WEAPONS. 419 is entirely geometrical, in the other it is more purely Oriental. The zones into which the surface of the latter is divided, display a great variety of motives ; lions' masks ; lions passant, one with the leg of a man or an animal in its mouth ; a double palmette opening like a fan, with slender sphinxes on each side of it, their feet like those of the animals on Polledrara eggs (Fig. 352). In the same hall some wide bands of bronze with lions and bulls upon them are exhibited. These bands may once have formed part of a shield of which the real resisting power was furnished by a backing of wood and leather. The metal of the Amathus buckler is less than a millimetre thick. 1 We have direct proof that these bronze strips covered with repousst ornament were a regular article of commerce, sold by FIGS. 361, 362. Bucklers. Diameter 32 inches. 2 weight or measure, and ready for any use to which the buyer might desire to put them. One of the things found in the Polledrara tomb affords clear evidence of this. It is a very curious idol. 3 The cylindrical base is not of the same bronze as the body of the figure ; the latter may have been made in Etruria, while the base was most likely made up of strips bought from Phoenician merchants. On these strips a skilful hand has figured some fantastic animals and a chariot race. It is certain that the 1 At four points on the metal of this buckler there are a couple of holes a short distance apart. They must have been used to fix the bronze on its backing of wood. 2 From GRIFI, Monumenti di Cere, plate xi. 3 MICALI, Monumenti inediti. plate vi.
