hasta.

[Paullus Scipio]

The Historian Tacitus noted that German Infantry spears were very long on a number of occasions. e.g:-

"Annals" I.63 "...they were big men too, whose thrusts with their great spears had a formidable range.."

"Annals" II.11 "...the natives great shields and huge spears are not so manageable among tree trunks and scrub as Roman gladii and pila and close-fitting armour..."

"Annals" II.19 "...crammed into a narrow space they could neither thrust nor pull back their great spears....The Romans on the other hand, with shields close to their chests and sword hilts firmly grasped....

[Razoslav]

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Here you have some data about bog spears lenght. And not in "feets" but in "cm" like civilized people :wink:

[M. Demetrius]

And not in "feets" but in "cm" like civilized people

I always think of the headline in a British newspaper a few years back that read, "Britain Inches Toward the Metric System".

Yeah, we Colonials are certainly an uncivilized lot, it's true. :lol:

[Ron Andrea]

If only the SI weren't associated with Napoleon. You know how reviled he is in the colonies. :lol:

Seriously, for some of our xenophobes, it's all things French.

[Sean Manning]

If only the SI weren't associated with Napoleon. You know how reviled he is in the colonies. :lol:

Seriously, for some of our xenophobes, it's all things French.

Worse, secular French revolutionaries! What could be more un-American (Just don't mention Thomas Paine or the lengthy debate in the US over which side of the Napoleonic Wars to join).