Celtic History

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What Celtic Shields Actually Looked Like

The construction, materials, and decoration of the Celtic oval shield, from the wooden boards and metal boss to the elaborate painted and inlaid designs of the late La Tène masterpieces.

The Celtic shield distinctive and most beautifully preserved items of Celtic warrior equipment, and yet it is also one of the most often misunderstood. The popular image of the Celtic shield, when it exists at all, tends to be either a vague oval shape or a flat, painted, often round wooden board. The historical and archaeological evidence shows that the Celtic shield was a much more elaborate and much more carefully constructed object than this image suggests, and that it was one of the great art forms of the Iron Age Celtic world. To understand what Celtic shields actually looked like is to understand a piece of equipment that was at once a functional weapon, a status symbol, and a major work of art, the product of the same Celtic metalwork tradition that produced the great swords and helmets of the Celtic warrior elite.

The Form of the Celtic Shield

The Celtic shield of the late Iron Age was a flat, oval panel, typically around 60 to 100 centimetres in length and 30 to 50 centimetres in width. The shield was held in the left hand by a central grip behind a metal boss, and it covered the body from shoulder to thigh when held in the fighting position. The oval shape is the characteristic form of the late La Tène period, and it is the form known from the famous British examples, the Battersea shield from the Thames, the Witham shield from Lincolnshire, and the Wandsworth shield boss from the Thames.

The Celtic shield of the earlier Hallstatt period was a different object. The Hallstatt shields, preserved as bronze or iron facings and fittings in the rich graves of the period, were round, and the use of the round shield is also attested in some late La Tène contexts, particularly in the Iberian Peninsula where the caetra or round shield was used by the Celtiberian warriors. The shift from the round to the oval form, which had taken place by the third or second century BCE, was accompanied by a parallel shift in the form of the metal fittings, and the characteristic La Tène oval shield is the form known to Caesar and to the Roman writers of the first century BCE.

The Construction of the Shield

The construction of the Celtic oval shield was a craft in itself, requiring the combination of several different materials and considerable skill. The wooden boards that formed the body of the shield were usually of alder, birch, willow, or poplar, glued together with animal glue and bound at the edges with a rim of bronze or iron. The boards were cut to the oval shape, glued in layers with the grain running in different directions for strength, and the finished panel was often covered with leather or with painted hide. The thickness of the wooden panel was usually around 6 to 12 millimetres, and the finished shield was surprisingly light, weighing perhaps 3 to 5 kilograms, light enough to be carried in combat for hours.

The central boss, which protected the warrior’s hand and which gave the shield its characteristic dished profile, was of bronze or iron, and was fixed to the wooden panel with rivets. The most elaborate bosses were of bronze, hammered and finished with engraved or embossed designs, and the most famous surviving example, the Wandsworth shield boss from the Thames, is decorated with the curvilinear trumpet patterns of the late La Tène style and is one of the masterpieces of insular Celtic art. The grip behind the boss was a horizontal bar of wood or iron, and the warrior’s hand was protected by the boss itself, which was dished to deflect blows and to give the hand a measure of protection.

The rim of the shield, which bound the wooden boards together and which protected the vulnerable edge from blows, was a continuous strip of bronze or iron, fastened to the panel with rivets and decorated with engraved or embossed designs. The bronze rims of the late La Tène shields are sometimes the only surviving parts of shields whose wooden panels have decayed, and the patterns on the rims, in the curvilinear La Tène style, give a clear picture of the decorative traditions of the period.

The Decoration of the Shield

The decoration of the Celtic shield was one of the great art forms of the late Iron Age Celtic world. The most famous surviving example, the Battersea shield from the Thames, is decorated with a dense composition of curvilinear ornament executed in a combination of techniques. The wooden panel of the shield, preserved in the waterlogged conditions of the Thames, still carries traces of the painted hide that covered it, and the painted design, in red, yellow, and blue, included stylized birds, animals, and abstract patterns in the characteristic La Tène style. The metal fittings of the shield — the central boss, the rim, and the small reinforcing plates — were decorated with engraved and embossed designs in the same style.

