Thickness of Ancient shields?

[Mrbsct]

Can someone give me the average thickness of the shields listed below?

-Republican Scutum
-Imperial Scutum
-Late Roman shield
-Gallic Theuros
-Greek Aspis
-Macedonian pike shield

[Dan Howard]

A lot of shields were thicker in the centre than around the edges. Giving the average thickness doesn''t help much since making the same shaped shield of a uniform thickness changes its effectiveness and handling.

[richsc]

Just thinking about that: if you're using three strips of wood, say 2mm thick, crossed over each other, there is very little you can take off to thin it at the edges. The strips aren't going to be as even as modern tools can do either. You could sand it down after the glue is all dry, but would that weaken the remnants too much?

[Crispianus]

The strips aren't going to be as even as modern tools can do either.

What makes you think that?

[Dan D'Silva]

A lot of shields were thicker in the centre than around the edges. Giving the average thickness doesn''t help much since making the same shaped shield of a uniform thickness changes its effectiveness and handling.

I think that Andy means to ask about the averages of known examples, not the average overall thickness of any one example.

[Dan Howard]

A lot of shields were thicker in the centre than around the edges. Giving the average thickness doesn''t help much since making the same shaped shield of a uniform thickness changes its effectiveness and handling.

I think that Andy means to ask about the averages of known examples, not the average overall thickness of any one example.

So do we measure the thickness near the centre or near the rim?

[richsc]

I can buy 100 feet/30 meters of 1.5mm or 2mm edge banding wood strips and be assured it will be that thickness. I am not sure how a Roman carpenter could possibly do that with a manual tool such as a draw knife. It may be possible with a special plane so it might be like a cheese slicer, but modern carpenters assure me that can't work.

I would think the shield tapers to the edge. But, what would be the combat advantage of tapering? Flexibility upon impact?

[Crispianus]

Can someone give me the average thickness of the shields listed below?

-Republican Scutum 6mm
-Imperial Scutum, 5-6, 7mm (dura) average 6mm, individual strip 1.5-3mm
-Late Roman shield, large oval (dura) thickness varies 3-7,4-9,3-8,3-5 etc so I guess an average is 5-6mm
-Germanic, Early Anglo Saxon mostly small round average 6-8mm, Illerup min-max 3-10mm large round average 6-7mm.
-Gallic Theuros, Hjortspring average 1cm but small, no other data at present.
-Greek Aspis? unknown
-Macedonian pike shield?unknown

Tapering reduces weight considerably, remember the enemy is trying to hit you not the shield...
For a Scutum construction only the center strips need be that even, I would think it was split and planed flat enough, a good craftsman would know exactly how thick or thin and how flat it needed to be ;-)

[Dan Howard]

A lot of extant shields have only had their thickness measured near the rim. We don't know how thick a lot of them were near the centre. We have the same problem with breastplates.

[Crispianus]

The places for the measurements I gave vary from the edge to the shield boss hence 3-7mm etc, using data from hundreds of shields boards or their surviving components, we can be pretty certain about edge thickness from edge bindings and nails from shield bosses for example.
The only one an estimate is the Hjortspring shield measurement, I believe the others to be reliable.. if I did spent more time on it I could come up with more specific measurements but I'm not going to do that here, since an estimate was required and a spread of measurements will give that ;-)
Sources:
Illerup shields in detail see Illerup Adal 10-12 "Die Schilde" plus other volumes.
"Anglo Saxon Shields", H. Harke
"Excavations at Dura Europos" Vol VII.
plus others....