08-05-2008, 02:37 PM
Hi all,
there is at least a hint for the use of wicker shields by germanic warriors in Tacitus´ Annales, Book II, 14. This is a suggested speech of Germanicus to his soldiers during his campaign in north germany in 15 AD. He mentioned that the germanic warriors do not use any kind of body armour or helmet. Their shields were not reinforced with iron or leather, but were only of wicker work or coloured laths.
Of course this suggested speech is propaganda and at least from archaeological evidence we know, that Germanicus´speech is wrong in case of iron (and copper alloy) parts of shields. But Tacitus seemed to follow the usual roman topos of barbarian material culture or even followed Plinius the elder´s observations on germanics (or his book about roman germanic wars, which is lost). So we can asume that wicker shields could have been an option to german (and other) warriors.
We have much older evidence of organic weaponry in form of the Hjortspring finds. There we have wooden shields (with short spina) and bone/antler speer/lance tips (but also some mail shirts were observed).
So we have evidence, that the idea of organic weapory was known ca. 150 years before the period in question. And finally there is a later evidence of wicker shieldboss from Thorsberg (2nd ct AD).
Summing up, we can say there was organic weaponry in existence before, we have a literary hint of whicker shields for at least the 1st ct. AD and a whicker shield boss of a later date is a proof at least of the idea to use wicker work for at least shieldbosses. Fair enough?
How did they look like?
My thinking is that the practical demands dictated the way how the material at hand was processed and that inside it´s limits. The wish to follow common forms iof daily objects was another factor.
In that way wicker shields may have followed the high end examples (with metal parts) in form and size. It is not impossible that a reinforcement with raw hide was wounded around the edges or even tied to the front side. The contemporary (around 0 AD) use of spina can be assumed by contemporary roman depiction and it makes sense on a flexible wicker to strengthen it ... like a spine. An alternative could be a whicker shieldboss, mentioned above.
Where they painted?
Tacitus suggested in his Germania that the germans didn´t like to decorate their weapons much, with the shield as an absolute exception. And one may argue with "horror vacui", the fear of undecorated areas. When makig a wicker shield with raw hide, a spina and paint it with the range of colours available then, it won´t differ much from a wooden shield. Something which a germanic shield builder maybe wanted to achive with "inferior" material.
Surely we have to overcame the notion that barbaric material culture was always plain, raw and unfinished. People tended to make the most out of the material they had at hand. We do not know for sure, if organic weoponry were an article of poorer warriors and the danger is to argue with organic weaponry to fill interpretive gaps in reconstruction.
Robert
Some literature
- Adler, Wolfgang:
Studien zur germanischen Bewaffnung.
Waffenmitgabe und Kampfesweise im
Niederelbegebiet und im übrigen Freien Germanien
um Christi Geburt.
(Bonn, Habelt, 1993).
-Jahn, Martin:
Die Bewaffnung der Germanen in der älteren
Eisenzeit etwa 700 v. Chr. bis 200 n. Chr.
(Würzburg, Kabitzsch, 1916).
Weski, Timm:
Waffen in germanischen Gräbern der älteren
römischen Kaiserzeit südlich der Ostsee.
(Oxford, British Archaeological Reports, 1982).
Weski, Timm:
Waffen aus organischem Material bei den Germanen
und schriftliche Quellen. Ein Beitrag zu einem
Zirkelschluss. -
in: Festschrift für Otto-Herman Frey
(Marburg, 1994).
Raddatz, Klaus:
Der Thorsberger Moorfund. Katalog. Teile von
Waffen und Pferdegeschirr, sonstige Fundstücke
aus Metall und Glas, Ton- und Holzgefässe,
Steingeräte.
(Neumünster, Wachholtz, 1987).
Rosenberg, Gustav:
Hjortspringfundet. Det kongelige Nordiske Oldskriftsselskab, Nordisk. (Forlag 1937).
there is at least a hint for the use of wicker shields by germanic warriors in Tacitus´ Annales, Book II, 14. This is a suggested speech of Germanicus to his soldiers during his campaign in north germany in 15 AD. He mentioned that the germanic warriors do not use any kind of body armour or helmet. Their shields were not reinforced with iron or leather, but were only of wicker work or coloured laths.
