1 I
94 CRANIA BEITANNICA. [CHAP. V.
were used in Britain. The long oval scutum, however, seems to have been very much confined
to the Belgic Britons of the maritime states, into which it had been introduced from Gaul;
whUst the small round cetra or target, attributed to the Caledonian Britons by Tacitus and
Dion, and which was the characteristic defence of the Carthaginians as weU as the Iberians,
had probably spread over Britain from the south-west of the island, previous to the arrival of the
Belgic colonists. This conclusion is borne out by the results of archteological inquiry. Circular
shields of bronze, precisely such as are represented on the coins, and corresponding generally
•ndth the descriptions of the historians, are often found in the British islands.
These circular bronze buclders are sometimes flat, but usually slightly convex on the outer
side, with a hemispherical or slightly conical umbo, to receive and protect the hand in the
centre, where it grasped the handle formed of a cross bar of metal. On the upper part of the
reverse side are two rivets, to which a thong of leather could be attached; so that the shield
might be carried at pleasm-e in the hand, or suspended from the shoulder. The sm-face is ornamented
with concentric raised circles, the spaces between which are often tilled with small bosses,
or with lesser knobs imitating nail-heads. The metal of which the shields consist is of no great
thickness. There is considerable variety in the pattern, but the style is generally very similar*.
The size likewise varies : the majority correspond nearly vrith the size assigned by Strabo to the
Lusitanian pelta, deviating little from about two feet in diameter. Others, however, have only
a diameter of about one foot or less, and it is observable that on the Iberian medals there is a
corresponding difference in the size of the shields borne on the arms of horsemen. The most
remarkable examples of this early British cetra, of which the circular Highland target {tañan,
Welsh) is clearly the modern representative, have been found in the beds of the Thames and
Isis, and (for the most part in peat mosses) in the Isle of Ely, at Burringham in Lincolnshire,
near Newcastle-on-Tyne; near Harlech, Aberystwith, and Capel Cerrig, in Wales; at Yetholm
near Kelso, and near Beith, Ayrshu-e, in Scotland south of the Priths; and lastly, (as stated,
with a bronze spear-head) in a rath at Athem-y, County Galway, Irelandt- In a very few
instances, a circular bronze boss has alone been found; in which case it must be concluded that
the substantial part of the buckler was of wood or leather, which extended beyond the limits of
the central metallic umbo; as in the shield the remains of which were found in a barrow near
Arras in Yorkshire. This example measures fom- and a half inches in diameter, and exhibits
perforations at the edge, by which it had been attached to the body of the shield.
The discovery in this country of large oblong shields, such as are attributed to the Gauls, is
limited to two or three examples. One of these, with the bronze entire, preserved in the Goodrich
collection, was found in the Witham below Lincoln in 1826, near a sword of bronze. It
measures three feet eight inches in length, by one foot four inches in breadth; and, as the rim
and rivets show, must have been about a third of an inch thick. It has three projecting bosses.
* One of those from the Isle of Ely differs irom the rest,
in the ornamentation being curiously formed by the 6gures of
two double-headed snakes, arranged in a labyrinthine pattern.
Another, from the Thames, is peculiar for its gyrate and zoomorphic
ornaments, similar to those on the remains of the long
shield which aecompanied it. This, however, as well as the
similarly ornamented bosses, found with enamelled horse and
chariot trappings, at Polden Hill (Archseologia, vol. xiv- p. 91.
pi. 18), may really have formed parts of lojig Gallo-British
shields, such as are described in the nest paragraph.
i" Archffiologia, vol. xxiii. p. 92, vol. ssvii. p. 298. Catalogue
of Museum of Society of Antiquaries, p. 16. Wilson,
ArchEeology of Scotland, p. 267. Transactions of the Society
of Antiquaries of Cambridge, no. 14. p. 7. pis. 2-5. Archseological
Journal, vol. vii. p. 77, vol. xiii. p. 187. Proceedings
of the Society of Antiquaries, vol. iii. p. 256. Catalogue of
the Museum of Mr. C. Roach Smith, p. 80. Journal of British
Archaeological Association, vol. iv. p. 395. In 1830, a bronze
sword was found with a buckler of bronze, in the Thames at
"Woolwich.
