08-18-2007, 03:01 PM
All right, AFAIK, what you say about Adamklissi monument depictions is true. Knowing this, then, why do people make life-and-death arguments over some soldier's shield pattern (or similar minutia) found on Trajan's Column, I wonder.
Things change, styles change, equipment changed, so because I'm a dumb Texan (just ask anybody) all it actually shows, concerning the furca on TC, is that a few of them may have been made with a short crossed bar, during the time of the Column's construction, and that might have been for as short a period of time as the use of the caliga, or the Mainz gladius, for example. Right?
My furca is made just that way, because it makes sense for me, and it's documentable, sort of. FTR, it's carefully notched, glued, drilled, dowelled, and the dowel (also glued in) is fitted with a small armor band scrap wedge on both sides, like a modern hammer or hatchet (cross grain, even), then wrapped very tightly with wet a rawhide thong. The joint is probably three times stronger than the ash shaft and crossbar.
Things change, styles change, equipment changed, so because I'm a dumb Texan (just ask anybody) all it actually shows, concerning the furca on TC, is that a few of them may have been made with a short crossed bar, during the time of the Column's construction, and that might have been for as short a period of time as the use of the caliga, or the Mainz gladius, for example. Right?
My furca is made just that way, because it makes sense for me, and it's documentable, sort of. FTR, it's carefully notched, glued, drilled, dowelled, and the dowel (also glued in) is fitted with a small armor band scrap wedge on both sides, like a modern hammer or hatchet (cross grain, even), then wrapped very tightly with wet a rawhide thong. The joint is probably three times stronger than the ash shaft and crossbar.
M. Demetrius Abicio
(David Wills)
Saepe veritas est dura.
(David Wills)
Saepe veritas est dura.
