Welcome, Guest. Please Login
SLINGING.ORG
 
Home Help Search Login


Page Index Toggle Pages: 1
Send Topic Print
Iron Age leather shield reproduction. (Read 2457 times)
Mauro Fiorentini
Forum Moderation
*****
Offline


Forge your future with
the hammer of your mind!

Posts: 3442
Ancona, Italy.
Gender: male
Iron Age leather shield reproduction.
May 2nd, 2016 at 6:30am
 
Hallo friends!
This is my latest effort, a leather shield I made for my experimental archeology's group.

Evidences of this kind of shield may seem very scarce initially, but if one takes a deeper look at the shield's concept it's easy to find different clues: anthropologically, we have African and Indian's tribal shields; archaeologically, we have two leather shields from Ireland's Bronze-Iron Age and some miniaturistic ones found all around Europe.

So I thought I had enough info to assume a similar shape and the use of such a thick leather (the shield is more than one centimeter thick, made of bull's leather): this does not mean that my shield is the exact replica of a surviving one but it's just my interpretation of the type.

https://scontent-mxp1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/13062412_492664640923595_618872059...
A shield made of rhino leather from North-West Indian tribes.

https://scontent-mxp1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/13083235_492664684256924_696757752...
Irish leather shield and its mould, dating back to the end of the Bronze Age.

...
My leather being pressed into the mould in order to obtain the shield's boss.

https://scontent-mxp1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xft1/v/t1.0-9/13100849_492665437590...
Here're the two leather layers glued together and pierced, ready for being sawn and cut to a rounded shape.

...
Working on the leather to make it look like a shield...

...
The shield undergoing the final sewing... it took me a total of two meters of leather strings to sew the whole shield.

...
Ready for a typical Picenian decoration...

...
The interior of the shield's boss is covered in fur in order to protect the hand.

https://scontent-mxp1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpt1/v/t1.0-9/13076779_492665754256...
And this is it  Smiley

Hope you enjoyed!
Mauro.
Back to top
 

Like! Smiley https://www.facebook.com/Arte-Picena-238289793027749/timeline/
Greetings,
Mauro.

Mauro Fiorentini - 339-525
 
IP Logged
 
Mauro Fiorentini
Forum Moderation
*****
Offline


Forge your future with
the hammer of your mind!

Posts: 3442
Ancona, Italy.
Gender: male
Re: Iron Age leather shield reproduction.
Reply #1 - May 2nd, 2016 at 6:31am
 
Err.... some pics won't show  Shocked

And I'm unable to edit the message... will have to figure out a solution later  Smiley
Back to top
 

Like! Smiley https://www.facebook.com/Arte-Picena-238289793027749/timeline/
Greetings,
Mauro.

Mauro Fiorentini - 339-525
 
IP Logged
 
vetryan15
Slinging.org Moderator
*****
Offline


Slinging Rocks!

Posts: 1913
Northern Maine
Gender: male
Re: Iron Age leather shield reproduction.
Reply #2 - May 2nd, 2016 at 8:13am
 
that looks great. I think the African styles would use a stronger type. water buffalo hide is really thick, and strong.
Ryan
Back to top
 
WWW  
IP Logged
 
Caldou
Funditor
****
Offline


Moving the world... rock
by rock.

Posts: 779
Picardie, France
Re: Iron Age leather shield reproduction.
Reply #3 - May 2nd, 2016 at 10:16am
 
Dear Mauro, I think that Iron Age shields had a central manipula, did you find other possibilities ?
Nice shield otherwise Smiley
Back to top
 

Eight in one shot!
The french Slinging club
If it's still moving, keep slinging !
WWW  
IP Logged
 
Steven_M._Peffley
Tiro
**
Offline



Posts: 38
Pennsylvania Coal Region
Gender: male
Re: Iron Age leather shield reproduction.
Reply #4 - May 3rd, 2016 at 5:22pm
 
"Irish leather shield and its mould, dating back to the end of the Bronze Age."

Hi Mauro,

            The actual leather shield is one that was found at Clonbrin, County Longford, Republic of Ireland during 1908. The calibrated dating places it between 1134 and 971 B.C.E.
     The shield mould is from Churchfield, Knock, County Mayo, Republic of Ireland, and was found in either the late 30's/early 40's. The pattern on the Churchfield mould is similar to, but different from the Clonbrin shield. The dating for the mould is earlier - 1392 to1129 B.C.E.
    Petroglyphs from Cabeza del Buey, Brozas and Aldea del Rey, Spain depict shields that are almost identical to the Clonbrin shield.
Back to top
 

If you kill them at a distance, you won't have to dance with them.
 
