Crete: helmets and stuff

[hoplite14gr]

Bow was part of the Doric Cretan youths training.
Cretans used archers both in the line and as psiloi.
Their archers carried buckler shields, daggers and even swords and javelins.
They were not squeamish in defending themselves in close combat if need be. There are depictions of them wearing armor and helmets.
The cretan headband appears in bronze age potery and curvings and there is a hellenistic tomb stele on mount Ida depicting archers wearing the the Cretan headband.

Later folk art has examples of red headbands except the usual black which was pehaps more suited for "guerilla" tactics.

Cretan were famous even inCarthagenian and Roman armies:


Kind regards