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Re-enactors in full kit showing use of a 1st-2nd century AD Roman Testudo formation to allow troops to mount a wall
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this post was submitted on 04 Sep 2024
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Historical Artifacts
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Wouldn't it make more sense to overlap the shields the other way, to transfer the weight of the guy down and into the ground? I'm assuming they tried both ways and the other way has problems that I'm not seeing, but I'm not seeing it.
I wonder if this way around was to help the climber get a foothold above the shield whilst being shot at.
My imagination tells me they'd be sprinting up there whilst having arrows shot at them, so anything to get their foot on would be handy.
Maybe the other way around they'd be more likely to catch their foot under the shield in front of them too, tripping them up.
The above is all just my imagination though so hopefully there's someone better read around here that can answer more accurately.
That would make sense, yeah. I suppose you can see that on the picture too, he's standing on the shield boss of one shield and the edge of another. It still seems like it would be very heavy for the guy at the top, but I suppose they don't spend that long standing there, maybe.
I guess I'm not seeing what you mean by overlapping the shields the other way?
The way they are currently set up the bottom shield is in front of the shield above it, so that when it gets pushed on it is supported by the next shield (which is again supported by the next shield, and so on).
It feels more intuitive that the shield should overlap the other way (instead of the top of your shield being supported by the next shield, the bottom of your shield would be supported by the previous shield) because the final shield in the row has to be the heaviest to hold and the first one is supported by the ground.
Okay, I see what you mean now. Not sure why they didn't do that.