Going back to the initial questions:
Quote:...I consider the topic of the Mycenaean army to be very difficult
Hit Matt, I think Mycenaean warfare is a splendid field for archaeological reconstruction and experimentation! Let me first comment on a couple of Angus McBridge's points:
Quote:Pg.8: ...backbone of a Mycenaean army was its heavy infantry...long spear (enkhos) as their main weapon... and a sword... Clothing was minimal, consisting only of a cloth kit or loincloth, and warriors went barefoot...
Yes. But note that clothing was minimal not for cultural/military purposes but for the simple fact that the Aegean region back then was considerably hotter to near-tropical levels, this well until early sub-mycenaean era. This is also why men working out were considerably darker nearly all-year explaining the notable difference of skin depiction between men and women who preferred to stay in the shade.
Quote:; however, this lacks of body armor was compensated for by a large shield (sakos) which covered the body from neck to shins, as well as a helmet.
Yes. Note though that this lack was more of a choice of fight-style imposed by comfort and/or finances rather than lack of ability to built armor. Armors of Mycenaean times were truly impressive even if compared to late Medieval ones! We naturally find more of them in later times as... Mycenaean businesses flourished and bronze provision increased. The use of a large shield did indeed compensate but at the end this was part of the overall fighting style prevalent at the times which is also found in all contemporary as well as later armies of the wider region west and east, from Latins to Persians.
In Mycenaean times there were three basic shield types: Sakkos, 8-Figure and Dipylon shield. I have actually moved on last year to the reconstruction of a Dipylon of sybmycenaean era made by acclaimed researcher Mr. D.Katsikis.
There are numerous depictions of Dipylon from 1600s BC down to end of Dark Age (750 AD.) when the shield was getting smaller giving way to Boetian, present in medallions, pendants, rings, sculptures and even in pottery of civilian use. Over this vast time-framework the Dipylon is depicted in various shapes from body size to near-circular shape and from very concave to flatter concavities. For our experimental construction we aimed at sub-mycenaean era thus remained to body-shield size. The shield was constructed of wicker and leather layers tied together with no gluing and decorated with copper bosses. We went for a well-made heavy construction on the basis of the basic deductions:
1. A body-shield is already so voluminous that if produced at anything lower than 8-9 kilos (even for my average 1,72m) cannot provide any effective protection at all. If weighting less than 8, we should rather talk of an African-style shield i.e. used to push aside the opponent's armed hand - i.e. a style which is not traced in Aegean. However this was not even any scutum since it was strapped on even during battle (we have explicit scenes for Sakkos and 8-fugure at least) thus protecting levels should be at minimum enough to forbid untrained modern men like us to fully penetrate it with a sharp weapon or to break its outer structure with a blunt one. It should also make it difficult to the savagely trained warriors of that time otherwise nobody would hang a death-trap over his shoulder
2. Reference to large heavy shields is a favourite of Homer. Ajax is mentioned to have had a large "tower-like" shield that even him found hard to lift! And Ajax was of course the most monstrous warrior in the Achaean camp!
We built ours basket-case, wicker/leather/copper bosses plus leather reinforced strap at 11,400k which we esteemed as a fair trade-off to start.
My first experiences?
1. Even a modern untrained man like me can carry fairly easily 11 kilos of body shield for 3 hours if using the strap and given 3-4 small breaks posing it on the ground that certainly a warrior had in the course of long battles. For an ancient warrior this should be piece of cake.
2. Use of side-openings with spear in attack mode is not evident. These are useful at contact with the enemy - eg. if the enemy tries to bring you down by your strapped shield (you can stab him through the apertures even with a large sword, [preferably with a smaller)
3. The shield considerably hinders motion, you cannot run (but you can hide behind it as you can see!). However what I could do fairly efficiently was to run the steps of throwing a javelin without problem by keeping the lower edge of the shield stable onto my left knee - as such the shield could had indeed been used by javelin throwers.
... and there is much more to experiment with it! E.g. we started with an odd experimental choice - a double handle which breaks the traditional approach of large shields having only one central grip (e.g. scutum-like). This shield hangs onto the body so even if you construct it on the upper limit of concavity, the use of central grip is not necessarily as obvious as it is in the scutum. If using only the central grip and not the side grip, the double grip permits carrying 1 spear more than the single grip (-1 spear for holding the single grip) but the great advantage of the double grip is the use of shoulder in pushing which might had been the case for a heavy shield - but then this is down to the utilization of the shield (spear throwing or close combat?). And so on!
[attachment=5545]Dipylon_2012-10-16.jpg[/attachment]