pilum shafts

[Marcus Mummius]

Greetings,

How long should the wooden shaft of a pilum be? The sizes that I've heard about are: 4 to 5 feet long (120cm - 150cm). Is this correct? On what is this length based? Are there any surviving wooden pilum shafts?

Thanks in advance,
Best regards,
MarcusMummius

[Magnus]

4-5 feet is a good length, once you take in the length of the iron shaft, you don't want anything that isn't much over 7 feet, unless you own a truck. (Try putting a javelin in your Chevy Cavalier...yikes!)

I don't have any primary resources, but that seems to be the accepted size of them.