Highland Targets and Other Shields

by James Drummond

The circular and oval forms seem to have been the most common and the most continuous in their use, and it is with these we have at present to do. The round shield was an early Greek, Etruscan, and Roman form, it was also used by the Assyrian, Mexican, and Indian nations, and is still used by many of the savage tribes of Africa. On the Trajan column, both the Romans and Dacians, again, have them nearly all of an oval form, while on the Roman sculptured stone found near Carriden,[1] Linlithgowshire, the ancient Britons have them of an oblong-square, with a boss in the centre, while the Roman soldier’s is of an oval shape. With one of this form, convex and radiating from the central umbo, a Roman soldier is armed on a bas-relief found at Housesteads, Northumberland[2]. The Scandinavian and British shield of bronze was circular, and was chased or struck up in the metal itself, generally having a large boss in the centre, with a series of concentric circles, between which the space was filled up with rows of small nail-head-like studs. Those found at Yetholm,[3] and now in our Museum, are beautiful specimens of this class. They have also been found in Ireland, and one very similar to these last, but with fewer circles, was this year got in Lough Gur, County Limerick. Occasionally there are more large bosses than the central one, these again surrounded by smaller studs in rows. Of this variety there are good specimens in the British and Copenhagen Museums. Underneath the central boss is the handle.

Handle and Studs of Bronze Shields.

On many of the early sculptured stones in the north-eastern counties of Scotland, such shields are represented, but whether of bronze or wood it is impossible to say. On a stone at Benvie, a figure on horseback has a shield having a central boss with a series of concentric circles, and figures on the cross near Dupplin Castle have the same; these may be of bronze, such as the Yetholm specimens, while, on a fragment from Dull, Perthshire, now in the Museum, figures are represented having shields with a large central and four smaller bosses. A figure is represented on the St Andrew’s sarcophagus carrying a shield of an oval form, which has the narrow ends hollowed out, and a large central boss. On the Irish crosses such shields are also figured. On one of these in the street of Kells, county Meath, a battle is represented, the combatants on one side having simple round shields and swords, while the others are armed with spears and shields having an enormous spike or pointed boss, of which there is also one on a fragment at Jarrow, Durham. The shields of the chiefs, sculptured on their tombstones in the West Highlands, seem invariably of a triangular form, and on one slab alone, at Kilmory, Knapdale, does the shield seem circular. I should suppose, however, that the wooden shield was more common than the bronze one, from the immense number of bosses which have been found all over the country, the wood having rotted away, leaving the bosses which are of iron or bronze. The iron specimens had often a bronze rim; occasionally they were plated with silver, and in some rare cases overlaid with a thin plating of gold.

Fragment of Dull Cross.		Sarcophagus at St Andrew’s.		West Highland Chief.

During the excavations in the peat mosses of Thorsbjerg and Nydam, in South Jutland or Slesvig, under the sanction of the Danish government, and conducted by Conrad Engelhardt, between the years 1858 and 1863, remains of wooden shields were found in great abundance, these being thin boards varying in breadth from 3 to 9 inches, the average thickness ½ to ¾ of an inch. Although hundreds of these were found, only three complete shields could be made up. The diameter seems to have been from 22 to 44 inches; in the centre was the opening across which the handle was placed, over this opening was fixed the metal boss or umbo; on one piece only was found the remains of leather, the outer rim seems to have been protected by an edging of bronze. Occasionally the shields were highly ornamental, from having thin plates of bronze, cut into a sort of heraldic-looking pattern, riveted to them.

Numerous iron and bronze bosses have been found in Anglo-Saxon graves, and to judge from the length of the rivets to attach these, the shields were ½-inch thick, in this respect resembling the Scandinavian specimens. One was found in Yorkshire in a perfect state, having a bronze boss and a metal rim. We are told of a king of the Goths in the year 553, the supposed age of these Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon shields, who, standing in the front of his band of warriors, received so many of the Roman javelins in his shield, which thus became so heavy that he was unable to hold it up, and was killed while his attendant was changing it for another. From this it would seem that the shield must, sometimes at least, have been of stronger material than those found in England or Slesvig.

Wooden Shield, found in Blair-Drummond Moss.

The reading of this incident suggested to me that there was in our Museum the pieces of some circular object, very much decayed, and called in the old catalogue a wooden wheel, but, from the loose way in which the pieces were put together, it was difficult to say what it had been. On examining it, Mr Anderson and I were certain it could not have been a wheel, seeing that when it was carefully put together it was oval. I was now confirmed in my conjecture that it had been a shield, there being enough to show that the centre had been hollowed out for the handle, which, being raised on the outside, would form the boss. It, and part of another, were found in Blair-Drummond Moss, and presented to the Museum by the late Henry Home Drummond, Esq. The fragments of another were found in the same moss in 1831: and, somewhere near it, a mortar or hand-mill, fashioned from the section of an oak; “there were also some flint arrow heads.” Fortunately for comparison, a perfect specimen has been found since in Ireland, in the parish of Kiltubride, county Leitrim; it is 26½ inches long by 21 inches broad, and half an inch thick. Besides the boss, which is perfect and 3 inches high, there are seven slightly raised concentric circles, the whole carved out of one piece of wood, in this respect differing from the Blair-Drummond one, which is composed of three pieces most ingeniously put together by two mortises through the whole breadth, into which are put two pieces of wood about 2 inches broad and half an inch thick, these not only holding it together but preventing warping, while the centre is a solid piece of wood hollowed out for the hand, and is 7½ inches in diameter, the two edges gradually bevelled up to make them join firmly. The shield is 2 feet long, 1 foot 7 inches broad, and at the thickest part 1¾ inch, and gradually thinning towards the outer edge, where it is about 1 inch. From this it will be seen that such a weapon in the hands of a powerful man who could use it would be an admirable defence, as in the case of the king of the Goths. Certainly shields of wood, half an inch thick, such as those found in Jutland and England (and the same may be said of the Irish one), would have been quite useless against the Roman javelins; and even Mr Engelhardt was puzzled how they could have been kept together to be effective, seeing he only found in one piece out of the hundreds any trace of dowelling.