Of course this suggested speech is propaganda and at least from archaeological evidence we know, that Germanicus´speech is wrong in case of iron (and copper alloy) parts of shields. But Tacitus seemed to follow the usual roman topos of barbarian material culture or even followed Plinius the elder´s observations on germanics (or his book about roman germanic wars, which is lost). So we can asume that wicker shields could have been an option to german (and other) warriors.
We have much older evidence of organic weaponry in form of the Hjortspring finds. There we have wooden shields (with short spina) and bone/antler speer/lance tips (but also some mail shirts were observed).
So we have evidence, that the idea of organic weapory was known ca. 150 years before the period in question. And finally there is a later evidence of wicker shieldboss from Thorsberg (2nd ct AD).
Summing up, we can say there was organic weaponry in existence before, we have a literary hint of whicker shields for at least the 1st ct. AD and a whicker shield boss of a later date is a proof at least of the idea to use wicker work for at least shieldbosses. Fair enough?
How did they look like?
My thinking is that the practical demands dictated the way how the material at hand was processed and that inside it´s limits. The wish to follow common forms iof daily objects was another factor.
In that way wicker shields may have followed the high end examples (with metal parts) in form and size. It is not impossible that a reinforcement with raw hide was wounded around the edges or even tied to the front side. The contemporary (around 0 AD) use of spina can be assumed by contemporary roman depiction and it makes sense on a flexible wicker to strengthen it ... like a spine. An alternative could be a whicker shieldboss, mentioned above.
Where they painted?
Tacitus suggested in his Germania that the germans didn´t like to decorate their weapons much, with the shield as an absolute exception. And one may argue with "horror vacui", the fear of undecorated areas. When makig a wicker shield with raw hide, a spina and paint it with the range of colours available then, it won´t differ much from a wooden shield. Something which a germanic shield builder maybe wanted to achive with "inferior" material.
Surely we have to overcame the notion that barbaric material culture was always plain, raw and unfinished. People tended to make the most out of the material they had at hand. We do not know for sure, if organic weoponry were an article of poorer warriors and the danger is to argue with organic weaponry to fill interpretive gaps in reconstruction.
Robert
Some literature
- Adler, Wolfgang:
Studien zur germanischen Bewaffnung.
Waffenmitgabe und Kampfesweise im
Niederelbegebiet und im übrigen Freien Germanien
um Christi Geburt.
(Bonn, Habelt, 1993).
-Jahn, Martin:
Die Bewaffnung der Germanen in der älteren
Eisenzeit etwa 700 v. Chr. bis 200 n. Chr.
(Würzburg, Kabitzsch, 1916).
Weski, Timm:
Waffen in germanischen Gräbern der älteren
römischen Kaiserzeit südlich der Ostsee.
(Oxford, British Archaeological Reports, 1982).
Weski, Timm:
Waffen aus organischem Material bei den Germanen
und schriftliche Quellen. Ein Beitrag zu einem
Zirkelschluss. -
in: Festschrift für Otto-Herman Frey
(Marburg, 1994).
Raddatz, Klaus:
Der Thorsberger Moorfund. Katalog. Teile von
Waffen und Pferdegeschirr, sonstige Fundstücke
aus Metall und Glas, Ton- und Holzgefässe,
Steingeräte.
(Neumünster, Wachholtz, 1987).
Rosenberg, Gustav:
Hjortspringfundet. Det kongelige Nordiske Oldskriftsselskab, Nordisk. (Forlag 1937).
Robert Brosch
www.chasuari.de">www.chasuari.de
Germanic warriors of 1st ct. AD
www.comitatus.eu">www.comitatus.eu
Network of germanic Reenactors of 1st ct. AD
www.chasuari.de">www.chasuari.de
Germanic warriors of 1st ct. AD
www.comitatus.eu">www.comitatus.eu
Network of germanic Reenactors of 1st ct. AD
