[A. Hill]

I'm curious about the types of shields used by light and heavy calvary. There is also a particular type of shield that is in my head as used by mounted archers, but I can't seem to find out if it is a real thing. It was rounded at the top, but the bottom was a crescent shape. Does this actually exist? Thank you for any assistance.

[Gregory J. Liebau]

Mr/Ms. Hill,

It's cavalry. Calvary is where Jesus of Nazareth was crucified. You also need to be more specific. What culture and time period are you interested in knowing more about? If you were to leave the question as open ended as "what kind of shields did cavalry use?" then one could probably write a book about the subject. You mention horse archers. Are you intrigued by Scythians or Mongols, perhaps, or some other steppe culture? Please provide some more specific details so that the question can be answered appropriately, and welcome to myArmoury!

-Gregory

[A. Hill]

Apologies for the incorrect word choice. I'm more interested in what was most efficient for riders using quick in and out techniques than a specfic era. Steppe cultures would work and possibly Macedonian as well. I hope this is more concise.

[Timo Nieminen]

Where I've seen mounted archers with shields, the shields are round. Typically about 18-24" across, rather than tiny or huge. This was the usual shield across most of Asia, from China through to the Ottomans. This kind of size seems to work well on horseback. The same kind of shield developed independently as a cavalry shield in North America. Shields tended to be quite large before the horse, and after the horse, they shrank, and the typical cavalry shield was an 18" round shield.

[Luka Borscak]

I agree, but only for skirmishers or horse archers. Shock cavalry always had bigger shield. Unless they needed both hands for their weapon, like contus. Roman cavalry, celtic cavalry, medieval cavalry, they all had bigger shields for heavy cavalry usage.

[Stephen Curtin]

[A. Hill]

Thanks for the help everyone. This place seems pretty awesome.

[Mikko Kuusirati]

To clarify on the crescent shaped shields, they're called pelta. They absolutely did exist, and were used by skirmishers on both foot and horseback, but they were worn with the horns up or to the right, not down, so the curve of the crescent more or less followed the bend of the arm.

To wit:













And no, they were not specific to cavalry at all. In fact, it was light infantry who got called peltasts.

[A. Hill]

Thanks for the clarification. It had begun to drive me nuts cause I could see them in my head but couldn't place them.

[Stephen Curtin]

Hi Mikko. I know of the pelta, but have never heard of it used from horseback. Could you provide an example of this?

[Gregory J. Liebau]

Indeed, I was about to post a reply earlier about ancient Scythians and Thracians probably using the pelta from horseback, then I decided to check the visual sources to make sure. After seeing dozens of contemporary representations of men wielding peltas, I did not come across a single instance of one being used on horseback. However, I saw numerous examples of small, round shields being used instead.

-Gregory

[Mikko Kuusirati]

Yeah, I was thinking of Scythian and Thracian horse skirmishers, too... but, indeed, it seems all the images I can find of them with peltas are from modern books (including history textbooks!) and games. It may well be a modern misconception, in which case, my bad!

FWIW, in period art Amazons are typically depicted with peltas (and matching light gear), whether on foot or horseback. Like this:



But they're a mythical people and their depictions are based more on theme and symbolism, and so shouldn't be assumed representative of the use of these shields in reality...