Making a wooden akinakes scabbard, part IV

Akinakes scabbards were sometimes covered in embossed sheet metal, but judging from the number of bronze chapes presented in isolation in museum collections, I would have to think that scabbards were more often completely organic apart from the chape.  So here I am covering my scabbard in leather.  Fabric or thin rawhide would probably be equally acceptable.

As with the Medgidia-type scabbard, I laid the cut leather down with a thin brushing of contact cement (hide glue would probably work about as well, and be more authentic), trimming away the excess as I stitched.

Upon reaching the end of the seam, it's reversed and turned into a cross stitch.

At the other end, the shape of the expanded throat seems to make it likely that the leather there could peel off eventually (maybe that's why the top of the throat sometimes sloped back toward the middle?).  In this instance I drilled a very small hole through the core and put the thread through it, lashing the leather down in the process.

With that done, I made a cross cut through the leather where the belt loop is to be tied.  The cut in the leather can be cleaned up by putting a drop of glue into the hole and using a pencil or something to squash the corners down.

Making a gorytos, part I

Over the coming months I'm planning to make an all-new gorytos for Marathon 2015.  While the gorytos was used for many centuries and came in several shapes, I only know of one that is attested in Persian art.
Relief on the Persepolis apadana

One of essentially the same shape is attested in some Greek pottery.  As near as I understand, these were made of soft leather with a wood spine sewn into the top to prevent sagging
Archer and hoplite kylix
Scythian on an amphora
Another Scythian

The upper edge is seamed; the main body may be a single piece folded up from the bottom or a front and back half.  Note in the second image that the bottom edge (the side facing down when the bow staff is worn horizontally) appears somewhat shaped to the bow staff.  This may be the result of leather being stretched, or it may be that the leather is seamed there - it's my understanding that fat-cured leathers don't mold well like veg-tan, and failing to stretch the leather sufficiently would leave the bow difficult to remove.  Many gorytoi seen in Greek art are shaped in this manner

A more extreme example that clearly illustrates the principle:
The bow- finding of olon kurin gol- some additional experiences and thoughts
This one is made with a wide, external wood spine.

Based on these, I've come up with some possibly reconstruction methods.

The choice between one- and two-piece construction and the exact widths required informs the choice of hides.

An ivory chape at the MFA

Not sure whether there's any practical value in posting this, as it's unlikely any of us will be replicating it, but it does demonstrate the existence of isolated chapes made of solid ivory.  It's the standard goat motif - again - although exact provenance is not provided.

Minnetonka, the final chapter

Earlier this year, I noted that the Minnetonka "classic fringe" boot could be improved by replacing the laces with flat thongs, and more recently that the side openings are actually accurate for the standard Medo-Persian shoe.

Art from the period of Darius to the Alexander Sarcophagus does not indicate shoelaces run through slits or eyelets.  Thus, to the best of my knowledge, the thongs should probably be just stitched around the upper edge of the shoe.  So this is what I've done.

Before doing this, I also managed to pull off the heel layers.  I believe that this is the maximum extent to which this particular model can be improved.  I tend to work slowly, and I estimate the total time in this case to have been about six hours.

Conclusion:  If you find yourself in a hurry, the earlier slit method is still okay, but otherwise what you see above is what I'm going to recommend if you don't have the skills to make shoes yourself.  (Again, the hardsole version seems to have been discontinued; softsole boots can be used as-is or you can tunnel-stitch or glue a leather or rawhide hard sole to them.)  The significant remaining flaws are that the soft sole wraps too high up the sides, resulting in something of a "moc toe" look, and that the forward edges of the quarter slant forward instead of backward.

Leather and shoes, further updates

I've been in a lengthy and very informative discussion about leathers over at RAT, and it seems that grained leather may be on the table again.  This is not inconsistent, since what I've read from brain-tanners is only that it's not easy to get the same softness from a hide without scraping the grain off; they never said it was impossible.  Member Ivor (Crispianus) brought to my attention two things I found surprising:  a modern repro of an Iron Age shoe, tanned with fish oil with the outer grain intact, and a detail from a piece of Hellenistic statuary showing a pair of Iranian shoes from the side.

