10-17-2012, 01:40 PM
Thanks Dan.
Strangely we have not done a proper photo shoot for it and we have really to do it! Quickly I may forward the association's old site and the researcher/creator's site where a couple of photos exist.
http://www.koryvantes.org/koryvantes/sho...jsp?key=14
http://www.hellenicarmors.gr/products.php?pageId=17
The photos were during an event so I was mostly showing the exterior. Also note that my impression of a sub-Mycenaean was not and is not yet complete, that is why I did not make myself any proper series of photos - as lately Mr. Katsikis was too busy with many commands. But this year we move on to construct a proper wooden baldric with rich decoration for the sword which will also undergo extensive treatment for its "too modern for the era" handle and its weight and pronounced central spine. In the photos you can see I had just received it so I wore consciously wrongly on the traditional vertical position - Aor swords were shorter than the long Phasganon (90 to 110cm!) but could get as big as much as 80-90cm (mine is 90!) and the longer ones were worn semi-horizontaly like the Phasganons on the waist height.
I am aiming this to be between 1100 and 900 BC, period of Dorian conquests, after the downfall of Mycenaeans, therefore I do keep it "simple". The complete impression will include: the Dipylon, the thick belt, a spear, the bronze Aor in a wooden baldric, a helmet that will look like the typical Mycenaean-MinorAsian-Mesopotamian good-old-design. We are even thinking eventually of other parts shown on depictions of Mycenaean-era soldiers.
You can see in the detailed photo of the side-inside that I hold it through the double grip. The inside was either to be dressed in leather or to be left naked but I personally chose to cover it with a rustic thick linen taken from traditional carrying sacks that could date easily a century!
- this adds more comfort and is lightweight. From the inside the only visible elements are the 2 leather grips. These gathered a lot of well-expected criticism as large elongated shields had a single grip. Of course, neither the "gerron" nor the "scutum" were meant to be worn with a baldric and that makes a huge difference in use. Dipylon was used from at least 1600 to 750 BC and we know that its continuation the Boetian had a double grip, yet the Boetian's vertical positioning somehow was not evident in the tests prior to construction so we chose this. We can still test it as the construction of the shield permits re-arrangement of grips. We also received well-meant criticism for playing at the low-end of concavity (ours is at least 10cm though not that visible due inner linen and shield size). It'd require 20cm of concavity to be as visible as for figure-8 shields but then artistic depictions do not show always Dipylons as concave. The later Boetian often came with a minimal concavity. Note our initial concavity was in fact more pronounced but given the limited time we had to do it (me pressing!) the maker consciously applied the 2 leather layers much earlier on the wicker so wicker lost nearly half its concavity. The whole construction is a real miracle given the creator made it all by hand with strict use of ancient tools (saw, knifes, hammer, anvil, ropes and leather cordons), no chemicals and glues, no modern tools - I have seen this with my own eyes and it was impressive! Stretching the double layers was itself an immense task as it had to be done by hand (80 stiches!) over several days period since leather over wood is a live thing and moves!.
The prime concern of the maker was to present a shield that actually works as a real weapon and not as "an example that looks like a Dipylon". I.e. the skeleton is tough enough to forbid a modern man like us to break it and the leather layers protect sufficiently from sharp-weapon attacks. As a joke, he formally 'forbade' putting it on the plane as fragile: I have travelled 3 times on the plane with it wrapped in a... car-cover and only a layer of air-bubbles plastic resulting in a quite unusual test of its skeleton, successful one. Now, many people irrelevant to our field loved it as an art-object ignoring this is actually a reconstructed military shield! I do present it with pride as an experimental reconstruction of an ancient Dipylon shield, one of the first of its kind worldwide and as an advertishment for what really our field is all about.
Strangely we have not done a proper photo shoot for it and we have really to do it! Quickly I may forward the association's old site and the researcher/creator's site where a couple of photos exist.
http://www.koryvantes.org/koryvantes/sho...jsp?key=14
http://www.hellenicarmors.gr/products.php?pageId=17
The photos were during an event so I was mostly showing the exterior. Also note that my impression of a sub-Mycenaean was not and is not yet complete, that is why I did not make myself any proper series of photos - as lately Mr. Katsikis was too busy with many commands. But this year we move on to construct a proper wooden baldric with rich decoration for the sword which will also undergo extensive treatment for its "too modern for the era" handle and its weight and pronounced central spine. In the photos you can see I had just received it so I wore consciously wrongly on the traditional vertical position - Aor swords were shorter than the long Phasganon (90 to 110cm!) but could get as big as much as 80-90cm (mine is 90!) and the longer ones were worn semi-horizontaly like the Phasganons on the waist height.
I am aiming this to be between 1100 and 900 BC, period of Dorian conquests, after the downfall of Mycenaeans, therefore I do keep it "simple". The complete impression will include: the Dipylon, the thick belt, a spear, the bronze Aor in a wooden baldric, a helmet that will look like the typical Mycenaean-MinorAsian-Mesopotamian good-old-design. We are even thinking eventually of other parts shown on depictions of Mycenaean-era soldiers.
You can see in the detailed photo of the side-inside that I hold it through the double grip. The inside was either to be dressed in leather or to be left naked but I personally chose to cover it with a rustic thick linen taken from traditional carrying sacks that could date easily a century!
- this adds more comfort and is lightweight. From the inside the only visible elements are the 2 leather grips. These gathered a lot of well-expected criticism as large elongated shields had a single grip. Of course, neither the "gerron" nor the "scutum" were meant to be worn with a baldric and that makes a huge difference in use. Dipylon was used from at least 1600 to 750 BC and we know that its continuation the Boetian had a double grip, yet the Boetian's vertical positioning somehow was not evident in the tests prior to construction so we chose this. We can still test it as the construction of the shield permits re-arrangement of grips. We also received well-meant criticism for playing at the low-end of concavity (ours is at least 10cm though not that visible due inner linen and shield size). It'd require 20cm of concavity to be as visible as for figure-8 shields but then artistic depictions do not show always Dipylons as concave. The later Boetian often came with a minimal concavity. Note our initial concavity was in fact more pronounced but given the limited time we had to do it (me pressing!) the maker consciously applied the 2 leather layers much earlier on the wicker so wicker lost nearly half its concavity. The whole construction is a real miracle given the creator made it all by hand with strict use of ancient tools (saw, knifes, hammer, anvil, ropes and leather cordons), no chemicals and glues, no modern tools - I have seen this with my own eyes and it was impressive! Stretching the double layers was itself an immense task as it had to be done by hand (80 stiches!) over several days period since leather over wood is a live thing and moves!.The prime concern of the maker was to present a shield that actually works as a real weapon and not as "an example that looks like a Dipylon". I.e. the skeleton is tough enough to forbid a modern man like us to break it and the leather layers protect sufficiently from sharp-weapon attacks. As a joke, he formally 'forbade' putting it on the plane as fragile: I have travelled 3 times on the plane with it wrapped in a... car-cover and only a layer of air-bubbles plastic resulting in a quite unusual test of its skeleton, successful one. Now, many people irrelevant to our field loved it as an art-object ignoring this is actually a reconstructed military shield! I do present it with pride as an experimental reconstruction of an ancient Dipylon shield, one of the first of its kind worldwide and as an advertishment for what really our field is all about.
