Hoplite Phalanx Mechanics: Investigation of Footwo

[jkaler48]

I found this paper! Comments?

http://ks.academia.edu/KarlRandall/Paper...d_Coverage

[Macedon]

kind of silly in my opinion... Such experiments are invaluable for all of us to understand the mechanics of combat but some standards should be followed... The author seems to have acted at random, throwing some bin lids and broom sticks to some kids and then watch as they played. He should have set research goals, he should have conducted more such meetings, he should have kept statistics... He does not try different intervals, shield overlaps, check theories... nothing. Much of what he says is correct, but nothing really is new or has to do with his "experiment". Much is also irrelevant or poorly studied. I would say this is a veeeery hastily compiled paper.

[PMBardunias]

I'm with Macedon on this one, a very sketchy work. Some of his ideas that he claims to base on "physics" are incorrect. For example, unless you are standing completely perpendicular to your aspis, there will always be a substantial portion sticking out to the left available to cover a man next to you. This is easy to see if you simply draw a perpendicular line from the spot where your elbow rests in the porpax. He seems to have simply cobbled together Luginbill,Van Wees, and others without really understanding much of it.

I found it funny that he builds a case based on martial arts that you cannot push when standing square to the fore, then in a footnote drops the information that the only martial art that actually focuses on pushing, Sumo, stands square to fore.

At least he notes the difference between a 3/4 stance and the side-on fencer's stance, something many do not.

[Lyceum]

Interesting premise, something similar to what I've done before and will no doubt do again on a larger scale once the University can be convinced of its safety.

I think there are marked flaws in this, outside of the usual source/interpretative etc problems. For starters you need people acquainted with dynamic body movement. All of us last time had extensive sporting experience, most of us in combat sports or contact team sports (Rugby, Lacrosse and even one Polo guy). How a person who has boxed and wrestled for 10 years moves is completely different than someone who hasn't. Admittedly this is where one of my tutors and I disagreed: He felt that given modern training habits, medicine, nutrition etc we were certainly not as akin to the ancients as we thought. Which makes sense, your average uni Rugby squaddie is going to be a lot....more so to speak. But I figured it would make up for our lesser experience.

Anyway I have more than enough ideas for round 2 so to speak, hopefully this time with less injuries.

[hoplite14gr]

Why he thinks that only Spartans kept the marching tune? Others did it too.
Why don't they ask advise from re-enactors in their area or through the internet?
Oblique stance can be used in a crowd.

Yet he did bother to try and test which is more that can be said about some people who propose pompous theories.

Kind regards