The Rectangular and Oval Shields of Dura Europos

Archeological map of Dura Europus, Syria.


The rectangular shield discovered at Dura Europos - the quintessentially Roman shield.

The Yale University Art Gallery provides the following information on this beautiful shield.

Mid-3rd century A.D.

Painted wood and rawhide

105.5 x 41 x 30 cm (41 9/16 x 16 1/8 x 11 13/16 in.)

Yale-French Excavations at Dura-Europos

1933.715

This is the only known surviving example of the semicylindrical shield known as a scutum, used by Roman legionaries and known from literary sources. Found flattened, in thirteen pieces, and missing its umbo (central boss), the shield was reconstructed by the Yale-French excavation team. The painted decoration reflects Roman iconography of victory, including an eagle with a laurel wreath, winged Victories, and a lion.

Michael I. Rostovtzeff, Dura-Europos and Its Art, 1st (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1938), 4, pl. 3:1, ill.

Clark Hopkins, The Discovery of Dura-Europos, ed. Bernard Goldman (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1979), 187, ill.

Alan Shestack, ed., Yale University Art Gallery Selections (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 1983), 16–17, ill.

Handbook of the Collections (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 1992), 273, ill.

Simon T. James, The Excavations at Dura-Europos,1928 to 1937: Final Report VII, 7 (London: The British Museum Press, 2004), xxix 182–83, no. 629, pl. 10, fig. 106, 107.

Lisa R. Brody and Gail Hoffman, eds., Dura-Europos: Crossroads of Antiquity, exh. cat. (Boston: McMullen Museum of Art, 2011), 325, pl. 5, fig. 2.2, 2.5.

Jennifer Chi and Sebastian Heath, eds., Edge of Empires: Pagans, Jews, and Christians at Roman Dura-Europos, exh. cat. (New York: Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, 2011), 40, 56, no. 5, ill. cover detail , fig. 2–30.

Simon T. James, Rome and the Sword: How Warriors and Weapons Shaped Roman History (London: Thames and Hudson, 2011), 136, ill.

Source: artgallery.yale.edu/collections/objects/scutum-shield



Close up detail of the rectangular scutum.



Detail of the overlapping and perpendicular 'ply' style construction of the rectangular shield. Oval shields appear to have used the less complicated construction style of side by side planks.



Two shields as they were found.



Dimensions of the rectangular shield.



One of the oval shields found at Dura Europos.



Another of the oval shields found at Dura Europos.



A third example.



Illustration of a fourth example clearly showing construction technique utlised.


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Sources:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dura-Europos
art-unwashed.blogspot.com.au/2011/09/earliest-known-images-of-christ.html