Thracian Lancers presentation uploaded

[MeinPanzer]

I was looking at a Kazanluk image- the only one that showed up. I have seen this image reconstructed with the men holding Gallic-style barley corn bossed shields. The shield to me looks more like an adarga, a bilobed rawhide shield from N. Africa of a much later date. There is a clear indentation at the top and bottom, as well as groove down the face from top to bottom. Perhaps there is a clearer image that shows an elongated gallic boss.

I do not, but would like to know if the adarga pattern arises from some property of constructing the bi-layered rawhide shield that may have been the same back in Thrace or if it is simple style.

Those shields - a few are shown on the Kazanluk tomb paintings - are not thureoi (though there is one shield that seems like it could be a thureos, but it is different in form). Yes, it has two "scallops" on the top and bottom edges, but it doesn't have a groove running from top to bottom, but instead has two parallel lines running from side to side in the vertical middle of the shield. These shields are almost certainly representations of the same type of shield found in a 4th c. BC burial from Kyustendil (which can be seen in Chris' Osprey title). This shield is large, oval, and faced with bronze, but lacks any other apparent decoration.

Looking at other evidence for the thureos and its spread into this region, I think that these shields are an independent invention of the Thracians. They really have almost nothing in common with the thureos: they lack the vertical spine; they lack any kind of boss and, consequently, lack the standard thureos grip; they have that unusual scalloped shape at the top and bottom; and they have those unusual grips above and below the central grip.