Boeotian/Dipylon Shield

[hoplite14gr]

This shield was not designed for ordered rank fighting initially.
It was the weapon of the Geometric Era noble warrior who first cast javelins and then closed with the sword on his opponents. The "scalops" are there to help you take aim.
That is the reason that king Pheidon of Argos armed his massed spearmen with round shields.

The Morae of Skiritis and Pylos depicted in the "Exekias vases" were fighting in a "peltastic way" in the 6th century B.C. and the Skiritans coninued to be used as skirmishers till the late 4th century B.C.
That it why they use "Beotian shileds".
They fought in loose order when came to overthrow the Peisistrades and perhaps thats the reason Kinneas, Thessalian horsemen got the better of them.

Also probably a smaller vesrion of this shield was used by cavalrymen but I am still researching that.

Kind regards