Marathon 2011

[ouragos]

get the strong impression that earlier spears DID balance in the middle,

If this is the case, the most likely evolution would be linked with the move to close order fighting (but I personally suspect that this piece of technology was designed to be held off-centre in the first place). You try maneuvering (or even lifting so that you are holding correctly) a spear with 4' sticking backwards in a formed block of troops without a, injuring one of your own and b, not actually being able to get it into the fighting position either as it gets caught on some other poor chap or his kit on the way up.

There are also practicalities involved in the use of a long spear as an effective infantry weapon when holding it in the middle. Also, and this is another debate, the grip adopted for overarm use would need to be al'a "300" because of the starting point and this grip does not fit with the art or experience of experimentation (despite a number of reenactors adopting it because it looks good).

Creating an evolutionarey long spear and then halving its effective shock length PLUS making it awkward to use as a secondary weapon once the front has broken does not hold true. If you are going to do this, why not simply put a heavy weight on the back of a standard length spear?

What's the quote about spears cracking on impact? A 9' spear is no use when standing nose to nose to the enemy - so shock impact, self-shortening mechanism (breaking!), sarouter as a 2-3' club, seamless fighting.... and 'self shortening', assisted by taper, can encourage the break to be at a more optimum point for continued use.

Also, in terms of taper, agreed ...art evidence is questionnable. But some modest weights of sarouters compared to aichme finds suggest that to achieve a decent point of balance then more weight has to be shifted somehow. There are finds of sarouters with lumps of lead added to help address this, but a number of sarouters found would not be that much heavier than a reasonable sized aichme and IF you subscribe to the off-centre argument lead, alone, will not be sufficient and a taper can make a lot of difference. I have tried it and you need a lot of lead.

As with much of this period, we hypothesise and will probably never know the true answer. Mine is just one opinion and I make no more of it than that.