Armstrong — Prehistoric Shield found at Clonhrin, Co. Longford. 261 



Early Age of Greece," contains a most important chapter on the use of the 

 round shield/ and in this he quotes a passage from Polybius, to the effect 

 that, in old days, the Eoman Equites were armed with round shields of hull's 

 hide. The passage as quoted by Professor Eidgeway runs as follows : — 



[The Eoman Equites] " used to have shields of bull's hide, just like those 

 round cakes, with a knob in the middle, used at sacrifices ; they were useless at 

 close quarters because they were flexible rather than firm ; and when their leather 

 shrunk and rotted from the rain, unserviceable as they were before, they then 

 became entirely so. Wherefore, as experience showed them the uselessness of 

 these, they lost no time in changing to the Greek fashion of armour." 



In the same chapter, Professor Eidgeway gives it as his opinion 

 that all the bronze shields of the round bossy type had backings of 

 leather, leather linings having survived in some of the Etruscan bronze 

 shields. It might therefore be urged that the Clonbrin shield was the 

 leather lining of a bronze shield ; but its slightly oblong shape, the thick- 

 ness of the leather, the lacing on of the boss, and the turning of the coarse 

 side of the skin to the back, all point against such a conclusion ; and we are 

 more probably right in considering the shield as complete in itself, but 

 possibly copied from a metal shield, its repousse ornament being somewhat 

 characteristic of metal-decoration. 



Mr. Coffey has kindly written the following note on the curious orna- 

 mentation of the shield, which I give in his words : — 



" i^o attempt has, I believe, been made to explain the peculiar indentation 

 of the ribs at one side of the oval shields of upper Europe. It is always 

 assumed that the shield was held with the longer axis of the oval in an upright 

 position, the indentation of the ribs being at one side. They are thus illustrated 

 by Lindenschmit,^ Montelius,^ and Eidgeway.'* On careful examination, how- 

 ever, it is seen that the handle is not placed parallel to the line of the length 

 of the shield, but transversely, or at right angles to the proper position as 

 assumed in the drawings. 



" This fact is not mentioned in the text of the plates, but may be noticed 

 in the figures. These three shields appear to be the only examples of oval 

 shields with indentations of the ribs at one side ; and their oval shape is 

 mainly optical, as the measurements will show, the Halland shield being 

 70-3 cm. by 67"7 em., the two Magdeburg 71 cm. by 67 cm. and the Irish 

 leather shield 52 cm. by 49 cm. 



" Erom the shallow and unpractical nature of the handles, not suitable for 

 a hand-grip, Lindenschmit is inclined to believe that these thin bronze shields 



1 " The Eaiij' Age of Greece," chapter vi., pp. 466-9. 

 - Lindenschmit, Alt. u. h. Vorz., Band iii., Heft 7, Taf. ii. 

 3 " Tlie Ci^ilization of Sweden in Heathen Times," p. 66. 

 * PddgeM'ay, "Early Age of Greece," p. -457. 



