Greek Bronze Shield

Ting Ting Chen Ms. Firdman Global Period 7

Metropolitan Museum of Art Extra Credit

I visited the Greek and Roman Art gallery. The artifact I chose was a nearly complete bronze shield. The time period that my artifact belongs to is the Hellenistic age (more specifically, the first half of the third century BC). The Hellenistic period allowed for Greek culture, tradition, and language to disseminate beyond Greece and into the world. Alexander’s conquests opened the floodgates for the spread of Greek culture. Foundation of cities and the spread of Greek language/literature furthered the expansion of Greek culture throughout what was formerly the Persian Empire. During this time period, portraits became more realistic, and propaganda techniques

I thought it was interesting how a weapon displays such intricate symbols. It really shows how important art was in the Hellenistic age, and I wanted to learn more about that. You can also get a lot out of the symbols shown in the shield. When I first looked at this artifact, I thought that the star on the center of the shield showed how much the Greeks valued astronomy. There are also symmetrical circle-like symbols around the shield. It’s impressive how aligned they were with each other, and how much detail is given to each symbol. Besides the circle-like symbols, there is also an interesting inscription in the shield. I also noted how the plaque states the damaged shield is bronze. That shows that during the first half of the third century BC, people already knew combining tin and copper would create bronze. This exhibits the thought process people had during that time period; they were able to melt and combine elements, thus creating new ones. The fact that the shield was damaged made me really curious about it. I wanted to delve into what war/ how this shield got so damaged. Unfortunately, the plaque didn’t go further into this topic.

The object is a nearly complete bronze shield. Shields are mostly used during wartime, and its main purpose is to defend someone. It can be used to intercept attacks by either stopping or redirecting the opponent’s