HELLENISTIC PERIOD, CIRCA FIRST HALF OF THE 3RD CENTURY B.C.

This type of shield, with a central starburst, or Macedonian star, gained prominence in the late 5th century B.C. It was the Macedonian alternative to the contemporary Greek hoplite shield, which was unadorned, with a flatter curvature and an offset rim (see, for example, the battle scene on the Alexander Sarcophagus, fig. 11 in M.M. Markle, III, "Macedonian Arms and Tactics Under Alexander the Great," in B. Barr-Sharrar and E.N. Borza, eds., Macedonia and Greece in Late Classical and Early Hellenistic Times). This shield originally had inner fittings that would allow the hoplite in phalanx to hold the shield through an armlet on the interior. It would have protected the warrior's shoulder, and would allow him to hold his sarisse (long spear) with both hands.
After the death of Alexander the Great in 323 B.C., this motif became the emblem of the Macedonians, their rulers and the region, as evinced by its appearance on their coins. In 277 B.C. Antigonus Gonatas, founder of the Macedonian Antigonid dynasty, celebrated his victory over the Gauls by issuing coinage depicting Athena Alkidemos, the city-goddess of Pella, with, on its reverse, a depiction of a nearly-identical shield, with the same concentric arches centered by starbursts (fig. 15, op. cit.).
For a similar shield found at Végora, see no. 214 in S. Descamps-Lequime, Au Royaume d'Alexandre le Grand. A plaster mold with the imprint of a related shield has been found at Memphis in Egypt (see p. 336, op. cit.). Based on similar inscriptions on other shields, it has been hypothesized that these shields were used by members of an elite army corps under the King.