ancient Persia - Wiesehofer and other scholars' works

Salvete omnes,
summer in its foulness thus while you are on the beach or in front of your computer, it perhaps pays to visit the archive.org library, where there are treasures to be had.
I have not visited ancient Persia in a long time, therefore I would like to share with you some fine articles that you can read off the Archive library or download and read later on, whatever tickles your fancy.

from the Metropolitan Museum collection in NYC

Let me start with Josef Wiesehofer from Kiel University and his studies of the Achaemenid Persia - I like especially the one titled The Achaemenid Empire in the Forth Century B.C.E. - but there are a few more there and all are worth your while.
Nota bene I have finished listening, while driving, to a whole set of lectures by prof. K.w. Harl on the rise of the Kingdom of Macedon and Alexander's conquest of the known world - it was quite enjoyable and with plenty of newer scholarship( perhaps a bit too much about the otherness of the Macedonians when compared with the ancient alias  'poleis' Hellenes, and the way good professor pronounced the ancient Greek personal names was a bit tricky). However, I think the military information was too general, at times too vague and too short. On youtube there are other lectures by the good professor, search away.

harness ornament - MET, NYC

Maria Brosius, New out of old? Court and court ceremonies in Achaemenid Persia (2007)- you can listen to an intro to the Near East ancient history - lecture given by the very professor. 
Loyd Lewellyn-Jones,  King and Court in Ancient Persia 559 to 331 B.C. -  2013 [sic!]

a compilation of articles edited by Niels Nielding et al, Achaemenid Impact In The Black Sea. Communication Of Powers. 2010 - in that book dealing with northern and north-western reaches of the Achaemenids' empire, there is one by prof. Tuplin about the infamous expedition against the Pontic Scythians

and little Parthia, my favorite ancient Persian empire to study
pillar of Persian studies A.D.H. Bivar - Political History of Iran under the Arsacids - 1983 

fantastic Mary Boyce, Parthian Writings and  Literature, 1983,  and very interesting history of the Zaroastrian religion and its peoples  - Zaroastrians, 1979.

Archive Library's works of Marek J. Olbrycht will come in the future installment, in one of these linked articles chain, so to speak.
...
as per my sketches, these are my older sketches, but  I have been reworking them  be it in the 'libre' Krita, GIMP and MyPaint software.
enjoy

Achaemenid horseman - asabāra

Salve,
I  have several more Achaemenid Persian horsemen to show, so bear with me :) pretty please...

This one may be a later Achaemenid horseman - influenced by the Alexander Mosaic weygaert/alexandermosaic , thus no bow and arrows in a ''gorytos,'' but just a sword and two javelins called ''palta'' (wooden shaft  of cornel wood).
In the fashion of his Median ancestors he wears a kantuš over his ''thorax'' armor, that is a mix of Greek and north Iranian (steppe influence), and a scaled neck-guard eg Achaemenid throat guard .
 Perhaps he would carry a shield (''pelta'') in a Saka/Scythian fashion, with or without a metal ''umbo.''
In order to dress himself up and become even more armored he would need to acquire armored  'leggings' and perhaps arms' leather tubular  sleeve-like protection (''cheir''), while his horse could have to acquire a chanfron (metal head armor aka ''prometopidia'') and chest armor - scale or leather peytral (''prosternidia''). It is possible that he also carried a mace or war ax (klevetz) known as ''sagaris'' popular with the nomadic subjects and mercenaries of the Great King. Here is Xenophon on the subject - dariocaballeros.blogspot. xenophon-peri-hippikes-arms-and-armor
 Professor Tuplin in '' All the King's Horse '' presents in a very challenging article the idea of apparent poverty of cavalry in the Achaemenid Persian iconography. and where he discusses the Persian cavalry or rather its absence in the archaeological and iconographic materials drawn from the Achaemenid empire territories - eg the researcher states that in the monumental and public iconography of the Achaemenids there is no mounted rider, there are no cavalrymen overtly shown, nor there is a horse as a weapon of war in cavalry context (eg official seals out of 77 images in Persepolis treasury tablets have only three equines ). The Great King is a spearman or archer, but a pedestrian one when fighting or at times using a chariot to strike the foe.  This is such a undeniably a very great change from the New Assyrian kingdom ( to which ancient Media and Persia were heirs) iconography and documents where riders mounted on horses in context of war dominate. More on this research paper by professor  Tuplin in the future...
ps
Jan, thanks for you comments :) ,  asked a question about the helmet here - well, it is a conversion of this helmet: