Reconstruction- Real Scutum Mini-Test

[Matt Lukes]

Thanks John,

Well Linden is also known as basswood, which is very, very different than birch- it's soft and a lovely carving wood, and it was used I understand for Norman Kite shields, but its density, etc. are not at all like birch.

I know it's been said there is some evidence of multi-wood scuta, but I've not seen any proper referencing for it- I only know of the Dura Europos, Kasr al-Harit, and the Masada examples, the latter of which mentions no species, and the other two are Plane and Birch, whcih as I mentioned, are very similar. Scuta are already composite pieces- and I suppose a harder wood in the middle and softer, more flexible ones on the outside could be good, however I'd be surprised if it were common. Clearly the referenceable examples are single species, and with the variations in just facing materials, like anything else it seems there was a good deal of variation.

It would be nice if someone could finally reference the multi-wood scutum actually...

And it's scutA- um goes to a (think of bacterium and bacteria)- it's definitely not scutumS LOL