Human face on an Iron Age shield fitting

This is possibly the earliest human portrait from Wales!This brass shield-fitting depicts a mirrored form of a person or deity. Skillfully executed in the late Celtic art style, this brings us face-to-face with another world, a world on the cusp of social change. One of a matching pair, this object was buried on the lower slopes of Cader Idris overlooking Tal-y-llyn lake. Other objects carefully buried in this hoard included fittings from a second shield, four decorated discs and plates (possibly once decorating a funeral cart) and a lock plate. During the Iron Age, violence was religiously sanctioned, a battle of spirits and souls, as much as a grim physical reality. The decoration on this shield may have given religious protective power to the bearer. It belongs to a group of distinctive north Wales shields, probably used by warriors against the invading Roman Army in Wales, between AD47-78.

This is possibly the earliest human portrait from Wales!