Macedonians used leather helmets?

[Paullus Scipio]

Mein Panzer/Ruben wrote:

The 'high boots' (krepides) mentioned are one of the three quintessentially Macedonian items of costume- the kausia, chlamys, and krepides. .......... Many of the stelae from Vergina show men wearing high boots, while some hunters on the hunting scene of the facade of the "Tomb of Philip" wear them as well.

But neither chlamys nor krepides are unique to Macedonia, being commonly worn throughout Greece at the time (though the kausia would seem to be)......nevertheless, I would agree with you that Plutarch may be referring to a type of Macedonian civilian 'national costume', and this possibly influenced Caraccalla's ideas.....

Certainly, the tomb paintings such as the 3 C BC Bella tumulus (which Giannis refers to) and the late 4 C BC Lefkadia tomb show krepides, but these are clearly High-ranking Officers (judging by 'purple' trimmed/'purple' cloaks and 'purple' trimmed armour) - and are mostly later than Alexander's day(like Plutarch's reference).If we look at more contemporary ( to Alexander's day) depictions, we don't see krepides (which you might expect to be costly aristocratic items), such as the so-called 'Alexander sarcophagus', where bare feet (possibly with painted-on footwear) is the norm, but best of all is the late 4 C Agios Athanasios tomb painting showing what are most likely Macedonian ( some wear kausias!) rank-and-file soldiers (no less than 8 of them!), none of whom wear krepides, all being shown in open sandals....

Of course, with so few pieces of evidence, one must not be pedantic about such things, and needless to say more/fresh evidence ( like that wonderful Agios Athanasius painting) could alter our perceptions.....

When has an ancient author ever written "bronze-faced wooden shields"? References to shields from antiquity almost always refer to just the covering

Well, I could point to Polybius' famous description of the 'scutum' as an example :wink: , but in general you are right.....certainly when it comes to classical greek sources....and that is what makes me think that Caracalla, actually equipped his Phalanx with 'bronze' shields, as described by Dio, possibly in the mistaken belief that they were all bronze.
OTOH one might have thought that some real Macedonian shields ought to have still been around in temples in Caracalla's day....so you may well be right, and that the shields carried were accurate replicas.Impossible to know, alas!

Archibald mentions that the 'leather' helmet I referred to above '[recalls] the elaborate versions of the 'Thracian' helmet form depicted on mid-fifth-century Attic Red Figure.' Are you sure it wasn't this burial? If there was another parallel example, it would certainly be interesting to look into.

....hhh...mmm both being 'Thracian' sounds like too much of a co-incidence, but the mention I saw (and it was no more than that) did say 'Macedonian' tomb, I'm sure, but that could be a mis-description.....

P.S. I sent you a PM a few days ago, did you get it O.K ?