It is a scan from Skulpter des Hellenismus.  It shows that the ankle shoe in this period was made not from a one-piece upper (a la the Plains moccasins and Hedeby shoes I'd been using as a model), but from a separate vamp and quarter.  This allows the quarter to rise as high or low as you like, whereas a one-piece upper has to have extensions sewn on if more than a certain height is desired.

(It further means that the Minnetonka moccasin boots are less inaccurate than I thought, and with a little modification, are actually the only off-the-shelf shoes I've seen that are anything like acceptable.  I managed to pull the heels off mine recently, but since they only appear to be available in soft sole now, you could just glue or tunnel-stitch your own leather/rawhide soles without having to potentially rip the bottoms up.)

For comparison, I went searching for high-res pictures of the Alexander Sarcophagus, which is one of the best sources for Persian clothing at the transition of the Achaemenid and Hellenistic periods.  In the restored-color versions by Vinzenze Brinkmann and Ulrike Koch-Brinkmann, the straps appear to encircle the ankle like those on Median shoes on the reliefs at Persepolis, but without the "branches" going down the sides.  However, there is an extreme closeup over at Wikipedia which appears to show a faint vertical ridge on the central figure's shoe.

With regards to the Persepolis reliefs, Ivor pointed out that the vertical branches could easily be interpreted as strips of reinforcement running down the front edges of the quarter.  The ankle strap itself - as he demonstrated by sewing an example - was probably just stitched to the top edge of the quarter rather than running through slits (as per moccasins).

The later example above is slightly modified, with the lace running through a single pair of eyelets, essentially making it a very simple chukka.  In this configuration, the eyelets are under much more stress than in the first, since they are pulled forward to hold the top around the ankle, whereas when running the thong around the ankle (either through slits or sewing it on) doesn't pull the shoe leather, but merely squeezes it against the ankle, like a drawstring.  Therefore, the later configuration would do well to have a reinforced eyelet.

Easy improvements for the Minnetonka ankle boot

In the past I've suggested the Minnetonka fringe hardsole boot as a quick option for Medo-Persian shoes.  These are what I wore at Marathon 2011.

As noted previously, they tend to pick up dust and the two-piece construction (vamp and quarter) leaves side openings that let sand in the sides (not present on Medo-Persian shoes, which were probably like Plains moccasins in construction, i.e. one-piece uppers).  Since I'm now aware that period leather likely had a rough finish more often than not, the dust is not an issue.  The side openings are but I'm looking into stitching them up or perhaps adding fabric panels.

In the meantime, another quick way of improving the boots' appearance, after you've cut the fringe off, is to replace the laces with flat suede thongs.  Art stores such as Michael's (in the U.S. and Canada) sell strips of 1/2 by 36 inches, which is just about right for our use.

Undo the laces and pull them out.  With a seam ripper or a craft knife with an angled blade, cut the stitches holding on the upper strip of leather forming the "tunnel" through which the lace was inserted.  There are two seams, one inside and one outside of the shoe.

To the now-exposed upper part of the quarter, add vertical slits through which you can insert the thong - not, of course, too close to the upper edge; about a third of an inch away should be safe.  I find a double slit at the back of the quarter and a single slit on each side of the front to be sufficient to hold the thong in place while leaving most of it exposed (as was the case with the thongs on Achaemenid shoes).  Tie the thongs in square knots rather than bows, and trim them as you see fit.

Another spearhead from the British Museum

Spearhead from Karabakh, Azerbaijan

This one is very interesting; larger than the one from Deve Huyuk, it's also considerably lighter, and has only a partial mid-rib.  I'm not sure how representative of Achaemenid spearheads it can be.

Fabric dyeing on Orientalism and the Age of Steam

So part four of the "Lady of Susa" series is up, and, wow, I don't think I have the patience or energy needed to carry out something like this, but kudos.

