Also suggest writing his name in Greek letters across the shield.
Encourage him to decorate the front of the shield with images, symbols, or patterns that represent his personality.Using the string as a compass, have him draw a large circle on the poster board.Push the tack through the center of the poster board.Have your child tie one end of the string around the tack or pushpin and tie the other end around a pencil.
12"-14" piece of string (depending on how big you want your shield to be).1" x 8" piece of cardboard (for a handle).Piece of poster board, cardboard, or foam core.
The shield was probably a personal gift, dedicated either by a retiring hoplite or as a thank offering after a military victory. The limited number of weapons recovered from the sanctuary fits the established model for female poliad deities in smaller poleis. It is unlikely that rites of passage for hoplites were a central feature of the cult, since we lack the extensive corpus of weaponry (miniature and/or functional) typical in such cases. The deity worshipped in the Oisyme sanctuary was an ergane and/or a kourotrophic goddess, such as Artemis and Athena at nearby Thasos or the ‘Parthenos’ at neighbouring Neapolis. Metalworkers from the polis of Thasos and its peraea are likely to have imitated the products of southern workshops in much the same way that Thasian potters based their own early production on Cycladic, Chian and other wares. They show stylistic influence from the contemporary Peloponnese, yet they have no known exact parallels. The dies employed may have been imported from Peloponnesian (Argive or Corinthian) workshops or produced locally. The shield and shield-band can be dated to c.575–550 bce on the basis of their repoussé decoration. Considered alongside earlier literary evidence, such as Archilochus 5W, it helps to trace the introduction and development of the hoplite panoply in Thasos and its peraea.
It is also the earliest known example of its type in the north-eastern Aegean. However, the Oisyme shield is as yet the only one to come from a sanctuary – a fact due, at least in part, to the limited exploration of early sanctuaries on the coast of Aegean Thrace. Such shields are found in the cemeteries of the northern Aegean, including those at Sindos and Archontiko. In 1987 an Archaic Argive-type shield and shield-band were discovered in the sanctuary on the acropolis of Oisyme.