The iron relics of the Teutonic Period by no means yield the same amount of information as we have been able to derive from the older weapons and implements of bronze, chiefly owing to the extreme susceptibility of the newer metal to oxidation under nearly all the circumstances in which both classes of antiquities are discovered. This want, however, we shall find abundantly supplied from other sources, including the contemporary works in bronze. Among the most characteristic remains of the defensive armour of this period frequently met with, the umbones of shields occupy a prominent place. The larger ones are of sufficient size to admit the hand, and resemble in this, as well as in other respects, those frequently met with in England. They suffice to shew that the shield was not worn on the arm like the Roman clypeus, but held by a bar crossing the centre of the projecting boss, the hollow of which received and protected the hand. In this it closely corresponded to the bronze buckler of the previous period, which probably continued to be used contemporarily with it. An example of an iron umbo found in Morayshire is figured on a subsequent page. Another, referred to in a brief summary given in the Nenia Britannica, of relics found at Westray, Orkney, is described as "a very small iron vessel like a head-piece, only four and a half inches in the hollow, bruised apparently by a sword or an axe." In the Scottish Museum is a small iron boss, found at Corbiehall, near Carstairs, Lanarkshire, which is only slightly raised in the centre. The locality where it was discovered has furnished many Roman remains, among which it most probably ought to be classed. In general form it closely resembles an exceedingly beautiful boss of a Roman shield in the same collection, made of bronze, and decorated in relief with a crowned female figure seated, holding Victory in her hand, and surrounded with the spoils of war.
A rarer and more remarkable object pertaining to this period is the iron sword, inclosed in its bronze sheath, several very fine examples of which have been found at different times. One of these occurred in the very valuable collection of antiquities discovered at Stanwich, now deposited in the British Museum. Another similar example, found on a moor near Flasby, parish Gargrave, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, was exhibited during the meeting of the Archæological Institute at York in 1846. In both of these the iron blade of the sword was still inclosed in the sheath. The annexed illustration is copied from a very perfect bronze scabbard closely resembling the two found in England, now in the Museum of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. It appears from an inscription roughly scratched on it to have been found on the Mortonhall estate, at the foot of the Pentland Hills, in the immediate vicinity of the Scottish capital. The blade of this sword must have measured twenty-two and a half inches in length by one inch in breadth,—an exceedingly small and light weapon compared with the enormes gladii which Tacitus describes the Caledonians as using. It appears to have been a straight two-edged weapon, with a sharp point, and was perhaps designedly adapted for more convenient and ready use by the charioteer than the more ponderous sword generally borne by the native Britons. The different examples which have been heretofore noted are furnished with the same large bronze loop which is shewn in the woodcut, attached to the middle of the scabbard, the precise use of which is not quite apparent. The style of ornament entirely corresponds to that employed in decorating the personal ornaments and the horse-furniture of this period, and supplies evidence of a remarkable change from the undefined ornamentation of the Archaic works in bronze.
FOOTNOTES:
[472] Archæol. Scot. vol. iv. p. 43.
[473] Lindsay, Plate XXI. No. 6.
[474] Sinclair's Stat. Acc. vol. iii. p. 561.
[475] Minutes S.A. Scot., January 23, 1832.
[476] Minutes S.A. Scot., May 19, 1834.
[477] Pennant's Tour, vol. ii. Plate xliv.