introduced; it was made to fit the shoulder, sometimes covering the chin also, and was screwed to the armour. I have one of these, which is cross-barred lozenge-ways, and between the spaces is elaborately engraved.

Elongated Bent Plate of Thin Brass, 25 inches long, and Circular Plate, 13 inches diameter,
with Boss of Thin Brass, 8 inches long, found at Benibreae.

The circular and oval forms seem to have been the most common and the most continuous in their use, and it is with these we have at present to do. The round shield was an early Greek, Etruscan, and Roman form, it was also used by the Assyrian, Mexican, and Indian nations, and is still used by many of the savage tribes of Africa. On the Trajan column, both the Romans and Dacians, again, have them nearly all of an oval form, while on the Roman sculptured stone found near Carriden,[1] Linlithgowshire, the ancient Britons have them of an oblong-square, with a boss in the centre, while the Roman soldier’s is of an oval shape. With one of this form, convex and radiating from the central umbo, a Roman soldier is armed on a bas-relief found at Housesteads, Northumberland[2]. The Scandinavian and British shield of bronze was circular, and was chased or struck up in the metal itself, generally having a large boss in the centre, with a series of concentric circles, between which the space was filled up with rows of small nail-head-like studs. Those found at Yetholm,[3] and now in our Museum, are beautiful specimens of this class. They have also been found in Ireland, and one very similar to these last, but with fewer circles, was this year got in Lough Gur, County Limerick. Occasionally there are more large bosses than the central one, these again surrounded by smaller studs in rows. Of this variety there are good specimens in the British and Copenhagen Museums. Underneath the central boss is the handle.

Handle and Studs of Bronze Shields.

On many of the early sculptured stones in the north-eastern counties of Scotland, such shields are represented, but whether of bronze or wood it is impossible to say. On a stone at Benvie, a figure on horseback has a shield having a central boss with a series of concentric circles, and figures on the cross near Dupplin Castle have the same; these may be of bronze, such as the Yetholm specimens, while, on a fragment from Dull, Perthshire, now in the Museum, figures are represented having shields with a large central and four smaller bosses. A figure is represented on the St Andrew’s sarcophagus carrying a shield of an oval form, which has the narrow ends hollowed out, and a large central boss. On the Irish crosses such shields are also figured. On one of these in the street of Kells, county Meath, a battle is represented, the combatants on one side having simple round shields and swords, while the others are armed with spears and shields having an enormous spike or pointed boss, of which there is also one on a fragment at Jarrow, Durham. The shields of the chiefs, sculptured on their tombstones in the West