Question about the origin of the Greek hoplite shield

[immortal]

Excellent! I took that from an old paper and wondered about the designation. My understanding is that the crested helmet was adopted in Assyrian service as you say from Neo-hittites, perhaps from Greece by way of Caria/Lycia? But I am always wary of assuming cultural transfer for something so obvious and easy to make as a helmet crest. It is exceedingly unlikely that the Hawaiians were inspired by Greeks for example :wink: Why are the priests wearing such seemingly compound helmets? It reminds me of the compound helmet symbolizing the upper and lower nile worn by Egyptian kings.

By the way, the paper I lifted the image from was attempting to link that image and the Carians to the origin of the Philistines.

Perhaps more interesting is the other image. If it is really from modern Pakistan, then the large, rimmed, aspis-like shield becomes quite interesting. Any other images of these Ghandarians? Perhaps the artist simply used an aspis as a model because the Ghandarians were little known to him but he knew they had round shields.

The priest is the guy at the front, the others I believe are soldiers on a victory parade. Apparently there is a fragment with the king in his chariot wearing the garland too. I have another line drawing showing a group of archers and a group of spearmen wearing the garlands of feathers too. I'll upload it for you.
Uratu had some crested helmets, but the majority are from the Neo-Hittite states. One in particular looks very Greek... I shall upload that one too!

I often wonder about the Sea Peoples and the Greeks. I found the armour in AW Vol III: issue 3 article "seven against Thebes" very similar to the armour depicted as being worn by the Sea Peoples.

I have been confused by the figure at Persepolis, he is sometimes identified as a Sarangian, not Gangarian. He does wear Mede leggins, tunic and shoes. The Gandarians do also have (bigger) round shields and spears. It is widely believed that the artists knew what their subjects looked like quite well. It is interesting to point out that other than the Medes, these are the only figures that are shown with defensive equipment.
I'll post some images up tonight for you.