Various practical addenda from Plataea 2022

Well, Plataea 2022 ended on Saturday and although there's a lot to be said, I'm limiting myself to some observations to bear in mind about all the stuff I brought out there:

-  A four-inch-wide (internal), eight-foot-long PVC pipe with caps held on by duct tape makes a very protective package for spears, but it's so heavy and awkward (particularly when you already have two suitcases and a rifle case with your bows and arrows in it), and expensive to ship, that I wound up leaving both it and all my spears spears with other reenactors who felt they'd have a use for them and less difficulty/expense transporting them.  I will not travel with spears in the future.  If I send any more to Greece, I'll send them well ahead of time by the cheapest service available and leave them with a trusted friend.

-  Under the (to my Pennsylvanian standards) quite aggressive heat and sun, the film of linseed oil-beeswax sealer I applied on top of the oil paint on my crescent shield softened and rubbed off.  Specifically, the area on top of the dark red ochre-painted part of the shield; the area on top of the white edge was somewhat more resistant (presumably because the film is transparent and the dark paint heated up in the sun faster).  The same mixture used as a paint binder on my new gorytos was also more resistant, but did soften after prolonged exposure, allowing thicker bits to be scraped off.  The rosin-beeswax glue attaching the leather facing of my new akinakes scabbard also softened.  By contrast, anything treated, bound or sealed with only linseed oil or rosin (the ochre paint on the shield, the spear handles, and the sinew wrappings of my arrows) were all fine.  So basically anything containing beeswax was in danger of melting.

-  The buff leather weapon belt performed admirably.  The chrome-tanned belt sagged and became uncomfortable.  I'm not sure whether this is because the holes I punched in the buff belt allowed it to be laced tighter or because it's a thicker leather, but I suspect both.  The belt being nice and snug was definitely helpful.

-  As I suspected, the smaller bow and commensurately smaller gorytos and arrows were much easier to carry.  The search for an accurately Classical-styled bow of less than 36 inches strung continues.

-  The 1/2-inch-thick wooden crescent shield is at least as heavy as larger wicker ones in the same style.  This, too, needs improvement.  I also threw together a round wicker mat with pelta-style grips and a suede facing, which at 16 inches in diameter (about the size of the smallest Scottish targes, and barely large enough to cover my arm from elbow to knuckles with fingers closed around the handgrip) is so light I barely notice I'm wearing it, but I'd have felt much, much better about it if it were crescent-shaped.

-  A 12-ounce ceramic bottle, while convenient to carry, is only around a quarter as much water as I need to drink over the course of a Greek midsummer day in the field.  Also, water left out becomes as hot as the surrounding air in just a few hours.  What I wound up doing was to take a two-liter plastic bottle of water and keep it overnight in the hotel minifridge where it half-froze, wrapped it in spare clothing and kept it in my tent in my suitcase.  That way I could still at least refill my ceramic bottle with slightly cool water by the end of the day.  A proper cooler with ice blocks would've been better.

-  Food must be kept elevated or it will be invaded by ants.  A table of some kind, a crate, a box, anything will help.

Wooden crescent shield

I started this shield close to four years ago.  Judging by period art, crescent shields were used from Thrace to western Scythia and possibly even Persia itself, but to my knowledge no archaeological example has been found.  I think - again judging by art - that most of them were made of true wicker, especially around the Aegean.  However, this one is intended for reenactment combat, and not having the luxury to replace my shield every time, I decided to start with a solid wood core.  It's made of two layers of 1/4-inch poplar planks glued up with a modern waterproof carpenter glue, and then cut on a bandsaw, with the edges rounded but no tapering.

The front is a goat rawhide drum cover attached with hide glue and stitched with waxed linen cord.  I had to spread the glue right up to the edges and weigh them down so they didn't peel away while drying.  It's painted with a simple mix of red ochre and boiled linseed oil in the area within the stitching, and commercial white oil paint on the edges.  I've found no clearly-attested shield devices from the Persian empire, so after a while spent wondering whether to use a Thracian device or a Persian motif that hasn't been found on shields, I decided to leave it plain.

Before attaching the front, I had to do the backing and then the grip and armbands.  The back is linen, attached with wood glue and then covered in acrylic paint.  Since beginning this shield, I've tried to use more period-appropriate materials; if I were starting from square one today, I would've used linseed oil and yellow ochre on the back.  The grip and armband are chrome-tanned leather attached with clinched nails, the grip wrapped in German buckskin with a wrist pad of the same held on by cut tacks.

Wrapping the upper corners with the rawhide left some gaps, which I packed with resin-beeswax hot glue and melted with the heat gun to fill in after the paint had cured.  Lastly, I rubbed the stitching, facing and facing edges with linseed oil-beeswax sealer, which is why the yellow back is slightly darker near the edges.  Total weight is 2 pounds 13 ounces (almost 1.28kg), width 20 inches (51cm), height 17 inches (43cm).  I suspect that originals were both larger and lighter (or at least proportionally lighter).  This shield is sized for me, especially the armbands and grips.  It may be difficult to use for someone whose forearms are a different length or thickness.  It's possible that the grips and armbands on true wicker shields could be re-tied to loosen, tighten or even move to a different place, though this was probably hard to do once the hide facing was attached.

As is usually the case with rawhide facings applied wet, the shield has wound up curved slightly concave as the facing dried and shrank.  The more you stretch the facing, the more it will warp; excessive shrinkage can even destroy the wooden core.