Many More Iron Age Shields from Britain

Abstract

Two recent discoveries have added greatly to our knowledge of Iron Age shields in Britain. First, the Chertsey Shield, unique in the Celtic world in being made entirely of bronze. Second, a collection of miniature shields of a shape hitherto unknown. Bindings from full-size shields of this shape had been found previously, but were not correctly identified until the miniatures provided the clue. Now it seems that these distinctive hide-shaped shields were one of the most common forms used by British warriors. At least thirty-eight examples—including twenty-three miniatures—have now been added to the corpus of Iron Age shields from Britain.