English: Figure of a (supposed) battle scene, sculptured on a panel of a stone cross in Kells, county Meath. The original, about four feet in length, evidently depicts a conflict between warriors of different tribes or different nationalities; the one armed with long handled spears, and protected with circular shields, from the centre of which project pointed bosses of considerable size. The opposing party also have shields, without a boss, and they are armed with short swords, of a kind often found in our lake-dwellings, and of a style supposed to have been adopted on the first introduction of iron as the regular material for the formation of weapons of warfare. The suggestion may be hazarded that the spearmen are probably Northmen, their opponents being the Irish.^[1]