Sources about the Roxolani/ leather armour

[Alanus]

Thanks for the addition, Michael

We completely overlooked the use of horn scales, as mentioned by Ammianus. The "barbarians" fought by Neoptolemus might well have been the main group of Aorsi, and I think a bit historically late for Siraces. I found a very interesting image from Kosika, on the Kuban Peninsula and just across the straight from Kerch, again the same "barbarians."


   
Here we have a rider wearing scale armor, not a cataphract but holding a contus. It's an image of striking cultural continuity (probably should have been posted on the Origins of the Alans thread). This warrior wears less than shoulder-length hair, a Yuezhi diadem, and he sports a typical moustache that Karl Jettmar has called the, "Pazyryk cultural identity." All these features are seen on the frieze at Khalchayan, Bactria. His horse has a crenellated mane like those found on Mongolian Altai petroglyphs, in Shihuangdi's terracotta horses, and illustrated on Eastern Han ink rubbings.


   
And here's a noble from the Bactrian frieze. It was a small world.