Monday, November 16, 2009

Massagetan warrior I


...this is a version of my original Massagetan horseman.
   ... according to the already mentioned archaeologist, who is not my friend even by a longest Mongolian bow shot ;) , named Marek Wozniak the armor corselet consisted of leather plates or plaques sewn together and 'needle work' covered with leather 'ribbons' - somewhat similar to the Orlat warriors of the Orlat bone plaque http://www.transoxiana.org/Eran/Articles/mode.html or Kumbuz-Tepe http://www.antiquemilitaryhistory.com/images/khumbuztepe.JPG , helmet based on the Samarkand find , sewn onto his hat aka ''bashlik.'' This type of reconstruction was proposed by the Kazakh archaeologists before but for much later dates. There is an English translation of Yablonsky article on the Massagetan warrior find http://s155239215.onlinehome.us/turkic/27_Scythians/Massagetan_Warrior_En.htm

The shoulder protectors are based on the prof. Olbrycht discussion as have been reconstructed by  dr. Gorelik (his book on Alexander of Macedon and the Iranian world) of the Chirik-Rabat and the Gorelik's intepretations of the Chirik-Rabat and Saka in general.
find Chirik-Rabat here http://www.antiquemilitaryhistory.com/images/chirikrabat.JPG

... already mentioned Wozniak suggested the sword to be a typical longer Scythian version, as shown in 'The Golden Deer of Eurasia' or . I picked the battle ax  upon perusing  my Scythian and Saka book collections and it belongs to the southern Siberia finds published by Gryaznov (V century BC).

     Horse whip is my own 'imagination'  (if you read 'Tyrant' novels you may find out how deadly this 'nahayka' whips could  have been) while his belt is of south Siberian origin I saw in Gorelik's article on the Saka armor. The sword sharpening stone aka whet stone is a typical steppe tool, hung from nomads belts, typical find in the Pontic and Caspian steppes, also my own addition. The same with the choice of a bashlik type based on the Siberian Saka finds by the Soviet and  Russian archaeologists.

      This particular armour concept, especially choosing of Orlat bone plaques (variously dated to II c. BC to V c. AD  and do find this great article about the plaques  http://www.transoxiana.org/Eran/Articles/mode.html  )  as basis  for the armour reconstruction and type of neck guard - segmented instead of one metal sheet (segmented is used by the later Saka, Yuezhi, Kangju or Huns, while single sheet was developed and used by the Saka being the earliest steppe collar),  has been heavily but substantively criticized by Ruben aka Mein Pantzer on the romanarmy.com and my friend Patryk Skupniewicz.  Ruben pointed to a Taraz find


Having read (mostly) the Polos'mak book on the Pazyryk Saka's clothing I think that pants, boots, and tunic need to be reworked a lot. I am going to add a later Saka gorytos - longer and much more powerful bow as found by the Chinese in the former Saka and Uigur lands in the Chinese Turkestan (Xinjiang) - there is this delightful  article on Atarn archery website http://www.atarn.org/chinese/scythian_bows.htm
Another set of elements are missing here, those are the cultural,  ritual and religious items always found in the Siberian kurgans of the Saka and related to their believes. Other items I could add here are the feathers and animals skins, especially snow leopard, wolf or tiger pelt adornments as natural part of the Scythian, Saka, Yuezhi, Hun, Turkic, Uigur, Mongol  warrior 'wolfbands. '  In this particular Saka aka North Iranian case the deer, wild boar and wild felines imagery shall find itself added here. After all, as my friend Patryk always points that  Shahnameh's Rustam was a Saka...
I shall correct them too, I hope.

12 comments:

Philip said...

Great work!!!!
Hope we won't see the last of your work on Saka's!
Philip

Dario T. W. said...

Philip,
thank you very much for your kind words!
There will be more Saka coming soon, I hope

Philip said...

Dario,
Great to hear there will be more Sakas.
Obviously you interpreted the leg armour visible on the Khumbuz-Tepe flask as a skirt attached to the upper body armour. Some scholars as Nick Sekunda however have interpreted the leg armour as an advanced form of a Persian armoured saddle (adopted by the Achaemenid Persians from the Sakas) which was made of a wooden or felt? framework covered with square metal plates (see the Seleucid cataphract in Sekunda's book 'The Seleucid reformed armies 168-145 BC').
Regarding the early date of the flask and the early date of this type of leg armour this is certainly also a possibility.
Anyway, I once hope to see such a great Saka artwork as the ones you delivered but equiped with this type of leg armour. Such a figure would make a great cavalry figure I think.
Maybe this might be an idea for a next Saka project of yours!
Philip

Dario T. W. said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Dario T. W. said...

