+- RomanArmyTalk (https://www.romanarmytalk.com/rat)
+-- Forum: Research Arena (https://www.romanarmytalk.com/rat/forumdisplay.php?fid=4)
+--- Forum: Greek Military History & Archaeology (https://www.romanarmytalk.com/rat/forumdisplay.php?fid=9)
+--- Thread: An Amazon with a cypriote/Phoenician shield (/showthread.php?tid=16563)
An Amazon with a cypriote/Phoenician shield - PMBardunias - 03-10-2010
I came across this vase fragment of Heracles fighting with Amazons. The shield in the center, held by the amazon, shows a combination of features of the argive aspis and the spike-bossed bucklers seen in the Levant and Cyprus. Has anyone seen its like on other vases?
Re: An Amazon with a cypriote/Phoenician shield - hoplite14gr - 03-11-2010
Warrior statuetes from Cyprus have a shield that could be described as spiked.
Kind regards
Re: An Amazon with a cypriote/Phoenician shield - PMBardunias - 03-11-2010
This type of spiked boss nseems to have been Phoenician. See images below. As you can see in the images below and the one you posted, there is no off-set rim on the shield and the profile is not like that of an aspis. The reason this interests me is that if we here have a Greek artist adding an aspis-like offset rim and "shoulders" to a non-aspis shield, then I think we must examine many of the instances where we see offset rims on non-aspis shields, as on the boeotian, in the light of such artistic license.
Re: An Amazon with a cypriote/Phoenician shield - hoplite14gr - 03-12-2010
There were Cypriot-Phoinicians. So the artist is most likely depicting them.
I agree with you that the spiked shield is probably Phoinician.
I am inclined to agree with you on the offset rims but the left statuette I posted puzzles me on that matter.
Theare is also a late bronze age early iron age crecent-shaped shield from Cyprus. (like the ones in the Warrior base)
Òffset im and 3(!) spiked shield bosses survive.
Here reconstructed by Matthew Amt as a round shield: http://larp.com/hoplite/myc1.jpg
Probably the spike and the offset rim survived in the Middle East longer after it was abandoned in other places.
Kind regards