lds of great interest in the National
Collection. One is the remarkable alder-wood shield found 10 feet deep
in a bog in 1863 at Annadale, County Leitrim. This shield is oval in
shape, and has a central boss and seven raised ribs. It will be
noticed that the ribs show an indentation at one side; but too much
emphasis must not be placed on this, as the shield shrank a good
deal after its removal from the bog, and the alteration may be due to
this. This shield has a handle at the back. It is interesting to note
that 'sciath,' one of the Irish words for 'shield,' denotes 'alder.'
The next is the leather shield found in 1908 at Clonbrin, County
Longford, and presented to the Royal Irish Academy's collection by
Colonel W. H. King-Harman. This truly remarkable shield, the only one
of its kind in Europe, is made of a solid piece of leather nearly 1/4
of an inch thick, and measures 20-1/2 inches in length by 19-1/2
inches across. It has an oblong centre boss pressed out of the leather
and covered with an ornamental cap of fine leather laced on to it. The
boss is encircled by three ribs, the inner one being gapped, and the
two others having a curious re-entrant angle. The shield has
twenty-four small round bosses on it which resemble those on the
bronze shields. There is a leather handle which was laced on to the
back. This shield appears to be complete as it stands, as there is no
sign of any wooden supports at the back, nor is it easy to see how
such supports could have been attached to it. According to Polybius
round shields of bulls' hide were used by the Roman equites in the
early days of Roman history.

The round shield of the late Bronze Age was succeeded by the oval
shield which may be taken as partly transitional to the oblong shield
of Southern Europe and also of the late Celtic type found in Britain.
The date, therefore, of this Irish leather shield is probably to be
placed in the Early Iron period.

CHAPTER VIII

TORCS

There are twenty-four golden torcs of various types in the National
Collection and one of bronze; but the Irish provenance of the latter
is doubtful.

The best known are the two magnificent gold torcs found in the side of
one of the raths at Tara, and these belong to a type that has been
found in England and France, of which the best known examples are
those found at Yeovil, Somerset,[28] and Grunty Fen, Cambridge.[29] A
torc of this type was also found by Schliemann in the royal treasu