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Re: orion-list The outer form of the shield in 1QM
Dierk, your comments are interesting, but the precision levels you report
are much too high. The War Scroll measurements are not given in centimeters
but in cubits. The listed size "115 x 69 cm" gives an apparent precision of
2 decimal places, when the actual accuracy in the War Scroll is 1.2 decimal
places. The War Scroll shield is 2 1/2 x 1 1/2 cubits, with a presumed
accuracy of 1/2 cubit (that is, give or take 1/4 cubit). A cubit is 46 cm,
which gives you 115 x 69 cm dimensions. But allowing for +/- 1/4 cubit (11
cm) we have 104-126 cm x 58-80 cm. That is, any shield within these
measurement parameters would have dimensions of 2 1/2 x 1 1/2 cubits in the
units used in the War Scroll. The following all fall within those parameters.
War Scroll: 104-126 x 58-80 cm, 2nd/1st c. BC
Polybius: 120 x (63?/)75 cm, 2nd c. BC
Auxiliaries: 90(-120) x 50(-70)cm, 1st c. BC/CE
Windisch: 104 x 69/83 cm, 1st c. CE
As I argued in my "The War Scroll and Roman Weaponry Reconsidered", the
military data in the War Scroll conforms to the Roman republican legions of
the second century BCE and the War Scroll shield was modeled on that also
described in Polybius.
Russell Gmirkin
> The outer forms:
>
> Polybius: 120 x (63?/)75 cm, ?kg, bent-oval[1], 2nd c. BC
> War Scroll: 115 x 69(/83?) cm, ?kg, ?form, 2nd/1st c. BC
> Fayum: 128 x 64/80 cm, 9.50 kg, bent-oval, 1st c. BC
> Auxiliaries[2]: 90(-120) x 50(-70)cm, 5-9 kg flat-(blunt)oval;
> hexagonal, 1st c. BC/CE
> Junkelmann[3]: 128 x 65/81 cm, 9.70 kg bent-oval,1st c. BC/CE
> Windisch [4]: 104 x 69/83 cm, 6.10 kg bent-semi-rectangular, 1st c. CE
> Dura Europos: 102 x 83 cm, ?kg, flat-rectangular, 3rd c. CE
>
>
> Conclusion:
>
> The War Scroll shield is either
> - a bent-oval scutum for short, fat people of the Republican Age (e.g.
> Obelix), or
> - a bent semi-rectangular shield for zealous giants of the early Imperial
> Age, or
> - a flat-oval shield of (oriental) auxiliary units of the 1st c. BC/CE, or
> - an innovation.
>
> -------------------
> [1] e.g. Junkelmann_Die Legionen des Augustus_ p.174 ff._Mainz 1977
> [1] but scutata with standard scuta
> [2] replica 1985
> [4] tegimenta scuti (shield cover)
>
>
> Scuta dorsum!
>
> Dierk
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