Nubian Shield

[Jim Webster]

I was reading up about Nubians, Beja, Blemmyes etc and 'The Medieval Kingdoms of Nubia' it states

'Two shields were found at Quantul. The batter preserved was of leather decorated with embossed spiral designs and was 700mm in diameter. A simple wooden grip was threaded through slits cut in the shield either side of the conical central boss. The other had suffered some damage in use. It had been partly split, presumably by a sword cut, and repaired with iron Staples.'

It then says 'Another shield of strange shape comes from Jebel Adda'

So I thought I'd track this shield down. The book references 'Gebel Adda Preliminary Report for 1963' and I managed to find the report. This states

'However the presence in many men's burials of finely made quivers of cut and stained leather,the remains of bows and their vegetable-fibre strings, and an occasional diorite archer's thumb ring shows plainly that an X-group warrior was buried, even in the latest period with a full panoply, which presumably included iron weapons of the types familiar from the Ballana and Qustal noble burials. In one particularly rich tomb, perhaps to be dated in the first half of the sixth century, this warlike equipment included a moulded rawhide shield of strange shape and two toothed iron pruning-hooks of the pattern still used in Nubia today by women cutting or gathering firewood.'

Which is 'great'. Pity there's no pictures. So has anyone got any idea what this 'strange shape' was. Is it the 'sort of figure of eight' shield that is sometimes mentioned?

Jim

[Duncan Head]

Sorry, can't help. The only evidence for the "figure-eight" shield I know of is artistic, and I don't know what this one might have been.

[Jim Webster]

I suppose it might not even have been a shield, leather chamfrons are mentioned and I suppose a flattened chamfron might be mistaken :-(

Jim

[Trev]

Hi Jim,

Apologies all for the thread necromancy but I was trawling the web recently and came across a report on this, then coincidentally was checking the archives here. 

The Sudan Archaeological Research Society publication "Sudan and Nubia" Bulletin 14 has a report on the Gebel Abba cemetery one find.

Here's the on-line link - I'm not sure how legitimate it is, so proceed with caution.

http://issuu.com/sudarchrs/docs/s_n14_huber

Anyway, on P83 the S&N report quotes the same text as in your quote above.  "This X-Group burial was noted in passing in Millet's report for 1963 as 'a particularly rich tomb, perhaps to be dated to the first half of the sixth century...included a moulded rawhide shield [sic] of strange shape".

The [sic] is in the S&N report and more discussion later on P87 including a picture (plate 6) explains it.  The S&N report says the find was a piece of moulded reptile (possibly crocodile) hide and they conclude it was probably armour.  They give some references to similar finds.

Incidentally, the Quantal shields sound very similar to Beja designs of the 19thC. 

http://www.oriental-arms.com/photos.php?id=4673
http://www.oriental-arms.com/photos.php?id=1271

Note the round design, conical boss, central hand grip piecing the sides of the boss and even staple repairs.  It's very tempting to see a continuity, although it's a long time and I have no idea if there are similar medieval Sudanese examples.

regards,

Trev
http://www.sswg.co.uk/

[Jim Webster]

Thanks for that Trevor, interesting.
It does look as if it was body armour rather than a shield

Jim

edited to add that I lean towards a Beja style shield

[aligern]

Any chance of a short Slingshot note with a couple of sketches. I concur that it is likely that the shield form is very similar to later shield of the Beja. This , of course, is probably because I have modelled my Blemmye army with the excellent little figures with round shield with circular embossed designs that used to made in 15mm by Feudal castings.

Excellent little thread.
Roy

[Jim Webster]

 I don't mind coordinating the article

Has anybody got the ability to go into the article quoted and get a picture of the 'armour' in the grave. It would be nice to have a picture to compare with the one from the British museum

Jim