Obscure Shields
Does anyone have any information on any of the following shields? Any references or books that have information on them? Does anyone have any pictures / illustrations?

Bracciaiuola / Bracciale
(Italian) A small shield with arm-guard and "sword breaker" all in one piece.

Guiterre
(Old French) A small buckler of leather.

Laisźļon / Laiseion / Laishion
An ancient Greek shield/. λαισηιον; a sort of oblong shield, covered with rough hides, or skins with the hair on.
laisźļon 'shaggy hide-shield' (a special type of hide-shield with the animal's hair left on the surface)

Lantern Shield
A small metal buckler about 30cm in diameter with a spiked plate gauntlet attached that came out just beyond the deg of the shield.

Taka
Persian word for a light shield / a crescent shaped shield.
Taka -(old Persian) - shield- equal in size to the Greek hoplon

Tarian
From "A Glossary of the Construction, Decoration and Use of Arms and Armor in All Countries... by George Stone"
Early British bronze shields. The name means "clashers", from the sound they made when coming in collision with an enemy. They were small, round bucklers with a single handle in the center.
(Fairholt 9).

Tarian is a welsh word meaning shield, English equivalent: Targe / Target.

Thureos
An ancient Greek shield that was long and oval, but not very wide. It was adapted / copied from the Celts. Greek troops who carried these shields were called Thureophoroi.

Iron Age British shield
From http://www.myArmoury.com/nateb_othr_nate_shield.html?8

Was this shield used by the Celts? Does it have a name?



Anyone know of any other obscure / little known shields??


Thanks

Danny
Re: Obscure Shields
Danny Grigg wrote:


Anyone know of any other obscure / little known shields??


Thanks

Danny


I do not seem to find readily available info on the ones above, but I found another "exotic" one: the adarga. This is a heart-shaped shield of Moorish origin used almost exclusively in Spain from the13th to the 18th century. (Claude Blair. European armour 1066-1700, p183). there is an illustration as well. Basically it looks like to ovals stuck together.

Alexi
Alexi

I know of the Adarga. Here's a pic.

Danny
Another pic
Danny Grigg wrote:
Another pic


That is it

Alexi
Danny Grigg wrote:
Laisźļon / Laiseion / Laishion
An ancient Greek shield/. λαισηιον; a sort of oblong shield, covered with rough hides, or skins with the hair on.
laisźļon 'shaggy hide-shield' (a special type of hide-shield with the animal's hair left on the surface)


Peter Connolly's Greece and Rome at War covers several types of shields, but he focuses most on the hoplon (or Argive Shield) and the Scutum. There might be some info in there, though. You might also want to try Fighting Techniques of the Ancient World. It has about five authors, but should be listed under the name Anglim.

Danny Grigg wrote:
Tarian
From "A Glossary of the Construction, Decoration and Use of Arms and Armor in All Countries... by George Stone"
Early British bronze shields. The name means "clashers", from the sound they made when coming in collision with an enemy. They were small, round bucklers with a single handle in the center.


Be careful with Stone. Great for the pictures, but the text is not always that accurate. That said, there might be some info in Connolly, as he deals with the Brits in the context of being the enemies of Rome.

Danny Grigg wrote:
Thureos
An ancient Greek shield that was long and oval, but not very wide. It was adapted / copied from the Celts. Greek troops who carried these shields were called Thureophoroi.


Sounds more like a Scutum than anything Greek, but I would suggest Connolly and Anglim again.

Sorry I can't be of more help.

-Grey
Re: Obscure Shields
Danny Grigg wrote:

Iron Age British shield
From http://www.myArmoury.com/nateb_othr_nate_shield.html?8

Was this shield used by the Celts? Does it have a name?


Though I would field this one, since I made that replica shield...

This shield is called a "hide-shaped" shield by the principal author documenting the type. re-enactors and Living History folks tend to call it a "horned" shield.

This shield seems to be exclusive to the British celts, with nothing terribly similar known in the various "celtic" sources on the Continent.

That said, the sources for all these iron age shield is pretty slim. Very few are found preserved, and mostly one works from the remaing metal fittings and various carvings---either carved by the Mediterranean/Hellenistic cultures or the Celts themselves....but so far, not much showing this shield shape used by the Celts on the Continent. I do see something vaguely similar used by the early centuries AD Germans---Suebi--but that is only documented in my small library in an Osprey book, so take that for what it is worth!

OK, so the British "hide shaped" shield is known from a fairly recent find---a hoard of votive miniature shields---as well as 13 or so sets of bronze shield bindings throughout southern Britain.

Early on, arcaheologists were finding the semi tubular bindings and first thought they were scabbard fittings, then decided they didn't really know what they were for....

The votive shields were found, IIRC about the same time as a very nice set of bindings at Deal were found, and the shape of the bindings made sense...."slightly bowed sides, concave ends, and projecting corners" are how these are described. They seem to date from 2nd century and 1st century BC, and possibly/probbaly ran later into 1st century BC or so....

Given the general dearth of metal shield fittings in Britain v. the Continent, these may have been even more prevalent (in all-organic form) than it first seems

See I.M. Stead's "Many more Iron Age Shields from Britain" for more details, or "The Salisbury Hoard" by the same author.

Hope this helps.
Taka
Nick Sekunda discusses the taka, among other things, in his chapter in John Hackett's Warfare in the Ancient World. It was relatively heavy for a Persian shield, being of wood and leather, and a metal rim. Its outline has a cutout making it look a little like a pelta, but definitely larger.


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