Hexagonal Shield from Kerch image - 457 AD: Last Years of the Western Empire mod for Mount & Blade: Warband

Hexagonal Shield from Kerch

This is the reconstructed shield found in a burial ground in Panticapaeum, today's Kerch (Crimea) and old capital of the Bosphoran Kingdom, still existing in the mid 5th century but very weakened by the large movements of peoples of that era. The shield boss was recovered from a princely burial ground, alongside rich spathas (long cavalry swords) with cloisonnée decorations, a lamellar helmet and many other things. The shield is a very peculiar item as it has iron reinforces at the edges displaying an old hexagonal germanic shape but most importantly an iron boss with a riveting pattern that comes directly from the world of the steppes.

The Bosphoran kingdom is an important crossroad of cultures where Goths, Alans, Huns, Greeks, Jews, Maeotae and Romans lived. Towards the end of the 5th CE, the city of Panticapaeum and therefore the Kingdom of the Bosphorus will be taken over by a man called Duptun, probably a daring conqueror from the oghuric tribe of the Utigurs, once part of Attila's Empire.