The Battersea Shield is one of the most significant pieces of ancient Celtic art found in Britain. It is a sheet

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals (such as phosphorus) or metalloid ...

covering of a (now vanished) wooden

shield 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 like spears or long ranged projectiles suc ...

decorated in La Tène style. The shield is on display in the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

, and a replica is housed in the

Museum of London London Museum (known from 1976 to 2024 as the Museum of London) is a museum in London, covering the history of the city from prehistoric to modern times, with a particular focus on social history. The Museum of London was formed in 1976 by ama ...

History

The Battersea Shield is dated by the museum to c.350–50 BC, though later dates up to the early 1st century AD had previously been suggested, usually in the later part of this range; Miranda Aldhouse-Green is typical in using "2nd-1st century BC" in 1996. It was dredged from the bed of the River

Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after th ...

Battersea Battersea is a large district in southwest London, part of the London Borough of Wandsworth, England. It is centred southwest of Charing Cross and also extends along the south bank of the Thames Tideway. It includes the Battersea Park. Hist ...

in London in 1857, during excavations for the predecessor of Chelsea Bridge; in the same area workers found large quantities of Roman and Celtic weapons and skeletons in the riverbed, leading many historians to conclude that the area was the site of

Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (12 or 13 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC) was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in Caesar's civil wa ...

's crossing of the Thames during the 54 BC invasion of Britain, although it is now thought that the shield was a votive offering, which probably predates the invasion.

Description

The Battersea Shield is made of several different pieces, held together by rivets concealed under the decorative elements. It is decorated with repoussé decoration, engraving, and enamel. The decoration is in the typically

Celt The Celts ( , see Names of the Celts#Pronunciation, pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples ( ) were a collection of Indo-European languages, Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancient Indo-European people, reached the apoge ...

ic La Tène style, consisting of circles and spirals. There are 27 small round compartments in raised bronze with red

cloisonné Cloisonné () is an ancient technology, ancient technique for decorating metalwork objects with colored material held in place or separated by metal strips or wire, normally of gold. In recent centuries, vitreous enamel has been used, but inla ...

enamel; the bronze within the compartment forms a sort of

swastika The swastika (卐 or 卍, ) is a symbol used in various Eurasian religions and cultures, as well as a few Indigenous peoples of Africa, African and Indigenous peoples of the Americas, American cultures. In the Western world, it is widely rec ...

, thought to have been associated with good luck and also "solar energy". This symbol was known as the whirling sun in ancient times. Enamel was a Celtic speciality, and reflects the use of red Mediterranean

coral Corals are colonial marine invertebrates within the subphylum Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact Colony (biology), colonies of many identical individual polyp (zoology), polyps. Coral species include the important Coral ...

inlays in other British Celtic artefacts, such as the Witham Shield, and here may perhaps be considered as an imitation of imported coral, though the use of enamel allows a more elaborate design. Some scholars have read a reversible human face into the decoration at the points where the smaller circles link to the larger one.Green, 104-105 The bronze sheet is said by archaeologists to be too thin to have offered effective protection in combat, and shows no signs of battle damage. It is therefore believed that the shield was cast into the river as a

votive offering A votive offering or votive deposit is one or more objects displayed or deposited, without the intention of recovery or use, in a sacred place for religious purposes. Such items are a feature of modern and ancient societies and are generally ...

, and made either as a "parade piece" or status symbol, or specifically for votive offering. Nothing remains of the plain wooden or leather shield to which the surviving metal plate would have been fixed.

In popular culture

The shield plate inspired the name of a 2004 EP, '' Battersea Shield'', by electronic bands

The Orb The Orb are an English electronic music group founded in 1988 by Alex Paterson and Jimmy Cauty. Known for their psychedelic sound, the Orb developed a cult following among clubbers "coming down" from drug-induced highs. Their influential ...

and

Meat Beat Manifesto Meat Beat Manifesto, often shortened as Meat Beat, Manifesto or MBM, is an electronic music group originally consisting of Jack Dangers and Jonny Stephens that was formed in 1987 in Swindon, United Kingdom. The band, fronted by Dangers (the only ...

, which was sold in an embossed tin based on the design of the Battersea Shield, instead of a standard jewel case.

Notes

References

* Green, Miranda (aka Miranda Aldhouse-Green), ''Celtic Art, Reading the Messages'', 1996, The Everyman Art Library, * Stead, Ian Mathieson (1985), ''The Battersea Shield'', British Museum Publications, .

External links