ROMAN DISHED SHIELDS

[Medicus matt]

Wouldn't we be able to judge this by the length of the nails? I think I recall that most shields have a certain thickness (9 mm or so?), meaning that with a sloping boss the nails/rivets would have to be longer than you'd expect with flat bosses?

Board thickness isn't a constant though, at least not on AS shields. Range is anywhere between 6mm and 12mm. Don't know about Roman.

If you've got the nails, there's a good chance that you've got some evidence of the board remaining. If there's a gap between the head of the nail/rivet and the board that's thicker than the thickness of the flange, that could be evidence that it's an angled flange on a flat board.

Or that the board was faced with something.
Or that it was a badly made shield.
Or something.