The Classical Phalanx - over-arm or underarm?

[Silver Wolf]

So what's our final verdict here?

I believe that overarm had to be used in marching formations and underarm (with interlocked shields) in stationary shield walls, since it offered better range and some possibility of deflecting enemy spears.

And if the formations were broken?
Then it was probably every man for himself, just looking to get a kill any way possible and live another day.

[Clockwork]

And I'm just a portugalwit that has to have a say no matter how uneducated he actually is.

[Silver Wolf]

Hey I never said that...

I just said that we should hear what our site's history students have to say.

[Clockwork]

Nah man I was just taking the piss at my own actions

[Silver Wolf]

Aaand apparently they have noting to say right now...

Come on guys we need a conclusion. Dig harder. 

[Jubal]

My own opinion is that an overhand (thumb-backwards) grip would have been relatively unusual and that for most purposes the control of the underhand would have been more important; a high underhand grip with the spear rested between the shields makes most sense to me as the "tight" formation, the overhand seems too unwieldy and the armour design seems to very much discourage overhand fighting (as it exposes the armpit, for example, which I consider a very major point against overhand being usual). The issue with the idea that overhand would be used when the formation was mobile is just that it'd then be quite hard to switch quickly into the shieldwall; seems more likely that the formation would move with it underhand then switch into a wall and slowly start pushing when they got close.

Of course there would be variation though, probably quite a lot of it. And you'll get people like Wolfy whose preference is for overhand because their muscle distribution favours it.

That said I should note that I consider the above a personal opinion not really a historian's opinion; if I get a chance to read some actual papers on the subject I'll get back to you on the latter

[Bercor]

As any historian knows, the ultimate conclusion for any highly debated subject is:

Spoiler

[Jubal]

Hold onto that thought and I'll get back to you in a couple of weeks.

*yay mysterious hinting*