MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST 
boards covered with leather, with a knob or spike of 
bronze in the center, a type of shield especially charac- 
teristic of the British Isles and Scandinavia. 
Then the leather or basketwork cap gave place to a hel- 
met of bronze, often ornamented in various ways with, 
horns, wings, or crests of horsehair. Bronze breastplates 
or cuirasses also were devised, first merely as overlapping 
bands or scales of metal sewed ont) the Teather jerkin, 
but later as complete suits of armor. Probably the de- 
mand for protection against the improved slashing swords 
introduced toward the end of the Bronze Age produced 
these. Greaves, or “‘shin-guards,” of bronze completed 
the armor of the typical Bronze Age man-at-arms. 
Goliath of Gath, whom David overcame, was such a 
warrior; the Bible story describes him as wearing a helmet, 
a coat of mail, greaves, and a “target,” or shield, of brass, 
or as we should say today, 
bronze. His spearhead, how- 
ever, seems to have been of 
iron. His boastful challenge to 
his opponent, “Come to me, 
and I will give thy flesh unto 
the fowls of the air, and to the 
beasts of the field,” was charac- 
teristic of the way in which 
the champions of opposing 
armies used to defy and insult 
each other before starting to 
fight. The practice is not un- 
known between combatants to- 
Fic. go. Stone copies of bronze day. 
battle-axes, central Europe. From In some re ions of cool cli- 
Childe g 
mate, people wore woolen gar- 
ments, consisting essentially of a tunic for both sexes, 
with trousers for the men and skirts for the women, while 
a long cloak served the purpose of the modern overcoat 
(Figs. g1 and g2). These articles were held in place by 
Popa 
