02-23-2002, 08:36 AM
Mike, regarding the shield suspension idea, remember that these are not intended to hang as "dead weight". At all times the shield is still be carried in hand, this is necessary to keep it aligned with the body. The strap just takes off some of the weight, making it more bearable. I didn't like Marcus's "backback" method of carrying the scutum as Trajans column, Adamaklesi, etc show the shield in hand at the body's side. Since the shield isn't dead weight, the hook on the Stillfried is quite adequate for the job. Other than just being so awkwardly high, I have reservations about these supporting the balteus, due to the sloping design of the cuirass. It will hang well enough on the hook, but sag everywhere else. When the balteus sits at the bottom lame of a segmented cuirass, if it is properly fitting, the hips protude, and the belt has some support. It is possible that there may have been a "second belt" high on the thorax, much like the wide belt seen on this spot on later Roman muscle cuirasses. ( Of course if you don't believe in muscle cuirasses used in the later Roman Army, it is a mute point. I believe there is too much pictorial evidence to dismiss them, including the otherwise normally accepted provincial tombsones.) More than decoration, I believe this upper thorax strap served much like the extra surcincle (sic) on a saddle, offering an extra method to secure the cuirass if the normal pins or buckles failed. The same would be true with a substantial extra strap employed on the upper thorax of the Stillfried armors. Of course there is no evidence of such a strap, or such a belt positioning on any pictorial evidence of a laminated cuirass, and I tend to think the shield suspension is the most plausible answer. Try something like the 160 km Nijmegen march with a scutum and I'm sure you will agree.<br>
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Matt, glad someone understands what I was getting at reference the positioning of the exit holes. It becomes even more clear if you put a surplus foam museum dummy in a cuirass and try "killing" it with a pilum, through the front overlap of the armor. The groups of puncture exits lie in remarkably the same place as the Stillfried punctures, simply too close to be coincidental.<br>
It is a good point about why not stab in an unprotected area instead, but it may have been a psychological thing with the attacker, perhaps frustrated by the armor protection that the Roman enemy normally enjoyed, but now didn't in this final circumstance.<br>
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By "toy pila" this is reference to many of you stateside guys "faking it" by attaching seperately made pyramidal points to your hardware store shanks...... okay, we did this too at first. But the point is, when all you have are relatively fragile, jerri-rigged pila, there is a reluctance to risk "breaking" them in real armor piercing experiments. Holger Von Gravert wanted to try throwing a forged head pila in a tree in my yard once, and although only with moderate force, it impacted so securely that it could only be removed by cutting it out.<br>
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Matt, glad someone understands what I was getting at reference the positioning of the exit holes. It becomes even more clear if you put a surplus foam museum dummy in a cuirass and try "killing" it with a pilum, through the front overlap of the armor. The groups of puncture exits lie in remarkably the same place as the Stillfried punctures, simply too close to be coincidental.<br>
It is a good point about why not stab in an unprotected area instead, but it may have been a psychological thing with the attacker, perhaps frustrated by the armor protection that the Roman enemy normally enjoyed, but now didn't in this final circumstance.<br>
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By "toy pila" this is reference to many of you stateside guys "faking it" by attaching seperately made pyramidal points to your hardware store shanks...... okay, we did this too at first. But the point is, when all you have are relatively fragile, jerri-rigged pila, there is a reluctance to risk "breaking" them in real armor piercing experiments. Holger Von Gravert wanted to try throwing a forged head pila in a tree in my yard once, and although only with moderate force, it impacted so securely that it could only be removed by cutting it out.<br>
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