Matthew Amt wrote: | ||
Don't those smaller shields correspond to smaller shields shown in artwork as well? I also wonder why a grave would have real weapons and other items (pottery, jewelry, presumably clothing?) but a fake shield. Are we dealing with yet another sweeping assumption made a hudred years ago that is still echoing through later generations of scholarship? We may also be worrying more about costs than the folks living back then did... |
My thoughts exactly Matthew. Part of becoming a man back then was receiving a spear and a shield. So it makes sense for these things to be buried with the man when he died. Why then would real swords, axes, and spears be buried, but not real shields. Also the cost agreement doesn't make sense to me. Wouldn't the iron boss be the most expensive part? Why go to the bother of taking a boss from a perfectly functional shield, only to put it on a non-functional shield, just so it would fit in a grave which you could easily have made a bit wider.