Quote:The Moscow Arccheological instute had a large excavation project in the Soviet East from 1978 to 1990.
Some of it was not done after the soviet colapse but some aspects continued with western funding or joint ventures.
Though initially the atifacts were Scythian and other step cultures, the South Uzbekistan and Tadjikistan excavations yielded Persian artifacts. They very first images appeared in soviet books as the one attached.
I saw some articles in newpaper sunday magazines here. Actually they did the article because a Professor in the Institute (of Greek origin)
was lecturing in Thessaloniki.
See attachment from russian book about later Achemenide armies.
Kind regards
Many aspects of these reconstructions are outdated and, to be frank, either fantastical or wrong. Just to pick one particular example, in the second image, the helmet that's paired with the bronze gorget is decorated in a style which fell out of fashion around the 7th c. BC; the other helmet is a rare example of an eastern Kuban-type helmet which comes from Samarkand, but it dates to the 6th c. BC.
Quote:Both are nice Isn't the square plate armour used by eastern Saka tribes? Did Massageteans in battle of Gaugamela wear it too?
If the Massagetae were not actually Saka (and such debates over whether a particular tribe belonged to a particular ethnic group always end up being fruitless, since the ancients employed terms like Saka, Celt, German, etc. flexibly, and the boundaries between different groups were always blurry), then they were at least very strongly influenced by the Saka.
Most sources place them to the East or Southeast of Chorasmia, and we have these two sources from in and around Chorasmia:
A pottery fragment from Khumbuz-tepe in Chorasmia, which is the earliest depiction of a man riding a fully armoured horse. It dates to the 4th-3rd c. BC. Note the large quadrangular plates composing the armour, the segmented leg armour, and the depiction of a quiver with a bow in it slung on the other side of the saddle.
http://www.antiquemilitaryhistory.com/i ... uztepe.JPG
Then there is the find from Chirik Rabat of a burial which included many rectangular plates along with segmented limb armour, a long sword, and arrowheads, all iron. This is from just east of Chorasmia and likewise dates to the 4th-3rd c. BC. Note that the reconstruction in this image is definitely suspect.
http://www.antiquemilitaryhistory.com/i ... krabat.JPG
And to get an idea of what the upper body of a warrior like this would look like, here is a bronze figurine from Taraz, in Kazakhstan, a good distance to the east. Sorry for the bad quality of the image.
http://www.antiquemilitaryhistory.com/images/taraz1.JPG
http://www.antiquemilitaryhistory.com/images/taraz2.JPG
And here is a general impression of a Saka cavalryman of the 4th-3rd c. BC made by M.V. Gorelik. It is primarily based on the evidence posted above, along with a few other items from the Siberian collection of Peter I, the weapons from the burial of the "Golden Man" from Issyk, and a few others. There are a few problems with it, I think, like the skirt should be longer, and I'm dubious of the segmented arm armour reaching only to the elbow, but it is overall very good.
http://www.antiquemilitaryhistory.com/i ... orelik.JPG
Hope this helps!