Pelte/pelta

[Anonymous]

I'm trying to work out how big to make my pelte. The pictures I've seen suggest wide differences in the amount of the user's body which was covered by it; sometimes it's like a body-shield, as big as the hoplite aspis, and sometimes it's more like a buckler. I suppose that means I can do what I like... ( I'll have a big one, then... hock: )

[hoplite14gr]

I do not know if it helps but the Makedonian pikeman´s shield was also called pelta. It was about 60 to 70 cm.
Also there are more tips and info in the Peltast reconstraction subject started by the member TFBAMP in the Greek Army talk last month.
Kind regards
Stefanos

[Dan Z]

I don't seem to be able to vote in the poll, but when I made my pelta I opted for the "make it as big as you can handle" option.

More specifically, I studied as many vase paintings depicting pelta as I could find (pondered pelta painted pottery if you prefer) and it seemed to me that in most of the depictions the armband was more or less centered on the pelta. From there I decided that the radius of an individual's pelta would perhaps have been about equal to the distance from the inside of the elbow to the fingertips - it seems sensible to have your shield be proportional to your body.

Anyway, my shield has a very nice balance to it. I can move it around very quickly when I rotate my arm. Actually I can move it around very quickly by making just about any sort of swatting motion - a good feature in a shield! It also provides me with good coverage when I have it slung over my back.

You can see me with my pelta in Lepidina's and Danno Ulpius'pictures from Roman Days.

Cheers,
Dan

[hoplite14gr]

Magnificent! (ARISTON!)
King Sitalkis would like you to join his bodyguard!
Where did you get these splendit boots?

[Dan Z]

Magnificent! (ARISTON!)
King Sitalkis would like you to join his bodyguard!
Where did you get these splendit boots?

Thanks!

The boots are by a company called Minnetonka - Matt Amt was the one who pointed me in their direction. The boots originally had rather ugly fringe along the top, but I cut that off and replaced it with the flaps you see in the pictures.

[Anonymous]

Yes, Dan, very nice pictures. Well done! Does your shield have a porpax and antilabe arrangement, then?

[Dan Z]

Yes, I made it with the porpax and antilabe arrangement...actually, while I am at it...

I started out using two wicker doormats which I lashed together using twine and made a large rectangle about 37 inches wide. Then, using a cardboard cutout, I traced the outline of a pelta onto the wicker and cut away the non-pelta parts with a pair of pruning snips. I left the borders of the two doormats intact though so I could lash them back onto the pelta shaped mat. At this point the pelta was a bit...floppy...so I took four strips of wood 1 inch wide and 1/8 of inch think and placed two horizontal and two vertical but angling in slightly and lashed those to the wicker. This stiffened up the pelta quite nicely.

Then I cut out two pelta shaped pieces of leather (if I had unlimited funds or if I was really thinking I would have to defend myself with this shield I would have woven some extra material into the doormats to tighten up the weave and used four layers of leather - 3 front and 1 back) and glued the back layer onto the wooden frame. I stitched the porpax and antilabe to both the leather cover and the wicker behind it. I also arranged things so the stitching runs to either side of the horizontal pieces of the frame. In other words the porpax and the antilabe are stitched to the shield with four sets of stitching - two at the top and two at the bottom.

Then I stitched on a shoulder strap running from one of the "horns" down to just beneath and to one side of the porpax. Pictures of Thracians with a pelta slung over their shoulders seemed to imply this...but you may be able to do the same thing by making the antilabe very long. I chose not to do that because I did not think I would be able to maintain a secure grip on the shield.

After stitching the various straps on to the shield I stitched the front cover onto the back cover and painted it. There was a sort of intermediate stage when I used "Thracian binder clips" to hold the front cover to the back cover which I am sure my comrades in the 20th Legion would be happy to comment on... :roll:

Cheers,
Dan

[Anonymous]

Very interesting, Dan. Thanks.

[hoplite14gr]

I found someone who makes wicker baskets for a living.
I am trying to choose between Thrakian moonshaped or Phokean roundshaped. Handle will be wicker porpax and antilavi and wife promished to put arround them leather from an old glove. I saw the picture from an old school book that has a kylix showing a naked guy with a Corinthian helmet javelines and pelt. Porpax and antilavi are visible and the guy wears grieves!
I was impressed by Dan's leather covering but I am thinking of pine raisin bleached layers of linen for mine. It will be like linothorax over the pelt and
emblems might be painted easier.
Regards
Stefanos