Show here your Sarmatian warrior impression

[Alanus]

Back to you, John

I have been plagued by a poor internet connection. It's still snowing here!hock:
Thanks for an enlightening and authoritative reply.

I chose splint greaves and arm guards from my equipment room, partly because I could, and partly because they are a reasonable supposition, especially for a warrior from the steppe. The use of splint armour can be traced without too much difficulty from the Scythians to the use of gun powder. It never was abandoned.

I think, that under the same supposition, I went with the early Ashmoelian greaves. Basically, I'm trying to put a 1st century kit together. Yes, 150 years is stretching it, but perhaps not a century. In that vein, I was wearing a sword developed in the last century BC. The greaves, of course, would be earlier. But as you say, splint armor was never abandoned. My theory was simple-- the Sarmatians/Alans enter the historical continuum exactly between the earlier Scythians and the later Huns, and so I went with tapered Scythian splints as opposed to straight Hunnic splints. As you say, maybe the best choice is not to wear them at all.

But I do fear re-enactors copying my kit, anybody else’s kit, Osprey pictures etc. to develop an impression. Always use primary sources.

I apologize for plastering your picture on this thread, but when I saw the greaves in my photo archives I screamed, "Ah! Splints!" Only after the excitement died, did I realize, "Oh, sh***! That's John!" The Ospray picture was simply to enforce my argument, and hopefully the Ospray cops won't arrest me. I actually use archaeological (such as the Ashmolian greaves) sources, as well as historical pictographs and belt illustrations.

The equipment belt is as close as I can get it with what is currently available. It's narrow with a small buckle, and only an akinakes, which is dead-on archaeologically correct, and the early Wusun sword hangs from it. The sword is "50/50 up in the air." Half of the experts and archaeologists have placed this style of sword in the last two centuries BC and first century AD. The other half call for a later date. It was designed from the illustrations on the Orlat battle plaque, and if the renderings of the bows are amazingly accurate (as they appear to be), then the swords are just as accurately depicted. Other than these two items and an anchor-point for my quiver, the belt is void of gee-gaws.

And last, I'm simply trying to put an early Alanic/Sarmatian kit together because (evidently) no-one else has done it. Or if they have, they are keeping it a secret. RAT seems to have its share of Germanic and Celtic kits. And, silly me, I just thought that the Sarmatians contributed as much to the Roman military as did other cultures on the Imperial borders. I'm not advocating Sarmatians as some kind of "end all" culture. I'm just trying to introduce a group that has been heavily overlooked on RAT.

This "Show Your Sarmatian Impression" thread has initiated a number of views and responses. It's getting looked at. And that was one of my goals, contentious as they may have been.