08-14-2010, 04:18 PM
Quote:Well that's certainly plausible, perhaps probable.....but it could just as easily be a 'victory trophy/spoils' taken in battle against any of the Greek Black Sea cities - such as Bosporus, or Kerch or Panticapaeum, or even from the unfortunate Macedonian General Zopyrion,by either 'Royal Scythians' or 'Sarmatians' etc and deposited as a water-deposit thank-offering to the Gods.....so never used as such by Scythians or Sarmatians ! There are lots of possibilitiesD
Steppe nomads didn't make water deposits of offerings, so that seems highly unlikely.
Quote:As Thracian and Macedonian examples show, Kings etc could own both Foot and Cavalry panoplies - and Sarmatians and Scythians too did not always fight solely on horseback. I would be cautious about assuming that any particular panoply was used exclusively for one or the other....
Yes, there is evidence of cavalrymen from sedentary populations doing this. Steppe nomads, however, are another group altogether, and we almost never, if ever (I can't think of a single example; maybe you can?) hear of noble nomadic cavalrymen dismounting in combat or going into combat on foot. Were this in any other context, I would be equally wary of assigning any one exclusive role to such a piece of armour. In a steppe nobleman's grave, however, there's pretty much no doubt.
Quote:I'd agree, but at the risk of sounding pedantic, I don't think these are "general purpose cuirasses", nor that such dual-purpose armour existed, for the reasons I gave earlier. I do believe however that body-armour designed to be worn on foot could be, and was, used on horseback, so we are in broad agreement.
I think so. So, do we have any idea when the cavalry cuirass first appears in Greek art? I always thought it was a 4th c. BC development, but I've never really investigated.
Ruben
He had with him the selfsame rifle you see with him now, all mounted in german silver and the name that he\'d give it set with silver wire under the checkpiece in latin: Et In Arcadia Ego. Common enough for a man to name his gun. His is the first and only ever I seen with an inscription from the classics. - Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian
He had with him the selfsame rifle you see with him now, all mounted in german silver and the name that he\'d give it set with silver wire under the checkpiece in latin: Et In Arcadia Ego. Common enough for a man to name his gun. His is the first and only ever I seen with an inscription from the classics. - Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian
