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Round vs Oval

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Round vs Oval
Franklin Offline
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#1
11-28-2006, 07:22 PM
Quick question:

The Notitia Dignitatum is ascribed to roughly 400AD and depicts strictly round shields, yet most 5thC reenactors run around with ovals.

What gives?
Franklin Slaton
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aitor iriarte Offline
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#2
11-28-2006, 07:25 PM
Not us... Tongue
The shield shape debate is the closest parallel on Late Period to the Early Imperial debate on tunic colours... :roll:

Aitor :lol:
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Franklin Offline
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#3
11-28-2006, 07:29 PM
So your guys all sport rounds?
Franklin Slaton
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aitor iriarte Offline
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#4
11-28-2006, 07:31 PM
Not all, just Cohors Prima Gallica! :wink:

[Image: Foulkon-2.jpg]

BTW, they should be dished too, but we'd need a lot of maoney for that... :oops:

Aitor
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Franklin Offline
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#5
11-28-2006, 07:40 PM
Patience, Aitor, I'm working on it. :wink:

And hopefully it shouldn't be vastly more expensive, just more labor intensive. But then, ANYthing would be more difficult compared to just cutting out a piece of store-bought ply! I think that's what's made us spoiled.
Franklin Slaton
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aitor iriarte Offline
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#6
11-28-2006, 07:52 PM
Waiting eagerly for your news then, Franklin! Big Grin

Aitor
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Franklin Offline
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#7
11-28-2006, 07:55 PM
Are there any oval finds dated later than the Dura?
Franklin Slaton
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aitor iriarte Offline
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#8
11-28-2006, 08:15 PM
No, there aren't; but real finds are so scarce as to make this 'fact' totally irrelevant... Sad

Aitor
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Hibernicus Offline
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#9
11-28-2006, 08:25 PM
Aitor

Were they wood strips? If so could be a fun project.
Hibernicus

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Franklin Offline
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#10
11-28-2006, 08:56 PM
Also, have you come across any evidence that planks were beveled/jointed to fit snug with each other? Or were they simply flat/butted against each other.

I may have already asked you this. Apologies if I have.
Franklin Slaton
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Robert Vermaat Offline
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#11
11-29-2006, 12:26 AM
Quote:Not all, just Cohors Prima Gallica! :wink:
Don't be sad, you're not alone - in fact many Late Roman groups have round flat scuta. How about the Minervii and I Minerva in Germany?
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TITVS SABATINVS AQVILIVS Offline
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#12
11-29-2006, 12:15 PM
And the Primani... Big Grin

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Hibernicus Offline
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#13
11-29-2006, 05:09 PM
How were the originals you are replicating made?
Were they dished?

I have some strips aching to be glued up and pressed into a dished round or oval


Hibernici
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aitor iriarte Offline
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#14
11-29-2006, 05:29 PM
Sorry Sean,
I haven't forgotten about you, I have simply had no time to check my books :oops:
I hope to do so tonight.
I'd rather say that Late shields were dished and made of dressed planks rather than wood strips. The Egyptian shields were made of very narrow cedar planks but I think that they were still far from being 'strips' :?

Aitor
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Rolf Steiner
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Mithras Offline
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#15
11-29-2006, 10:24 PM
I'll be making another shield this winter, my best yet (hopefully) and it will be based on the Dura finds. Why? Because that's where the good evidence is. I'm not going to frolic about in the enjoyable games of oval vs. round and dished vs. flat, when these arguments are based on vastly differing pictorial references which often seem to contradict each other.

So I'm sticking with a Roman shield-making tradition that is perfectly and exhaustively attested: Dura.

I may even attempt authentic pigments! It will be planked, rawhide sewn rim (as with my others).
~ Paul Elliott

The Last Legionary
This book details the lives of Late Roman legionaries garrisoned in Britain in 400AD. It covers everything from battle to rations, camp duties to clothing.
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