Bronze Age shield returns to Scotland for the first time since 1791

An exceptional Bronze Age shield is returning to Scotland for the first time since it was moved to London in 1791. It has been loaned to National Museums Scotland where it will join five of the Bronze Age shields in its permanent collection in the new exhibition Scotland’s First Warriors.

The shield was discovered in Beith, North Ayrshire, around 1779 during peat harvesting on Luggtonrigge Farm. It was found in a ring with five or six other bronze shields, suggesting they had been deposited together for ritual or ceremonial purposes. Unfortunately there are were records kept of the original discovery — no documentation of the precise find site, the placement of the shields, not even their exact numbers. Mr Storie, owner of the estate where it had been found, gave the shield to a Dr. Ferris who presented it to the Society of Antiquaries of London in November 1791. The only near-contemporary record of the find are the minutes of the meeting where Dr. Ferris presented the shield to the Society.

The shield is made of a single sheet of bronze about 27 inches in diameter and just .5mm thick. It has a central boss with a handle riveted to the back of it. There were also two tabs on the back to which a shoulder strap would have originally been attached. It is decorated with 29 concentric rings of small studs bosses alternating with ribs. It dates to ca. 1300-1100 B.C.

There are only 22 shields of this type known, almost all of them found in Britain. One of the 22 was found in Denmark, but archaeologists believe they were produced in Britain and Ireland. The shields were made in a complex process that required hundreds of rounds of hammering, heating and cooling. It required a high level of expertise and can only have been achieved by specialists with years of education and experience.

The shields have been found deposited in bogs or waterways and may have been ceremonial or display versions of the more practical wooden and leather shields used in combat. That doesn’t mean they were necessarily non-functional. Despite the thinness of the bronze, some of the shields do have marks that could have been left by spearheads, and experimental recreations have found that they could indeed have deflected blows from swords and spears.

The new exhibition that brings together six of these shields gives researchers a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to learn more about how they were made and used and the role they played in Bronze Age Scotland.

Experts are using this unique opportunity to examine all six shields together. By comparing signs of craft and damage, they will be able to uncover similarities and differences between how these shields were made and used. Decorative techniques and damage from swords or spears will reveal more about the origins of Scotland’s first warriors and the communities they fought and defended.

* This article was originally published here