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With regard to massed infantry formations employing shield and sword... would the formation have been arranged with a common sword-side and shield-side, or would the markers at the extreme sword-hand side of the formation... have switched their sword and shield hands?
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Well Hamm, I have yet to come across a culture that employed basic shield formations that required the weapon-side troopers to change hands. With the bias against and subsequent "re-education" of left-handers found in the majority of cultures the world over, I think it's fairly safe to assume that almost all warriors would've been righties. Therefore, asking the line on the end to fight left-handed would've compromised their fighting skills I would imagine.
You raise a good point, but I don't know if the weapon-side would've been that much weaker than the shield side to be honest. Formation would obviously have been pretty tightly packed, but I don't think it would've been so restrictive as to prevent the weapon-side from being able to turn into an attack from the side. It would require a little more maneuvering than on the shield-side, but I don't think a great deal more.
I believe, as you say, you do occassionally find it in more advanced, defensively minded formations. The one that springs to mind is the Roman
testudo, or "tortoise". I think I'm right in saying that those on the sword-side were required to change shield hand.