Yeah, same. the article has another picture of Siberian uncle with it strapped to his back and enemy arrows sticking out while he's shooting, and it says:

The researchers also reconstructed the large shield. It was originally made from plates of animal bone, probably from a type of elk called an Altai wapiti (Cervus canadensis sibiricus), that seem to have been glued onto a leather base.

A couple other thoughts:

at night, if you lean it up against a tree I bet you have half-decent rain protection.
in battle I wonder if you could plant them in the ground for protective cover.
in emergency, maybe you could use it as a sled to drag things behind you?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Might just be to get out of arrow distance and into stabbing distance.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago

Reading your comment I was actually wondering if they had bows and arrows in this age already... Luckily I thought of looking at the picture once more before googling it.