Philip,
I will 'ponder' (with my pen and paper) this interpretation of armoured saddle, certainly this is a worthy idea for a Saka - btw I hope to draw one day my hero, Rustam the Saka of Shahnameh.
presently I am going over some of the Gospodin M.V. Gorelik's drawings from his great book on the Eastern arms and armour of the II and I millennium BC.
I have heard that don Nick Sekunda is working on something new regarding Central Asia...

Philip said...

Glad to hear you find the Persian armoured saddle a worthy idea!
Saw you already made a sketch of the leg armour. Great!
I'm not sure, but is the leg armour in your sketch connected to the horse's chest armour?
This is how I would interpret it.
Nick Sekunda (and others) however think the horse's chest armour armour and rider's leg armour were 2 completely different parts. The leg armour was made of 2 stiff flaps (front and side of the leg covered) which were connected with each other by a leather band. This band rested on the back of the horse's neck and the flaps themselves were attached to the back (girdle?) of the horseman.
What's your opinion on this?
Hope you can do something with the description.
I don't know what N. Sekunda is doing now. Please keep me informed of his work.
Philip

Dario T. W. said...

hi,
this idea of making sort of 'leg encasing' saddle aka 'armoured saddle' is something I have not done a drawing of - I have read Nick Skunda depiction, also in the 'Achaemenid Army' by Duncan Heads there is a painting of it (done by the late awesome painter Richard Scollins ), also Russian scholar Nefedkin talks about it here http://gladius.revistas.csic.es/index.php/gladius/article/viewFile/1/1
Also the archaeologist, mentioned in this post, followed this idea in his notes to me.
I myself believe that Argentinian http://img3.travelblog.org/Photos/21065/170706/t/1254915-Gauchos-riding-through-the-streets-of-Salta-1.jpg gauchos leather leg covers that protect the rider's legs and his steed shoulder from cactus and thorned bushes, and are good impression of how these 'flaps' can be attached. But in the context of Persian saddlery of 6-4 century BC that implies existence of some arches or pommel on the Achaemenid saddle in order to support this metal cum felt /leather/wood construction. And I do know how to resolve this practically, I mean they can be drawn - almost anything can - but they would be possible to use in the real world?
Now with flaps attached to the rider's belt or with thongs to his rear arch or cantle, that is more than a trap, perhaps usable, but in the rodeos and not on a battlefield?

Philip said...

Dariusz,
Interesting image of the Talas-Tal bronze figure. I've always thought this figure was a foot figure.Here they seem to take the figure as a cavalry figure! The figure seems to stand on some sort of standard, which certainly lacks in other images.
Is this image taken from a book or a paper? It seems to be. Can you tell me more about the work it's coming from please?
I'm very interested to read more about it.
Hope you can help me.
Thanks
Philip

Dario T. W. said...

Hey,
Talas or Talaz horseman figurine comes from the Talas valley dig, where it was found as a part of fire cult metal candelabrum. I think it was discovered by T.N. Senigova and her article regarding fire cult (including depiction of this item) was published in Sovietskaya Archeologia (SA) nr. 1 of 1968. I am not certain but I think this image comes from the SA publication.
Messer Gorelik talks about this figurine in the context of the development of Saka armour etc. The description and one drawing of this figurine is to be found in his own article on the Saka armour (Saksii Dospeh) that is accessible on the net.

Philip said...

Dariusz,
Thanks for the info.
Can you help me obtaining the article in Sovietskaya Archeologia (SA) nr. 1 of 1968? Over here in Belgium there is no way of obtaining this article.
Do you have the link to Gorelik's article on the Saka armour (Saksii Dospeh)?
Hope you can help me.
Greetings
Philip

Dario T. W. said...

Hi Philip,
Gorelik is here - http://www.nsu.ru/aw/showBiblio.do?action=lib scroll down to Russian 'g"
as per Sovietskaya Archeologia (SA) nr. 1 of 1968 I have not looked not look for it, I am not sure whethere it can be got via internet

Philip said...

Dariusz,
Thanks for the info on Gorelik's work. I hope to find someone over here to translate the full texts for me. This could take a while, so I would like to ask you (if possible) to translate for me the explanation beneath the artwork(drawings) of Text 1993 and explanation beneath artwork 3 of article 1987 (first article).
Hope you can help me with this.
Many thanks
Philip