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Shield Bronze shield

Object number

LDSAL80

Production date

Late Bronze Age

Material

bronze

Dimensions

Diameter (of shield): 680 mm
Diameter (of boss): 120 mm

Location

Burlington House -

References

Reference (free text)

Society of Antiquaries, Minutes, XXIV, 147.

Reference (free text)

Coles, J.M., Leach, P., Minnitt, S.C., Tabor, R. & Wilson, A.S., 1999, A Later Bronze Age shield from South Cadbury, Somerset, England, Antiquity, Vol. 73, No. 279, 33-48.

Reference (free text)

John Evans, The Ancient Bronze Implements, Weapons, and Ornaments of Great Britain and Ireland (London: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1881), pp. 347-9. Illustrations (Engravings), pp. 347-9

Reference (free text)

Susan Pearce, ed., Visions of Antiquity: The Society of Antiquaries of London, 1707-2007 (London: Society of Antiquaries of London, 2007), p. 149, fig. 49.

Reference (free text)

David Gaimster, Sarah McCarthy, and Bernard Nurse, eds., Making History, Antiquaries in Britain, 1707-2007 (London: Royal Academy of Arts, 2007), p. 112, no. 74. Illustrations, pp. 92, 112.
    Circular bronze shield with a central boss, surrounded by twenty-nine concentric rows of small studs separated by intervening ribs. Behind the boss is a handle attached by rivets.
    The shield was found 1.8 - 2.1m (6-7 feet) below the surface in peat moss at Luggtonrigge Farm, near Giffin Castle, Beith, North Ayrshire, circa 1780. Five or six similar shields, which had been ranged regularly in a ring, were also found.

    Sir Samuel Meyrick designated it as 'the tarian'. It is very similar to 'the tarian' in the Goodrich Court Armoury found near Aberystwith. A comparable shield, which was found near Capel Cerrig, Denbighshire, was exhibited to the Society on 9th December 1784 by Samuel More, Secretary of the Society of Arts.