09-16-2011, 08:25 AM
The Firuzabad relief depicts the defeat of Artaban V by Ardashir I at Hormozdgan in 224 AD. The Sassanian artist who carved the piece differentiated the Parthian from the Sassanian horsemen by the clan tamga badges shown on the horse bards, and differences in armor.
Sassanian dynasatic art tended to be somewhat stylized, and the Firuzabad relief is pretty badly damaged. The numerous drawings I’ve seen interpret some of the details differently. However, there are a few good close-up photographs of parts of the relief that aid in interpretation. I think it would be fair to say that all the horsemen are possibly wearing some kind of textile tabard over some kind of stiff torso armor. In the case of the Sassanian horsemen this may have been a separate scale or lamellar armor. The Sassanians have long mail sleeves, probably part of thigh length mail hauberks worn under the scale or lamellar torso armor. The Parthians seem to be wearing scale (or possibly lamellar) thigh length torso armor, and are equipped with laminated metal plates over their arms, similar to the Roman manica. Both the Parthians and Sassanians are equipped with laminated metal leg armor.
Laminated limb armor of this type seems to have been common among Eastern cataphracts. Surviving artistic depictions of this type of cavalry armor are not terribly common, though Sassanian, Parthian, Greek, Roman and Kushan representations exist. Also, actual examples of laminated arm and leg defenses have been excavated at Taxila and Ai Khanoum respectively (IIRC other examples have been found, but most of my books are packed).
Gregg
Sassanian dynasatic art tended to be somewhat stylized, and the Firuzabad relief is pretty badly damaged. The numerous drawings I’ve seen interpret some of the details differently. However, there are a few good close-up photographs of parts of the relief that aid in interpretation. I think it would be fair to say that all the horsemen are possibly wearing some kind of textile tabard over some kind of stiff torso armor. In the case of the Sassanian horsemen this may have been a separate scale or lamellar armor. The Sassanians have long mail sleeves, probably part of thigh length mail hauberks worn under the scale or lamellar torso armor. The Parthians seem to be wearing scale (or possibly lamellar) thigh length torso armor, and are equipped with laminated metal plates over their arms, similar to the Roman manica. Both the Parthians and Sassanians are equipped with laminated metal leg armor.
Laminated limb armor of this type seems to have been common among Eastern cataphracts. Surviving artistic depictions of this type of cavalry armor are not terribly common, though Sassanian, Parthian, Greek, Roman and Kushan representations exist. Also, actual examples of laminated arm and leg defenses have been excavated at Taxila and Ai Khanoum respectively (IIRC other examples have been found, but most of my books are packed).
Gregg
