A shield is a type of personal armor, meant to intercept attacks, either by stopping projectiles such as arrows or redirecting a hit from a sword, mace, battle axe or similar weapon to the side of the shield-bearer. Depending on time and place, shields could be round, oval, square, rectangular, triangular, bilobal or scalloped. Sometimes they took on the form of kites or flatirons, or had rounded tops on a rectangular base with perhaps an eyehole, to look through when used with combat. The shield was held by a central grip or by straps that went over or around the user's arm.