Was the leather muscled curiass of the later times sexier?

[Urselius]

A leather shield dating to the Bronze Age was found in Ireland, plus a wooden mold for making similar shields....If you're just standing around the punchbowl at a party, go ahead, and speculate your heads off. Just be careful here on RAT, because we lean more towards the academic and reenactor viewpoint.

Show us the EVIDENCE. Modern ideas of "logic" and "common sense" will get you nowhere.

Valete,

Matthew

There was a test done with a reconstructed Irish leather shield and a reconstruction of the same design of shield in bronze, examples of which have survived. They were cut with a reconstructed bronze sword. The leather shield (not dissimilar to the targes used by Jacobite clansmen in 1745) was very resistant to sword blows but the bronze equivalent was sliced open with ease.

I am an academic, and without the application of logic all arguments are crippled. Once again I feel I must point out that I am arguing for the mere possibility, not in any sense either the probability or, heaven forfend, the actuality, of Roman leather cuirasses.

As I write this I'm struck by the etymology of the word 'cuirass' - how ironic!