The Witham shield from Lincolnshire, another of the great British examples, is decorated in a similar way. The wooden panel of the shield, preserved in the anaerobic conditions of the Witham river, carries a dense composition of interlocking curves and trumpet patterns, executed in inlay of red, yellow, and blue, and the overall effect is of a major work of decorative art. The shield was clearly the work of a specialist, and the evidence suggests that the decoration of shields was the work of particular workshops and particular craftsmen whose work was sought after by the warrior elite.

The decoration of the Celtic shield was not merely a matter of aesthetic display. The designs on a shield would have identified the warrior, marked his tribe or his war band, and proclaimed his status in the military hierarchy of his society. The shield was, in this sense, a kind of heraldic device, and the visual impact of a line of decorated shields on the battlefield was a powerful statement of the identity and the unity of the war band.

The Shield in Combat

The Celtic shield was a defensive weapon, used to deflect blows and to protect the body of the warrior. The oval shape, held in the left hand and angled to the body, provided good protection for the torso, and the central boss was a defensive feature as well as a point of attachment for the grip. The shield was used in combination with the sword or spear in the right hand, and the basic fighting stance of the Celtic warrior was the shield forward, the weapon back, ready to thrust or cut.

The shield was also used offensively. The shield boss could be used to punch an opponent in the face, and the rim of the shield could be used to hook an enemy’s shield to one side, exposing him to a thrust. The Roman writers noted that the Celtic warriors were skilled in the use of the shield, and the elaborate parry-and-thrust techniques of the Celtic warrior were an important part of his training. The Táin Bó Cúailnge and other Irish tales describe the use of the shield in single combat in considerable detail, and the elaborate ritual of the shield fight in the heroic literature reflects a real and highly developed technical tradition.

The Loss of the Shield on the Battlefield

The loss of the shield on the battlefield was a serious matter for the Celtic warrior. The shield was a personal possession, often of considerable value, and the loss of the shield in combat was a sign of defeat or of disgrace. The medieval Irish and Welsh sources record the punishment of warriors who had lost their shields, and the heroic literature preserves a number of episodes in which the loss of the shield is a turning point in the action. The famous cry of fáilte (welcome) raised by the warriors of Connacht in the Táin, in which the women of the camp are said to have cried out to the men returning from battle, included the formal recognition of the warrior who had lost his shield.

The loss of the shield also had a religious dimension. The shield was a sacred object, and the burial of a damaged or lost shield in a special deposit was a way of disposing of the spiritual charge of the equipment. The archaeological record includes a number of deposits of shield fittings in rivers, bogs, and other watery places, and these deposits have been interpreted as votive offerings, the formal disposal of damaged or lost shields in accordance with religious requirements.

The Survival of the Shield

The Celtic shield disappeared from the continent with the Roman conquest, and it gradually disappeared from Britain and Ireland in the early centuries CE. The round shield of the medieval period, the Viking round shield and its derivatives, was a different object, and the oval shield of the late Iron Age left no direct descendant in the post-Roman European military tradition. The shield did survive, however, in the heroic literature, and the descriptions of the shields of Cú Chulainn, of Fergus, and of the other heroes of the Táin preserve a picture of the late Iron Age shield that is consistent with the archaeological evidence.

The visual impact of the Celtic shield has had a long afterlife in the European imagination. The elaborate decoration, the oval shape, and the central boss have all become iconic elements of the popular image of the Celtic warrior, and the surviving examples in the British Museum and in the museums of continental Europe are among the most spectacular objects of Celtic art. The shield of the Celtic warrior remains, like the long sword, the crested helmet, and the gold torc, one of the central images of the ancient Celtic world.

More in Celtic Weapons and Armor

The Evolution of Celtic Chainmail and Body Armor The development of body armour in the Celtic world from the linen cuirass of the early Iron Age to the mail shirt of the late La Tène warrior aristocracy, and the reasons why most Celtic warriors fought unarmoured. The Iron Celtic Sword and Why It Curved and Twisted The technical and practical reasons why excavated Celtic iron swords are often found bent or twisted — and what this reveals about the metallurgy, the combat style, and the status of the long sword in Iron Age Celtic warfare.