Making Pteruges (or at least trying to make Pteruges!)

[Magnus]

If the leather ones hang in a similar fashion to the sculptures, then it is surely a viable method of reconstruction ?

leather _does_ have protective qualities. I have been present when tests, admittedly with viking period sharp weapons, have been carried out.
It is also used to strengthen shields, both intrinsically and against weapons both in a contemporary contexts * and later anglo saxon ones **. It survives in these contexts as traces behind rivets and edging.
Personally speaking, I have a dark age shield that has conservatively seen 20 years of use (some of it very hard use indeed) and outlived all of it's contempories purely because it is leather covered. Yes the metal weapons were blunt, but that is still some impressive longevity.

I could never understand why everyone believes that roman leather shield covers are removed before fighting ? Makes far more sense to leave them on.

*iron age cemeteries in east yorkshire - stead -1991
*first century shield find from doncaster, buckland,, 1978
** wood usage in anglo-saxon shields, watson, 1994

Sure but if leather was as good as it's linen counterpart, then why didn't the ancients make more use of it? Better to go with the evidence we have!

That's an interesting point about the leather shield cover...however, why bother painting them if you're simply going to cover them in leather after? It also defeats the purpose of the paint scheme being used for identification, as quoted by Caesar I think it was? About the two guys using discarded shields to deceptively approach an enemy position and attack it.

Also, I don't think your shield is going to last nearly as long if you had used it against people with edged weapons. Blunt weapons aren't the same and surely were not the choice of rome's enemies for the most part.

I don't think it makes any sense to leave them on during combat....edged weapons are going to ruin it after the first few minutes of battle. Especially given the thiness of the leather used in shield covers. I'm pretty sure they were to preserve the shield from the elements, and nothing more.