In the collection of Canon Greenwell is the bronze boss of a shield nearly 5 inches in diameter, probably intended for the centre of a wooden buckler. It has three small holes for nails or rivets in the rim. In one place there is a square hole, apparently made by a thrust from a spear. This boss was found at Harwood, Northumberland.
Shields like Fig. 435, with several concentric rings alternating with small knobs, are rare, but by no means unknown in Ireland. One (27¾ inches in diameter) was found in a bog near Ballynamona,[1349] Co. Limerick, and has been figured. As usual, it has the two movable loops or buttons at the back. There is a little patch of bronze over a small irregular hole in the shield, such as an arrow or a javelin would make. It is soldered on with a metal which is stated to be bronze, but which I imagine must be some more fusible alloy of copper. This shield is now in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy, and in their Proceedings[1350] is stated to have been found in Lough Gur, Co. Limerick, but this must be an error.
The central portion of a bronze shield, including the umbo, was found at Toome Bar, Lough Neagh, and is now in the collection of Mr. William Gray, of Belfast.
A somewhat doubtful instance has been recorded of the remains of a bronze shield having been found with an interment in a barrow. Sir R. Colt Hoare, in his examination of the Bush Barrow, Normanton,[1351] found a skeleton lying from S. to N., and about eighteen inches S. of the head “several brass rivets intermixed with wood, and some thin bits of brass nearly decomposed. These articles covered a space of twelve inches or more; it is probable, therefore, that they are the mouldered remains of a shield.” Near the shoulders lay a flanged bronze celt like Fig. 9. A large dagger of bronze, and what Sir Richard calls a spear-head of the same metal, but which was probably a dagger, the inlaid hilt (Fig. 289). a stone hammer, and some plates of gold accompanied this interment. It is much to be regretted that more is not known of the real character of the object with the rivets, but their presence shows that it could not have been a shield such as those here described, in which the only rivets are those securing the handle and the movable buttons.
The umbo of a Late-Celtic shield was among the objects found at Polden Hill,[1352] Somersetshire.
Some wooden bucklers have been found both in Scotland[1353] and Ireland, but it is hard to determine their age.
Mr. Franks[1354] has already remarked that bronze shields are of far less common occurrence on the Continent than in the British Isles. He cites three from the Copenhagen Museum,[1355] one of which, about 27 inches in diameter, has five concentric ribs round the boss and ten sets of knobs; these, however, are arranged in such a manner as to leave a star of eight rays of smooth metal radiating from the boss. The other two are less like the British in character. A fine shield in the Stockholm Museum, with swan-like figures upon it, has been thought to have been imported from Italy.[1356]
One found near Bingen, on the Rhine,[1357] about 15½ inches in diameter, has merely four raised concentric ribs. There are two small bowed handles secured with two rivets, each in about the same position as the usual button. They seem certainly intended for a strap to pass through them. There are, however, two other rivets in the shield to which movable buttons may possibly have been attached.
The Italian shields mentioned by Mr. Franks are of a different type. One in the British Museum (34 inches in diameter) has a very slight boss, and is ornamented with concentric bands of sphinxes and other designs.
As has already been observed, it is somewhat hard to judge of the date of these bucklers. I am not aware of any portions of them having been found in the hoards of metal in which fragments of swords frequently occur. Still in the case of the shield dredged up off Woolwich the sword which accompanied it was of bronze, though of course there is no evidence of the two having been lost or deposited together. The whole character, however, of the ornamentation and workmanship is, I think, more in accordance with the Bronze Age than with the Late Celtic or Early Iron Period, though the shields probably belong to the close of the Bronze Period.