As usual, if you're at work, beware of mildly risqué banner.

Get this

Okay, first I have to announce that there will be no Peoples of the Empire entry tomorrow, as I've been set back by frequent computer crashes and inordinately long reboot times.  Expect it next week at the earliest.

To today's installment:  I've spoken with Lucilla Burns of the University of Cambridge's Fitzwilliam Museum, where the Persian spear butt from Deve Hüyük is held.  She informs me that the object is hollow and very light.

I received my brass hame ball in the mail a week ago and it's eerie how similar this thing is to the Deve Hüyük spear butt.  Seriously, this piece of horse tack looks more like an ancient artefact that it's not trying to resemble than a lot of "historical replicas" look like the things they are supposed to resemble.

And here it is fitted to a certain window brush handle with a nail and some epoxy.

Of course, it lacks the subtle decoration of the original, and is a shade larger, but on balance, I'd call these allowable drawbacks.  It doesn't provide much counterweight, but that's as it should be, and it's still sturdy enough.  Widely available and not too expensive as reenactment kit goes; just look for a two-inch ball with a sharply-defined socket.  The socket on mine is one inch on the outside and 3/4 inch on the inside, meaning that fitting requires shaving off 1/8 inch all around the end of the handle for several inches, but it's flush with the shaft once that's done.

If you haven't seen this yet, part three of Orientalism and the Age of Steam's "Lady of Susa" series went up on Monday.

This post is particularly worth checking out because it includes the first reconstruction (at least that I've ever seen) of the Elamite strapped shoes.  These are a must if you're going for Achaemenid court dress.  Kudos to Orientalism and the Age of Steam for taking on such an important project.

Orientalism and the Age of Steam is doing a multi-part series on recreating Elamo-Persian royal women's dress.  Anyone wishing to reenact as such should check it out.  Currently parts one and two are up.

Word of warning - even though Orientalism and the Age of Steam's title banner is just a 19th-century Orientalist painting, let's just say those 19th-century Orientalist paintings could get pretty NSFW.

Thanks also to these articles for alerting me to Saudi Aramco's Millennia of Murex article, where you can see a beautifully-preserved example of authentic Achaemenid-period Persian patterned cloth.

Deve Hüyük: An Achaemenid graveyard

Shortly before World War I, Charles Woolley and T.E. Lawrence excavated a site in northern Syria:  a graveyard for members of a Persian imperial garrison near the then-Assyrian city of Carchemish.  The site yielded many goods that would have been used in war and day-to-day life by Iranian troops in the 6th-4th centuries BC.  A gallery of finds may be viewed at the British Museum website.  Sadly, the majority of items are unillustrated, but I'd like to highlight a few that may be useful for your living history projects:

A spearhead, in case you needed a reminder just how small these things could be, especially in comparison to modern repros.

A javelin head, looking surprisingly unlike a spearhead.

An akinakes.  To this I would also add examples from Osprey's The Persian Army, also from Deve Hüyük.  Note on all examples the plain iron hilts with guards and grips forged as one piece, and also the short, broad fuller on the longer Osprey example.

A fibula (cloak pin) which should be good for your Cappadocian impression.  (Incidentally, Cappadocians are next week's Peoples of the Empire entry.)

A hand mirror.  Well, everyone needs one sooner or later.

A bronze plate cover for the top end of a gorytos.

The various bronze bowls are also worth checking out, and if you're doing a cavalry impression, you'll want a snaffle bit of appropriate shape.

Addendum to "The Babylonians"

Going over Herodotus for next week's entry, I notice I missed an important line when writing up yesterday's entry on the Babylonians, to wit:

With [the Assyrians] were the Chaldeans.
- The Histories,   VII.63

This indicates that, yes, there WERE Babylonians in the 480 invasion.  He doesn't elaborate on their costume or weapons, although he may do so elsewhere and I should continue checking.

