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 It was originally made from plates of animal bone, probably from a type of elk called an Altai wapiti (Cervus canadensis sibiricus), that seem to have been glued onto a leather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

[–] Hubi@feddit.org 5 points 8 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] zout@fedia.io 3 points 8 months 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.

[–] Unpigged@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 8 months ago

It strikes a hell of resemblance to 18th century Chukchi warriors' armor.

[–] CallateCoyote@lemmy.world 2 points 8 months ago

First the dire wolf and now this. That escalated quickly.