Finally a flower buckle, my head asplode

[Dan D'Silva]

Well, after three years of searching I've finally found some archaeological examples of the Achaemenid weapon belt's round buckle.

Unfortunately, this does NOT clarify anything! They're basically slide conchos with a single bar on the back. To fit under/around this bar, the belt strap, unless it were made of a much softer and more foldable material than seems ideal for supporting the weight of a fully-loaded gorytos, would have to be much narrower than the buckle itself. In period art, the strap is generally wider than the buckle, sometimes much wider. Second, there's no stud/hook or anything that would seem capable of actually buckling the freakin' belt. Perhaps you could tie the belt closed, but this is never shown as being done with the weapon belt, only with the one used to cinch the tunic.

Maybe the archaeologists got this wrong; maybe these aren't buckles at all, but just happen to look just like them. I dunno. I'm about to give up here.

[john m roberts]

I don't think they're buckles. They look more like buttons, and on the second and third pictures the straps appear to be buttoned, not buckled.

[Dan D'Silva]

I've actually experimented with that, as it does look more like what the art shows. But the belt again would need to be of a flexible or stretchy material to be able to button in that way, or have a huge buttonhole.

The only suggestion I've seen that seems workable with the heavy veg-tanned leather I've been using is that the buckle or button was actually the base of an upside-down button stud. But now looking at the back, that's clearly not what these are.

[Dan D'Silva]

Just might have this problem solved.