Peoples of the empire: The Babylonians

What name alone can summon such images of long-faded glory, wealth and decadence as that of Babylon?  Romanticism aside, Babylon in Achaemenid days was very much a living city.  The swift and total destruction at the hands of the Medes prophesied by Isaiah never came to pass; instead, it would slowly wither, under the heavy taxes imposed by the Achaemenids, rebellions, and many more centuries of war  But at the time of the Graeco-Persian wars, Babylon remained a prosperous and important land.

History
The city, which straddled the Euphrates in central Iraq, was first inhabited in the late 3rd millennium BC.  The so-called Weidner Chronicle of several centuries later states that Babylon was founded by Sargon himself, though the Akkadian name Bābili, "Gate of the Gods, is actually an adaptation of an earlier name, Babilla or Babillu, of unknown language and meaning.  This implies that Babylon was originally built by...

(cue creepy music)

...  someone else.

Babylon first became prominent under the Amorite dynasty in the 19th century BC.  Hammurabi ('Ammurāpi) expanded Babylonian rule in response to Elamite invasions, soon coming to include all of Mesopotamia.  It was up and down from then on, much like Assyria and other major powers of the area.  The expanding Akkadian populations of Babylonia and Assyria absorbed the Sumerians and led to the disappearance of ancient Sumer.  For four centuries in the later 2nd millennium a dynasty of Kassite origin seized power in Babylon.

The period from the Amorite dynasty onward is known as the Old Babylonian period, and ended with Neo-Assyrian domination in the 10th century.  At the same time, a people called the Chaldeans migrated to central Babylonia from the south.  In the late 8th century they allied with Elam and led Babylon in a failed revolt against Assyria, which ended in 689 with the demolition of the city's walls, temples and palaces at the hands of the Assyrian king Sennacherib.  This was considered a sacrilege, and his successor Essarhaddon rebuilt Babylon and made a seasonal home there.

After Essarhaddon's death, his younger son Aššurbanipal became king of Assyria, while his elder, Šamaš-šuma-ukin, became prince of Babylonia.  Did somebody say civil war?  Šamaš-šuma-ukin's revolt (652-648) again ended in failure, and the prince allowed himself to burn with his palace as the city fell.

But Assyria itself did not last much longer; the aforementioned triple alliance of the Babylonians, Medes and Scythians finished what internecine struggles following Aššurbanipal's death had started, and left Babylon the uncontested ruler of Mesopotamia and the Levant.  The Chaldean monarch Nebuchadnezzar II (Nabû-kudurri-uṣur, r. 605-562) repudiated the Scythian alliance and drove them out of Mesopotamia.  He also conquered the Levant, famously taking Judah in 587,destroying Solomon's Temple and taking the Judahite nobility captive.

The Chaldean dynasty too was brief.  The last king, Labashi-Marduk, was deposed in 556, the same year of his ascent, by an Assyrian, Nabonidus (Nabû-na'id), who nonetheless is regarded as a Babylonian ruler.

Then came Cyrus.  In 539, after a long period of empire-building and most recently having added Susa to his domain, he turned toward Babylon.  Two versions of his conquest of the city exist.  According to the Babylonian Nabonidus Chronicle, Nabonidus was aware of the Persians' movements and a large battle was fought near Opis north of Babylon.  Few details exist, but it is clear that the Babylonians lost badly and retreated to the capital.  The Cyrus Cylinder does not mention a battle, but claims that Cyrus entered the city peacefully.  According to later Greek accounts, he circumvented the city's massive walls by rerouting the Euphrates and entering through the river gates.  The actual occupation seems to have been peaceful at least in Cyrus' time.

As one of the largest and wealthiest cities in the empire, Babylon became capital of the satrapy of Babylonia (Bābiru in Persian) and Assyria.  The Persians were aware of Babylon's cultural importance in Mesopotamia.  Cyrus tried to present himself as the legitimate ruler, favored by its patron god, Marduk, in contrast to Nabonidus, who was not of royal lineage and whom the Cyrus Cylinder portrays as impious.

