Highlands, seem invariably of a triangular form, and on one slab alone, at Kilmory, Knapdale, does the shield seem circular. I should suppose, however, that the wooden shield was more common than the bronze one, from the immense number of bosses which have been found all over the country, the wood having rotted away, leaving the bosses which are of iron or bronze. The iron specimens had often a bronze rim; occasionally they were plated with silver, and in some rare cases overlaid with a thin plating of gold.

Fragment of Dull Cross.		Sarcophagus at St Andrew’s.		West Highland Chief.

During the excavations in the peat mosses of Thorsbjerg and Nydam, in South Jutland or Slesvig, under the sanction of the Danish government, and conducted by Conrad Engelhardt, between the years 1858 and 1863, remains of wooden shields were found in great abundance, these being thin boards varying in breadth from 3 to 9 inches, the average thickness ½ to ¾ of an inch. Although hundreds of these were found, only three complete shields could be made up. The diameter seems to have been from 22 to 44 inches; in the centre was the opening across which the handle was placed, over this opening was fixed the metal boss or umbo; on one piece only was found the remains of leather, the outer rim seems to have been protected by an edging of bronze. Occasionally the shields were highly ornamental, from having thin plates of bronze, cut into a sort of heraldic-looking pattern, riveted to them.

Numerous iron and bronze bosses have been found in Anglo-Saxon graves, and to judge from the length of the rivets to attach these, the shields were ½-inch thick, in this respect resembling the Scandinavian specimens. One was found in Yorkshire in a perfect state, having a bronze boss and a metal rim. We are told of a king of the Goths in the year 553, the supposed age of these Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon shields, who, standing in the front of his band of warriors, received so many of the Roman javelins in his shield, which thus became so heavy that he was unable to hold it up, and was killed while his attendant was changing it for another. From this it would seem that the shield must, sometimes at least, have been of stronger material than those found in England or Slesvig.

Wooden Shield, found in Blair-Drummond Moss.

The reading of this incident suggested to me that there was in our Museum the pieces of some circular object, very much decayed, and called in the old catalogue a wooden wheel, but, from the loose way in which the pieces were put together, it was difficult to say what it had been. On examining it, Mr Anderson and I were certain it could not have been a wheel, seeing that when it was carefully put together it was oval. I was now confirmed in my conjecture that it had been a shield, there being enough to show that the centre had been hollowed out for the handle, which, being raised on the outside, would form the boss. It, and part of another, were found in Blair-Drummond Moss, and presented to the Museum by the late Henry Home