12-30-2005, 05:53 PM
Khairete!
I'll second Gregory's invitation--sounds like we need you guys over on the Bronze Age Center!
A couple tidbits of my own: I'm one of the big supporters of the Low Chronology school. Just about every bit of culture from around 900 BC is a direct match of the same thing from 1200 BC, on 3 continents. And artifacts from both those times are frequently found mingled in the same archeological layer. Clearly there's a chronology problem! So yes, Homer was a lot closer to the action than we used to think. (Andrea's going to jump on me on this and point out all the experts who will disagree with me, but there is also a long list of experts who have been pointing out oddities in dates for the last 50 or 60 years!) (There's already an old thread on the BAC for the chronology debate, so let's NOT hijack this thread for it!)
Just as a personal observation, it looks to me like the Dipylon shield is NOT derived from the figure-8, but rather from the Hittite shield which it very closely resembles, being round or oval with sharp semicircular cutouts. Minor point!
And if anyone would like to compare my own reconstructions with Andrea's lovely work,
http://www.larp.com/hoplite/bronze.html
Note that I'm not entirely satisfied with much of what I've got so far, the simple result of not having enough solid information.
Enjoy!
Matthew
I'll second Gregory's invitation--sounds like we need you guys over on the Bronze Age Center!
A couple tidbits of my own: I'm one of the big supporters of the Low Chronology school. Just about every bit of culture from around 900 BC is a direct match of the same thing from 1200 BC, on 3 continents. And artifacts from both those times are frequently found mingled in the same archeological layer. Clearly there's a chronology problem! So yes, Homer was a lot closer to the action than we used to think. (Andrea's going to jump on me on this and point out all the experts who will disagree with me, but there is also a long list of experts who have been pointing out oddities in dates for the last 50 or 60 years!) (There's already an old thread on the BAC for the chronology debate, so let's NOT hijack this thread for it!)
Just as a personal observation, it looks to me like the Dipylon shield is NOT derived from the figure-8, but rather from the Hittite shield which it very closely resembles, being round or oval with sharp semicircular cutouts. Minor point!
And if anyone would like to compare my own reconstructions with Andrea's lovely work,
http://www.larp.com/hoplite/bronze.html
Note that I'm not entirely satisfied with much of what I've got so far, the simple result of not having enough solid information.
Enjoy!
Matthew
Matthew Amt (Quintus)
Legio XX, USA
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.larp.com/legioxx/">http://www.larp.com/legioxx/
Legio XX, USA
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.larp.com/legioxx/">http://www.larp.com/legioxx/
