[split] Phalanx warfare: use of the spear

[Paul Bardunias]

Look at their shields, they are already interlocking, so probably the artist had a close combat in mind.

Besides, what you are describing as possible early hoplite combat is nowhere in the sources. Our best source (in my own opinion) about early archaic combat - Homer (ok there is Tyrtaios, but he's more limited), describes men in ranks, fighting in dense formations, some times coming out of them for duels, using spears that were possibly long, and could be thrown at any time, or not.
Yes, this could be a description of Mycenean combat, but it just as well applies to early hoplites.

And throwing your spear with which you fought overhand is also in the rennaisance manuals for spear and shield. It was meant to be a surprize.

Actually, no, they are not interlocking.  They are in fact facing edge-on, with spear shafts between on the lower edges.  We have assumed they are overlapped.  I believe they are supposed to be overlapping, but that is not really what is shown.  The Berlin aryballos is better.

It is the poems of Tyrtaeus that make me think the way I do.  If we accept that the early hoplite had two spears, at least one to throw, then they had to have a formation that allowed this.  There would be no point in running into battle holding a useless javelin.  They had to have stopped at missile range and thrown things.  We also know that they fought hand to hand with sword and spear, thus the lines had to have come together after some period- breif or long- of missile duelling.  Tyrtaeus describes this situation.   In his poems men are being admonished not to skulk back behind the ranks out of missile range, rocks are constantly raining down on the men, and he tells them to get in close and fight shield on shield.  This has been taken to specifically mean othismos, but I think it simply means to get from missile range to sword range.  Othismos was always something that could happen once men were in close fighting, but not a goal in itself in every combat.  So Tyrtaeus is telling his audience to move from a shield wall with men throwing things at range, to a phalanx where men took their "wall" and used it offensively.  Over time the first phase would be eclipsed, because well armored men could charge through the beaten zone of missiles.

Just adding a bit:
This explains some of the confusion in the othismos debate. The heretics want hoplites fighting like peltasts, but a fulcum is a much better model for heavily armored men. All the missile throwing, none of the prancing about. The key is to realize that a phalanx and a shield wall are not the same thing. A classical phalanx is primarily offensive, charging directly to melee. It is the evolution from shield wall tactics to phalanx, not light infantry tactics to phalanx that we watch from archaic to classical periods.