PAINTING TECHNIQUES FOR ROMAN SHIELDS PER ASPERA AD ASTRA

The Chair of Ancient History at FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg works in various fields to reconstruct ancient craft techniques and to test the resulting products. Reconstructions so far have focused on the construction of Roman patrol boats (AW IV.1: 51-57), and on the design of Roman torsion catapults of various kinds (AW XVII.2: 8-11). This article deals with ancient painting, especially the painting of Roman shields.

Christina Sponsel-Schaffner

WEAPONS AND ARMOUR Within the EU Interreg Danube Transnational Program project “Living Danube Limes”, one of the tasks was to reconstruct and paint twenty Roman shields from around the third/fourth century AD. Constructing the shield Preserved shield boards, both whole and fragmentary, are very rare. Based primarily on the finds from Fayum (Egypt) and Dura Europos (Syria), as well as descriptions in Polybius, we constructed the shield by gluing thin strips of wood together in alternating perpendicular layers. We chose poplar for the wood, as in the Dura Europos shields, and shaped the board. Then either linen or rawhide was applied to the wood with the same glue. Finally, the edge of the shield was secured with cowhide, which was sewn on when damp and then left to dry. Even…

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Ancient Warfare (Digital) - 1 Issue, AW XVII.5

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