But Babylon was a rebellious country early in the Achaemenid period.  Among the empire-wide insurrections that followed Darius the Great's ascension, Nidintu-Bêl set himself up as King Nebuchadnezzar III in October of 522; after Darius crushed this rising in December, an Armenian named Arakha proclaimed himself Nebuchadnezzar IV from August to November of 521 before being defeated and captured by Intaphrenes.  Two more rebel leaders, Bêl-šimânni and Šamaš-eriba, arose some time during the reign of Xerxes, probably in 484.  Perhaps for this reason, Babylonians are not mentioned as taking part in the invasion of Greece.  The sequence of events in this rebellion is unclear, but Jona Lendering suggests that the partition of the satrapy of Babylon followed the end of the rebellion in October.  Herodotus states that Xerxes thereafter confiscated an idol from the temple of Babylon.  The mysterious "Daiva Inscription" of Xerxes, wherein he crushes a rebellion in an unnamed country and destroys the temple of daiva-worshippers, may refer to this incident.

There are hints that yet another rebellion occurred in 479; this would help explain the sudden departure of Xerxes from Greece in that year.  If so, it would have immense import for the course of the Graeco-Persian wars.

As an economic center with a huge population, Babylon was particularly heavily taxed - in Herodotus' time, the city paid a thousand silver talents yearly along with supporting the royal court and army for a third of a year.  The city began to economically decline over the course of the Achaemenid dynasty, but it remained relatively very wealthy even to the last years.

The Battle of Gaugamela, the last major battle of Darius III and Alexander the Great, took place near Babylon, but the Persian officials surrendered Babylon without a fight when Alexander arrived late in October of 331.  When his closest friend Hephaestion died in 324, his funeral was held here, and Alexander himself died the next year in the palace of Nebuchadnezzar.

Most Greeks left Babylon in 275 for the new capital of the Seleucid empire, Seleucia, though the natives remained.  A new wave of Greek colonists arrived at the behest of Antiochus Epiphanes in the early 2nd century, but by the Parthian period the city's population was in decline.  The new year festival was still observed for many years and there is evidence that some of the city's facilities such as the Greek theater were still being kept up into the early centuries AD.  It is difficult to pin down when Babylon became entirely abandoned or when the Babylonians ceased to identify as such, but the process was certainly complete after the post-Islamic Arabization of Mesopotamia if not before.

Religion
As a dominant city in the 2nd millennium, Babylon became an important center of Mesopotamian religion.  Its patron god was Marduk, who in the Babylonian creation myth Enûma Eliš, replaces the earlier Sumerian god Enlil as supreme god and slayer of the primordial dragon Tiamat.  This elevation corroborated with Babylon's rise to prominence in the 18th century BC.  When ancient writers spoke of Bêl ("the Lord") in connection with Babylon, they refer to Marduk.  In art he was pictured in human form alongside a four-legged dragonlike creature called the muš-huššu .  Babylonian astronomers also associated him with the planet Jupiter.

Other major Akkadian gods were Anu, god of the heavens and father of the gods, Ea, god of water, Nabû, god of writing, and Ištar, goddess of fertility, from whom the Iranian yazata Anahita would acquire the aspects of war and association with Venus during the Achaemenid period.  The association of gods with stars/planets, and the resulting importance of astrology in Babylonian religion, compelled careful star observations that amounted to genuine astronomy.  In Greek, the term "Chaldean" came to refer to Asian priests who specialized in study of the stars and their portents.

Due to the dominance of Babylon in Mesopotamian politics and culture, it became a religious center as well.  In the middle of the city was the Ésagila, the main temple complex, wherein was the golden statue of Marduk and other deities.  On the new year holiday, Akitu, the statue of Nabû was transported from Borsippa to Babylon to commune with his father Marduk, and the Enûma Eliš was recited.  The king was supposed to receive his scepter in the temple of Nabû (part of the Nabonidus Chronicle seems to imply that Cambyses as Cyrus' regent of Babylon was refused this honor because of his Elamite robe).  The next day, the king would lay down his royal insignia and humble himself before the statue of Marduk.  Festivities lasted an entire week; the divine statues were taken to a series of stations, hymns were sung and good tidings proclaimed for the new year.

