Double hand grips on the aspis

[PMBardunias]

In other words, I'd construct the shield exactly the way a 6th C. BC boat builder constructed his hull.

I'd like to know more about this technique. Any references? I had a construction of steamed lathes in mind, but my knowledge of woodworking is journeyman at best. The inner face of the Chigi shields seems like strong evidence of this construction.

If the bowl of the shield is at all flexible then a rim alone cannot counter the force unless the shield is deeply and uniformly domed. The shallow domes with "shoulders" we see in even many of the deeper aspis images have two zones of weakness. The rim counters part of this(see A below), but with the rim unable to flex, the strain is transferred to the shoulder section. The fact that the rope and later the metal strip is usually positioned right where a truss should be is what first tipped me off (B). These diagrams are a bit different than those on my blog, not to confuse anyone.