Sassanian plate from Northern Wei tomb

 Salvete omnes,

the month of January is coming to its end today. It has been a very cold month in our Northern Hemisphere. 

King hunting wild boar

perusing the Wiki Commons archives I came across this Sassanian metal plate found in the Northern Wei tomb. Which gives me a chance to share some very fine photos of the Northern Wei tomb art showing their horses, warriors, horse musicians, hunting and their heavy cavalry on caparisoned horses. 

You can listen to the Chinese History podcast to learn more about the Northern Wei ( in the comfort of your own surroundings)- an interview with prof. Scott Pearce , author of the book on the Northern Wei.  

Northern Wei fresco - detailed images of horse archers, dogs, and prey animals

Model of the Northern Wei tomb

Northern Wei fresco 

. all these Bactrian camel sculptures come from the Northern Wei tombs - long distance travel, trade and influence  across the Central Asian lands were the essential parts of the Northern Wei state.

.
Nota bene, the story of Mulan (Hua Mulan) 

seems to have come  from this period (preserved in the writings of Song Dynasty), hence some researchers say that she was not really a Han Chinese but a  warrior from the northern China Sinicized (assimilated into the Han Chinese culture etc) nomadic northern peoples. 

enjoy

Valete

Shapur I king of kings

 Salvete Omnes,

 

Lord Shapur, king of kings of Eran - well, let us gallop a bit across the III century AD ancient Iranian realm, with the famous king at the vanguard.. a collection of period images - triumphal and bellicose, but also very religious, and always equestrian astride his Nisaya/Nisean chargers

the most famous cameo from Louvre

there is plenty of research around Shapur I and his III century Persian realm - vide academia.edu articles eg THE SOURCES FOR ROME’S WARS WITH SHAPUR I: EUROCENTRIC AND EASTERN PERSPECTIVES,  Relief of Salmas, or on Shapur I coins, or on the rock relieves of his triumphs , and the entire corpus of works (including the finds of horse armor)  dealing with Dura Europos siege and capture etc...  so enjoy your research .By the way a different than military history  eg Prof. Katazyna Maksymiuk - The Position of Women in the Court of the First Sassanias.

you can find Shapur I in the novels of British historian and novelist Harry Sidebottom - Ballista aka Warrior of Rome series 

Valate

Taq-e-Bostan - Sassanians hunting stags

 Salvete Omnes,

and the last visit to Iran with Robert Ker Parker in 1820s, this time sir Robert drew the king and his court hunting stags or male deer. 

we  are faced with a visual royal narrative carved on the side of the mountain rock at Taq-e-Bostan, on the opposite side of the wild bear hunt relief. Khosrow II is hunting the deer - 

So this Taq-e-Bostan stag hunting - I think the great king is hunting a fallow deer - shows the ritual of organized, courtly hunt, subject to many artworks in the history of art.

Valete

Taq-e-Bostan hunt - Sassanians

 Salvete Omnes,

let us canter to ancient Persia - long. long time ago - here you can go and see - I posted some images from the Taq-e-Bostan Sassanian relieves drawn by Robert Ket Porter and published in his book: "Travels in Georgia, Persia, Armenia, ancient Babylonia, &c. &c. during the years 1817, 1818, 1819, and 1820.'' - incidentally this work was published in London in 1822, two hundred years ago[sic!].
In this Jstor article you can borrow this article on the costumes carved in the Taq-e-Bostan Sassanian artwork.

The subject matter is the king of kings Khosrow II's hunt for wild boar, vaaraz of the ancient Iranians, one of the most dangerous wild animals out there. The great king hunts without his horse and instead there are the elephants, of the western Asian variety, 

Hunt for wild boar with bows, while 'riding' boats and elephants - as drawn by Ker Porter

photos from wiki commons, and book page from the volume from the wold library Archive.org 

Valete

New Sassanian article by Patryk Skupniewicz

 Salvete Omnes,

my friend Patryk Skupnewicz uploaded his new article on the Academia platform.
Profusely illustrated with many Sassanian lion hunt exmaples and well argued it can be a blast. -:)

You can have it from here - along with his other scholarly articles.

and my old drawing from the Parthian-period tile showing an armored rider attacking a lion (the artefact is held at the British Museum and the photo, attached above, is available on Wiki Commons).

Valete

On the Shortfalls of Iconography in the Reconstruction of Swordsmanship. The Sasanian Case.

Slavete Omnes,

my good friend Patryk Skupniewicz made accessible his 2018 article on the shortfalls of iconography in reconstruction, in his article the reconstruction of swordsmanship of the ancient Persia.

In this context,  especially in last decade we have seen many works produced and published by the largest western military history  publisher - Osprey Military Publishing - where the issue of usage of ancient and medieval historic iconography as the source of scientific reconstruction has been controversial or even contested - see various forums like the Roman Army forum, or various medieval armor forums-groups on Facebook.

Anyway, enjoy this not short article by Patryk, with some illustrations to underline the argument.

 

 

 

by the way, on the academia platform there are multitudes of interesting works on the Eurasian steppe nomads, especially lately many Hsiung-nu related articles and longer works have appeared.
 
Valete