Shield

Shield, a portion of defensive armour held in the left hand or worn on the left arm to ward off sword-strokes or missiles. The earliest known shields date from the close of the bronze age. They are circular and flat, or but slightly convex, with a central boss, under and across which the handle is fixed. The material is thin beaten bronze, strengthened by a turned-over rim round the circumference, and by the surface being embossed with concentric circles alternating with circular rows of small bosses. The Greek shield of the Homeric period was also of bronze, circular, convex, and often ornamented with devices. The Etruscan shield of bronze, of which there is a fine specimen in the British Museum, is also circular and ornamented in concentric bands of embossed work round the central boss. The Roman infantry used a light round shield about three feet in diameter, and the cavalry carried a smaller buckler also of a round form covered with hide, while the spearmen had a large oblong convex shield of wood and leather strengthened with iron, which covered the whole body. The early Germanic shields were also large, oblong, and convex, and Tacitus, in the 1st century of our era, mentions that they were painted with gay colours and devices. These are supposed to have been the precursors of the heraldic devices on the shields of the middle ages. From the downfall of the Roman empire to the 10th and 11th centuries there seems to have been considerable variety in the forms of the shields in use among European nations, though the circular shield was perhaps the most common. The shields of the Anglo-Saxon invaders of England and of the Scandinavian vikings were mostly circular. But the Norman shield of the 11th century was kite-shaped (see BAYEUX TAPESTRY), and the triangular form continued to prevail till the 15th century, becoming gradually shorter and more obtusely pointed, or heater-shaped. After the 14th century the small round buckler came into fashion, and retained its place till the 16th century. By this time the use of firearms had made the shield practically useless in warfare. The large shields used at tournaments and pageant shields and bucklers were often highly ornamented, some of the latter being among the most beautiful works of art of the middle ages. Round shields or targets, covered with hide or leather, ornamented with brass studs and bosses, were used in the Highlands of Scotland down to 1745. Many savage tribes still use shields of wood or hide of various forms. For the heraldic shields, see HERALDRY, Vol. V. p. 660.