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A very astute observation 

Like the angler's fish they get bigger with the retelling 

800-year-old Scottish castle to undergo major £5m refurbishment | The National https://share.google/5xPUCGaxltdNefw9e

That's a lot of money....

Yes I know this is old but I missed it first time around

It strikes me that the bigger spear heads could relate to a 'triarii' type arrangement whereby the oldest and most experienced warriors had a special battlefield role...?

Been doing some research for a local battle that has had me scouring maps and the like. My overwhelming feeling is that some DA battles must have been more raids than pitched battles per se

Quote from: Adrian Nayler on July 17, 2025, 11:05:48 AM

Quote from: Jim Webster on July 16, 2025, 10:11:01 PMI did an article in Slingshot about the supply of horses from Carolingian horse farms. I wrote it early in 2020 but don't know when it went in the magazine

I had a quick look but I could not find your article Jim. It's entirely possible that I missed it but do you think it was actually published?

My carelessness caused me to miss Jim's article "Providing Your Warhorses" which was published in Slingshot 329 (March/April 2020). Sorry about that.

Indeed yes. Much obliged 

'Equus: the horse in the Roman world' by Ann Hyland covers some of this. If I recall, Ann Hyland is a horse breeder as well as a historian, so it's a different perspective than usually found in more academic works. Probably works better in conjunction with other sources rather than as a single, authoritative textbook.

These descriptions and discussion of the Szczecin shield may prove useful Pt 1, Pt. 2 Part 2 has some speculation on the battle damage and use.

Add : Worth looking at Sean Manning's thoughts on shields on his Book and Sword blog https://www.bookandsword.com/tag/shield/ . He's mainly interested in shields of Antiquity rather than early medieval but his interest in technical aspects of construction (materials, weights etc.) might be useful.

Thanks for those Anthony