IRON AGE MINIATURE OBJECT

-400

Incomplete copper alloy miniature shield. The shield is flat, hexagonal in plan and decorated. The boss is depicted by a raised band enclosing a dome in the centre. This same decoration is also repeated twice above and three times below. The tips of the shield are missing and it is likely that there was once another motif above thus making three on either side. There is a concave rib running around the perimeter of the shield that may have either enabled binding to have been attached to it as noted in some full-sized shields, or perhaps the rib represents the binding.Miniature shields are difficult to date although they are thought to range from circa 400BC to the mid-late 1st century AD.