Abstract
The origins of the Anglo-Saxon shield are to be found in the Roman Iron Age on the Continent. The Early Saxon shield has the same basic form as the shields in Danish and North German bog deposits: a flat circular board of small to medium size, made up of several planks set side by side, and fitted with an iron boss and grip [46, 47]. None of these features had to be borrowed from Roman shields, which in the first three centuries AD were mostly rectangular or oval and included convex and laminated boards, whilst the Late Roman circular shield may actually be of Germanic origin. The types of Early Saxon iron boss and grip were also rooted in Roman Iron Age types, and the main constructions of wooden handles (particularly ones using a lap-joint) were already used on third-/fourth-century shields in Jutland.
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