Historic plywood shield?

[Matt Lukes]

I've wondered just how the aspis' wooden core was made too but haven't found any good information- and I've tried some of the more major references there are (Snodgrass, etc.). The best picture seems to be Connolly's painting in Greece and Rome at War that shows a piece in the Vatican Museum that has some of its wood core intact. His cross-section shows all but a reinforcement of the edge to be solid, carved it seems from a block of wood- which must have been quite a task given the tools available. So no, no plywood it seems for the aspis. Roman scuta, being far simpler in design were made of plywood- even Polybios describes Republican scuta as such.