The picture hereby attached, dating back to 884BC approximately and belonging to an Assyrian context, shows clearly two archers fighting well protected by a sort of shield that is being kept in place by a third man.
It seems that the shield-bearer uses his left hand to hold the shield, while the other hand is wielding some sort of dagger. Or maybe it’s another handle that is used to better move or turn the whole shield that actually looks absolutely huge and heavy.
On the other side of the shield it seems to me to see some sort of fire, flame or maybe explosion. Could it be then that the shield is there also to protect the archers from some sort of Greek fire?

Anyway my question now is: do anyone of you know about other cases of archers fighting accompanied by a shield-bearer such as the one above?
I know, for instance, that Celts would fight on chariot, each chariot carrying a fighter and a driver. Is there any evidence, for instance, that the driver could carry a shield and the fighter would fight with bow and arrows?

Thanks a lot in advance for any hint coming from each one of you.

I believe that the tall shields were made of reeds, so they were not overly heavy. But, they were thick enough to stop arrows. Some illustrations also show the shield bearer holding a spear.

Medieval Italian crossbowmen sometimes had a shield bearer holding a pavise for them.

Arab archers often carried their own round shield on their bow arm.

I hope this is of some help.

John Edgerton, Newark, California

I just did some quick looking on line for "Assyrian archers" and found many images. One of which answers your question about the object in front of the shield. The illustration shows more of the scene and it is some type of plant not a fire. The other shows shield bearers in a chariot with the archers.

I have tried to add the photos as a file, but I do not know if it worked.

John Edgerton

Thanks a lot for these absolutely precious hints.

The first shield is a type of pavise and was used in siege warfare during the Assyrian wars. The shields used in the chariots are very similar to the standard infantry shields of the time.

The pavise is obviously a step towards developing a mantlet, a shield on wheels for several archerys in a siege. The Assyrians develop several advanced siege engines including covered rams with wheels and roofed siege towers. Due to an interesting superimposition in a bas-relief of a siege, some authorities think they invented a combined siege tower battering ram. Wheel counts suggest that it is an early failure in the development of perspective in art. Compare the archers with Mediterranean draws, but with their hands on the wrong sides of their heads above in this post.