Monday, November 16, 2009

Massagetan warrior



well,
for a few weeks now I have been trying to research the theme of an armored Caspian steppe warrior of the 4th century BC - the Massagetan warrior or a member of a Saka Tigrakhauda/Tigraxauda, - Pointed Hat Sakaname of  the Achaemenid Persians.

This particular topic has been long overdue for me. About a year ago or more I drew a 'straight forward' Massagetan armored rider reconstruction based on a drawing and description done by an archaeologist, the idea was to show the Achaemenid warriors during the time of the Macedonian Conquest, as a result I have more images of Persian warriors, mostly infantry so they do not 'qualify' to appear here :).

I had consulted it with my friend Patryk, who has been writing about the Saka and Parthian warriors for his forthcoming articles and a book (perhaps), and he pointed some issue that would need to be addressed in order to arrive with more up-to-date image - I will try to work out these issues to be happy with the research etc.
There is this discussion going on here, on the romanarmy.com - http://www.romanarmytalk.com/rat/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=27727* that somehow triggered the return to this topic.
and I am attaching another image so some other discussion regarding Scythians etc as depicted in the Christian Cameron's book -'Tyrant' a finre adventure in the 4th century steppes of Eurasia - may be somehow enriched - the attached image is the compilation of Cimmerian (Kimerian) swords drawn some years ago by M.V. Gorelik, foremost specialist on the steppe peoples' warrior appearance.
I intend to draw some mounted Cimmerians in the near future.
http://www.hippeis.com/forum/index.php?topic=319.msg2683#new

* dead link - they changed the server -  http://www.romanarmytalk.com/rat/thread-16001.html?highlight=massagetae

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33791672/ns/technology_and_science-science/

Have you read the above article?

Dario T. W. said...

Hey Allen,
I had seen it but read this article http://rogueclassicism.com/2009/11/13/cambyses-lost-army-found-dont-eat-that-elmer/
The 'discovery' appears to have been nothing but a hoax and just another tourist venture masking itself as 'Indiana Jonesque' adventure-in-the-desert.
Sad story, but the saddest part is mostly about media people being more ignorant every day. Beware the press..