IP Logged
 
Bill Skinner
Forum Moderation
*****
Offline


Slinging Rocks!

Posts: 3292
Re: Iron Age leather shield reproduction.
Reply #5 - May 5th, 2016 at 12:04am
 
Nothing close up for reference, how big is it?

I have worked with thick leather, I'll bet you are glad you spent all that time as a sailor, you probably had to say a bad word or two while you were cutting it.

Are you going to heat it up and apply bee's wax to the leather to stiffen it and make it weatherproof?
Back to top
 
 
IP Logged
 
Mauro Fiorentini
Forum Moderation
*****
Offline


Forge your future with
the hammer of your mind!

Posts: 3442
Ancona, Italy.
Gender: male
Re: Iron Age leather shield reproduction.
Reply #6 - May 8th, 2016 at 6:11am
 
Hallo friends, thanks for the comments and the useful information!

Caldou, there're some vases representing the internal part of a peltast's shield where you can see multiple holding points (check "Thrace and the Thracious", A. Fol for details) but apart from this we already have some shields with a single manipula belonging to other members of the group, I wanted to try something different and see if there's any changes in how the shield reacts to impacts.  Smiley

Bill, keeping in mind it is an irregular rounded shape, it's around  70 centimeters (27.5 inches) in diameter, I am planning to wet the edges with boiling water and then apply salt on them, something similar to what I have done with my circular cuirass... the shield is 1 centimeter (0.4 inches) thick and yes, it was kind of funny to cut it  Cheesy
Back to top
 

Like! Smiley https://www.facebook.com/Arte-Picena-238289793027749/timeline/
Greetings,
Mauro.

Mauro Fiorentini - 339-525
 
IP Logged
 
Bill Skinner
Forum Moderation
*****
Offline


Slinging Rocks!

Posts: 3292
Re: Iron Age leather shield reproduction.
Reply #7 - May 8th, 2016 at 4:00pm
 
Funny, my foot.  Grin

That's work, and some pretty hard work at that, to cut leather that thick.   Shocked

Makes you wonder how they cut it during the bronze age. Huh

Did they use a stone flake or a bronze tool that they had to stop and resharpen several times as they cut?
Back to top
 
 
IP Logged
 
Mauro Fiorentini
Forum Moderation
*****
Offline


Forge your future with
the hammer of your mind!

Posts: 3442
Ancona, Italy.
Gender: male
Re: Iron Age leather shield reproduction.
Reply #8 - May 9th, 2016 at 2:03pm
 
Well, this is unclear.

We actually can find hundreds of flint scrapers on a Neolithic/Copper Age village site, but who knows what did they use them for? I used replicas to work wood, bone and skin and they proved to be useful indeed.

Something interesting to find is a flint scraper which has been resharpened, but due to the extremely various shapes of scrapers it is really difficult to say when a scraper has been reshaped or not. They did it, anyway: years ago I found a flint spearhead that had obviously been reshaped, so both the concept of reshaping and the technique were known for sure.

Bronze tools: same thing. We have several bronze daggers and spearheads showing signs of heavy reshapening, so it was a common habit. Check out this pdf: http://www.parcomontale.it/didattica/quaderno.pdf

it's all in Italian, but if you take a look at page 21 (and onward) you will find the most complete findings of a Late Bronze Age village in central Italy, where many bronze tools have been found, some clearly dedicated to leatherworking such as awls and blades  Smiley
Back to top
 

Like! Smiley https://www.facebook.com/Arte-Picena-238289793027749/timeline/
Greetings,
Mauro.

Mauro Fiorentini - 339-525
 
IP Logged
 
Bill Skinner
Forum Moderation
*****
Offline


Slinging Rocks!

Posts: 3292
Re: Iron Age leather shield reproduction.
Reply #9 - May 9th, 2016 at 10:20pm
 
Thank you that was a neat paper.  I can't really read Italian but I know some words and can sort of puzzle out some sentences.

Back to top
 
 
IP Logged
 
Page Index Toggle Pages: 1
Send Topic Print
(Moderators: David Morningstar, Bill Skinner, Masiakasaurus, Curious Aardvark, Mauro Fiorentini, Rat Man, Chris)