[Regia-NA] The Nasal: What's it for?

[Nathan Beal]

> point of a spear defecting off the inside of the cheek flap into my face

To be honest were you not wearing anything there (as seems to be the norm) then ouch city either way.

(on a slight diversion) In my experience simalar can be said for oculars, defend your cheeks wonderfully but do 
have a nasty habit of deflecting things sraight into your eyes.

> [Before Pat or Steve or Kim or anyone panics - IT WASN'T A REGIA EVENT]

Shall i add you to the list of people with thier very own (pre-filled) forms Jon?  (stupid question)

> I don't think that they had chinstraps - simple reason, a blow to the top of an unstrapped helmet
> knocks the helmet off.  A blow to the top of a strapped helmet _can_  break the neck.

Do you realise how much force is required to achieve this steve?  A hell of a lot!
Certainly a large quantity more than a spear to the head would achieve.

> plus no evidence.

Agree completely.  My ext spangenhelm shall be unstrapped (the current one is because the aventail makes it 
fall off without one) if i can get the bl**dy thing to stay on my nonce.

(again off topic) I like my heavy aventail it has in the last 6 months alone saved me from a broken jaw (very 
heavy fachion at full speed, spat blood for a week whilst my back teeth settled (NOT A REGIA EVENT) good thing 
i have a beard, the brusing was interesting), and a nasty gash to the cheek (i love playing with newbie 
spearmen who havent learned to keep thier spears down yet), fortunateley i am used to spinning my head to 
get the ventail to take the hit (must extend the padding a little more.


> I think that aventails grew to replace cheekflaps


There does certainly seem to be artistic evidence to support this, but in most cases the helms are depicted 
with nothing attached at all (no nasal no aventail).


> The early empire Roman helmets have brims above the face to ward off blows.
> Evolutionary principle again.  "His face ain't cut, but his neck's boke"


The brim is designed as a crumple zone isn't it?
Also the weight of blades and manner of use is not enough to deliver massive force to the downstrike.  They 
seem to be quite effective (in terms of the obligatory tradoff between vision/air circulation and protection.

Personally i would guess this has as much to do with for a while people just are not generally wering helms in 
combat (lets face it before Regia's period any armour (beyond a shield) is probably quite rare) so the evolution 
is indirect.

Thru'pence
N.

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