Zulu chief Goza and two of his councillors in war-dress, all with Nguni shields, c.1870. The size of the shield on the chief's left arm denotes his status, and the white colour that he is a married man.^[1]

A shield is a piece of personal armour held in the hand, which may or may not be strapped to the wrist or forearm. Shields are used to intercept specific attacks, whether from close-ranged weaponry or projectiles such as arrows, by means of active blocks, as well as to provide passive protection by closing one or more lines of engagement during combat.

Gallery

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  Image from Hatshepsut's expedition to Punt showing Egyptians soldiers with shields (wood/animal skin). 15th century BC. Temple of Hathor Deir el-Bahari

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  A hoplite by painter Alkimachos, on an Attic red-figure vase, c. 460 BC. Shield has a curtain which serves as a protection from arrows.

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  Sword and buckler(small shield) combat, plate from the Tacuinum Sanitatis illustrated in Lombardy, ca. 1390.

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  Drawing from the Codex Manesse showing jousting knights on horseback carrying shields.

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  Ceremonial shield with mosaic decoration. Aztec or Mixtec, AD 1400-1521 (British Museum).

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  Australian Aboriginal shield, Royal Albert Memorial Museum.

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  Nias ceremonial shield.

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  Hippopotamus Hide Shield from Sudan. Currently housed at Westminster College in New Wilmington, Pennsylvania.

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  Aboriginal bark shield collected in Botany Bay, New South Wales, during Captain Cook's first voyage in 1770 (British Museum)

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  Wall painting depicting a Mycenaean Greek "figure eight" shield with a suspension strap at the middle, 15th century BC, National Archaeological Museum, Athens -The faces of figure eight shields were quite convex. The cited "strap" may be the ridge on the front (so denoted by the visible pattern of the ox hide) of the shield.

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  Greek soldiers of Greco-Persian Wars. Left: Greek slinger. Right: hoplites. Middle: hoplite's shield has a curtain which serves as a protection from arrows.

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  Elaborate and sophisticated shields from the Philippines.

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  Ballistic shield, NIJ Level IIIA

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  U.S. Navy Special Warfare Combatant-craft Crewmen (SWCC) fire a shield-equipped Minigun

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  Two wooden round shields survived at Thorsberg moor

See also

References

Bibliography

• Drummond, James (1890). "Notes on Ancient Shields and Highland Targets". Archaeologia Scotica. 5.
• Schulze, André(Hrsg.): Mittelalterliche Kampfesweisen. Band 2: Kriegshammer, Schild und Kolben. - Mainz am Rhein. : Zabern, 2007. - ISBN 3-8053-3736-1
• Snodgrass, A.M. "Arms and Armour of the Greeks." Cornell University Press, 1967
• "The Hoplite." The Classical Review, 61. 2011.
• Hellwag, Ursula. "Shield(s)." Encyclopaedia Aethiopica, Siegbert Uhllig (ed.), vol. 4, 650-651. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.

External links