English
Español
Français
Italiano
Deutsch
Русский
Português
Polski
Română
Svenska
Norsk bokmål
Suomi
Türkçe
العربية
简体中文
한국어
हिन्दी
Ελληνικά08 · Britain · shine, river and prestige
The Shield that Did Not Fight
The Battersea shield in the Thames
This shield covering, decorated with red enamel, appeared in the Thames; it does not seem to be everyday combat equipment.
Museum documentation · free public access, no account required.
Generated reconstruction · Declared visual hypothesis
Declared visual reconstruction for museographic context; it is not a photograph of the original nor documentary evidence.
History and context
The piece preserves a decorated bronze covering with repoussé curves and red enamel. It would have been fixed to an organic support, but its thinness and finish make it improbable that it was everyday combat equipment.
It was found in the Thames. Depositing it could have been an offering, a loss or part of an episode unknown to us. Its modern fame as a Celtic shield must not obscure that it belongs to a regional British tradition and to an uncertain aquatic biography.
No complete shield is preserved, only its front covering. Four sheets and three decorated panels were joined with hidden rivets; the assembly would have been fixed to wood or another organic support now lost.
Twenty-seven red glass appliqués order the spirals and palmettes. Metallurgical analysis identifies an approximate alloy of 85% copper, 10% tin and 5% lead, and rejects the old idea that the surface was gilded.
Evidence and interpretation
Documented fact: The British Museum records its find in the Thames, dating of 350–50 BCE and construction as a decorated bronze facing. Interpretation and caution: ceremonial use and votive deposition are plausible, not exclusively demonstrable. Expanded documentation: British bronze and glass facing, c. 350–50 BCE, found in the Thames and acquired by the British Museum in 1857. Expanded interpretation and caution: The date is broad and the reason for its presence in the river is unknown; do not assert sacrifice or actual combat use.
Catalogue facts
- Narrative date
- Around 350–50 BCE
- Location
- River Thames, Battersea, London
- Material
- Bronze sheet, red enamel and lost organic support
- Context
- Prestige object recovered from a river
- Curatorial reading
- The documented fact and its interpretation appear separately in the evidence block.
- Construction
- 4 sheets and 3 panels, with hidden rivets
- Appliqués
- 27 pieces of opaque red glass
- Analysis
- Not gilded according to the British Museum
- Documentary coverage
- 2 museum, heritage, primary corpus or research sources for this stop.
- In this grouping
- Decorative shield facing. Its use in combat is improbable; the ceremonial interpretation is retained.
A SHARED TOPIC, DIFFERENT MOMENTS
Objects connected through time
Follow a topic across the collections. A shared tag is a way to compare objects, not proof that one culture influenced another.
The order uses the midpoint of each approximate date range; ranges can overlap. Spacing does not represent elapsed time. Swipe, scroll or use the arrows. With the sequence focused, use ← / →, Home or End.
Bronze23 dated objects
c. sixteenth century BCE
Jue
Ancient China
Approximate dating according to the record.
Read the record
c. 1600–1450 BCE
Bull-leaping
Greek worlds
The iconography does not by itself determine a precise ritual.
Read the record
ca. 1200 BCE
Fu Hao’s burial goods
Ancient China
Approximate date of the grave goods; their objects have different histories.
Read the record
12th–11th centuries BCE
Liding
Ancient China
Approximate dating according to the record.
Read the record
≈1200–1000 BCE · destruction of the talayot towards 790 BCE
Talayotic sword
Iberians
Proposed date of the sword, not of the later destruction of the talayot.
Read the record
c. 848 BCE
Tribute to Assyria
Phoenicians
Approximate date of the historical scene represented.
Read the record
ca. 850–800 BCE
Before Etruscans and Rome
Etruscans and Rome
Approximate dating according to the record.
Read the record
Towards 1000–400 BCE
The lute-shaped dagger
Gojoseon and early Korea
Typological framework of daggers; not a single manufacturing date.
Read the record
c. 721–664 BCE
Kushite king
Nubia, Kerma and Kush
Interval attributed to the specimen in the catalogue.
Read the record
≈530–500 BCE
The great Greek krater of Vix
Greek worlds
Approximate dating according to the record.
Read the record
6th–5th centuries BCE
Scorțaru cauldron
Thracians
Approximate dating according to the record.
Read the record
c. 500 BCE
Vix Tomb
Celtic worlds
Approximate date of the funerary assemblage.
Read the record
4th–3rd centuries BCE
Overlapping datesYan knife-money in the Gojoseon sphere
Ancient China
Approximate dating according to the record.
Read the record
323–222 BCE
Overlapping datesA coin with the memory of a blade
Gojoseon and early Korea
The knife form does not imply that the coin is a weapon.
Read the record
5th–1st centuries BCE
Overlapping datesThe blade became straight
Gojoseon and early Korea
Typological framework of production and deposits.
Read the record
3rd–2nd centuries BCE
Overlapping datesGeometry in very fine lines
Gojoseon and early Korea
Approximate dating according to the record.
Read the record
3rd–2nd centuries BCE
Overlapping datesEight voices in one hand
Gojoseon and early Korea
Approximate dating according to the record.
Read the record
You are viewingAround 350–50 BCE
The Shield that Did Not Fight
Celtic worlds
Prestige object; actual combat use is not presupposed.
Current record
≈300–100 BCE
Overlapping datesFibula from Lancia
Iberians
Approximate dating according to the record.
Read the record
End of the second–beginning of the first century BCE
Overlapping datesA sky over the liver
Etruscans and Rome
The centuries II–I BCE are used in their full extent as an external ordering framework; the record specifies the end of the II and the beginning of the I.
Read the record
First third of the 1st century BCE
Overlapping datesHand of Irulegui
Iberians
First third of the 1st century BCE; date of the destroyed dwelling beside whose entrance it appeared.
Read the record
Buried towards the 1st century BCE–1st century CE
Overlapping datesThirty-nine buried bells
Yayoi Japan
Date of burial of the set; not manufacture of each bell.
Read the record
101–125 CE
Torreáguila fountain spout
Etruscans and Rome
Approximate dating according to the record.
Read the record
Also connected, without a comparable date (6)
These objects are not placed after the others: an unknown date does not mean a more recent object.
- Daegok-ri grave goodsGojoseon and early Korea · from c. 5th century BCE
- Early metallurgyAncient China · c. 1900–1500 BCE
- Four offerersIberians · Iberian period · individual dating according to catalogue
- Iron changes the frontierGojoseon and early Korea · 3rd–2nd centuries BCE
- The workshop inside the ditchYayoi Japan · 4th century BCE–3rd century CE, peak in Middle and Late Yayoi
- Weapons under the LakeCeltic worlds · Mainly 3rd–1st centuries BCE
A closer look
About 1 min to read · 1 section. Further reading and sources · free access. Editorial review recorded: .
The space available for the hand
The Battersea shield's grip metal covering allows estimating a maximum useful space of about 82 millimetres for grasping it. A study of the Enderby bark shield compares this measurement with other ancient grips: some offer a similar space, others larger. The dimension conditioned which hand could close comfortably over the grip. Looking at the reverse thus introduces a bodily question that the front ornamentation does not reveal. It does not by itself identify the carrier's age, but allows contrasting modern reconstructions with a material constraint of the object.
Where it is held
The British Museum
Item or group in the record · Documented collection
The holding institution is documented; public display may change. Check its official record before visiting.
Sources and references
Did you enjoy this exhibit?
Your opinion helps us improve the museum. You can change it whenever you like.
Loading your rating…