CHAP. V.] HISTORICAL ETHNOLOGY OP BRITAIN.
one for the protection of the hand in the centre, and one at each end. These, with a connecting
band, are curiously decorated with figures in relief, gyrate, spiral and zoomorphic; and are further
delicately engraved vrtth similar patterns. The central boss is distinguished by five curious
little studs of red coral, secured in their places by pins of metal*. This example, however, is
much sru-passed in beauty by that found as we write, in 1857, in the Thames to the west of
London. All the parts of this higlily decorated shield are arranged, vñth no little taste, in a
symmetrical fashion. The prevailing ornament consists of gyrate figures, curiously combined with
forms approaching to those of parts of animals. The most striking features are the numerous
circular studs, each an inch in diameter, filled with an opaque red glass or vitreous enamel.
The shield measures two and a half feet in length, and is slightly hollowed on each side t- These
highly decorated long shields clearly belong to the same age as the iron swords with bronze
sheaths, abeady attributed to the period of bronze and iron transition. That these arms, so
much rarer than those simply of bronze, are Gallic in their origin, seems certain, from what
Diodorus says of the brazen shields of the Gauls, with projecting figures of animals, skilfully
fabricated, and intended for protection as well as ornament; and of theic helmets of the
same metal, with the faces of birds and beasts worked in rcKef; a description which sufíiciently
corresponds with the actual style of these shields and swords J. Polybius speaks of the magnificence
of the armour of the Transalpine Gauls, under Aneroest and Concolitan, at Telamón
(225 B.C.); and in the same war, three years later, the rich suit of armour—the spolia opima,
won by MarceUus from Viridomarus, is described by Plutarch as " resplendent vidth gold and
silver and the brightest colours." Similar to this was the variously coloured armour worn by
Bituit, the chief of the Arverni (121 B.C.) §. The discovery in Britain of such objects, as the sword
at Embleton and the shield in the Thames, leaves little doubt as to the precise character of the
decorations of the Celtic armour, referred to by the historians. The sheath and hüt of the
former are inlaid with glass or coloured enamels, in brilliant hues of red, yellow and green. The
large studs of opaqtie red glass, in the shield, each fixed in its place by a pin of bronze with a
cm-iously decorated head, must have given great brilliancy to this piece of defensive armour.
Philostratus, at the beginning of the third century, is the first writer who refers to the Celtic
art of fusiug colom-s upon bronze, of which doubtless these are examples. The circumstances,
however, of the discovery of these objects, coupled with the notices of the earlier writers which
have been cited, justify om- assigning this art to the Gauls, at a period at least two or three
centuries earKer than that of Philostratus ||. PUny, who says nothing of the Celtic coloured
enamels, tells us that before the value of red coral was enhanced by its demand for the Indian
trade, the Gauls had been in the habit of adorning theic swords, shields and helmets with it^.
* Archscologia, vol. xxiii. p. 92. pi. 13. Proceedings of the
Society of Antiquaries, vol. ii. p. 199. Part of the bronze fittmgs
of a similar ohlong shield, including the central umbo, fouud iu
the Thames near London Bridge, in 1852, are in the collection
of the Arcliffiological Institute. A figure, resembhng the head
of a horse, appears on this specimen.
t This rich Celtic shield is in tlie British Museum, and has
been figured, by Mr. Franks, for the late Mr. J. M. Kemble's
"Ilorfe Ferales."
t Diodorus, Hb. v. c. 30. He also speaks of the belts of
their vests, ornamented with gold and silver, Plutarch's description
of the armour of the Cimbri (Marius, c. 25) refers
apparently to a similar style of ornament.
§ Polybius, hb. ii. c. 22. Plutarch, Marcellus, c. 6-8.
Florus, lib. iii. c. 2. With these descriptions accords what
Livy (lib. vii. c, 10) says of the gaudy arms of the Gaul at
the Anio (364 B .C. ) , "pietisqne et anro-ceelatis refnlgens
armis,"—for which he possibly had the authority of some
much earlier writer; or here again he may write proleptically.
II Imagines, lib. i. c. 28. In estimating the date of these
objects, the circumstances of discovery of the horse- and chariot
trappings, ornamented in a similar style with enamels, as
hereafter described, must also be considered.
^ Pliny, lib. xxxii. ^11. Red coral is a product of the
Mediterranean, on the south coast of Gaul.
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