Language
Of the Babylonian language, much the same can be said as of the Assyrian:  The native tongue was a dialect of Akkadian, but in the Achaemenid period it began to give way to Aramaic just as had happened in Assyria.

Clothing and arms
Clothing
The usual two sources, Persepolis and Naqš-e Rostam, provide us with looks at Babylonian clothing around 500 BC.  They wear tunics coming down past the knee, which are probably similar to Neo-Assyrian ones, and an un-fringed shawl with one end visible hanging down the right front of the torso and gathered into a single large tassel.  Their hats are short, broad cones that are apparently soft and have long straps hanging down from their tops.

Their footwear appears to be low-quarter slip-on shoes with closed toes.  The tops of these shoes are low on the sides but rise in front and around the heel.  They resemble a style of slipper made from two pieces, a vamp and heel counter, along with the sole.

Weapons
Babylonians do not seem to have served the Persian empire as soldiers very much.  They are not mentioned by Herodotus among Xerxes' invasion forces, though he pays much attention to the city itself; Achaemenid art doesn't show them with weapons - in fact, the Babylonian at Naqš-e Rostam is the only individual in the entire relief who is not armed.  Of course, they did have access to weapons; the fact that they were able to rebel repeatedly makes that a necessity.  From what little I can gather about the Neo-Babylonian military, it was modeled on the Assyrian one.  It also seems likely (though this is just a guess, and useless as far as showing anything unique) that Babylonians would also pick up some Medo-Persian weaponry, especially in the later uprisings.

UPDATE (May 1, 2013):  I seem to have been wrong about the above:   There were Babylonians in the Persian army, although I have yet to find out much about them.

Peoples of the empire: The Arachosians

Arachosia (O.P. Harauvatiyâ) was located just to the south of Aria and Bactria, around the Arghandab River and straddling modern Afghanistan and Pakistan.  The name is cognate to Sanskrit Sarasvati and refers to bodies of water (rivers or ponds).

History
Arachosia enters history with the Behistun inscription, wherein it is already a Persian satrapy under a Vivâna, who successfully put down the rebellion in that area in 522-521 BC in the midst of the chaos that followed Darius' killing of Gaumâta.  The leader of the rebellion, Vahyazdâta, was (so said Darius) a Persian who claimed to be the deceased Bardiya/Smerdis and sent his army into Arachosia.  Thus there is no reason to suppose that Arachosia itself was a rebellious satrapy.  After being defeated, Vahyazdâta was brought back to Persia and crucified.  Vivâna's successor was Bakabaduš.

Herodotus does not mention Arachosians among the participants in the invasion of Greece.  However, Rüdiger Schmitt suggests that the people of Arachosia were known to Herodotus as the Thamanaei, while the later writer Ptolemy refers to several tribes, the Parsyetae, Sydri, Rhoplutae and Eoritae.

Currently an editor at Wikipedia is saying that the Arachosians were Pactyes (who are probably the same as the Pashtuns), this sounds plausible, especially as Persian sources do not mention Pactyes and they clearly come from around the same area.  But I'm not willing to assume that this is the case, since neither Iranica nor Livius.org give it any mention.  The quote from Isidore of Charax's Parthian Stations, "And the Parthians call this Pakhtara...", is very suspect indeed since the vast majority of translations have him say, "And the Parthians call this White India..."  I can't track down a copy of the original Greek online, but for the record, if the usual translation is correct, the original should read Indike Leuke.  For the time being, I am treating the Arachosians and Pactyes as different peoples.

At Persepolis, the Arachosian delegation appears bearing ornate pottery and leading a Bactrian camel adorned with a bell.

Little or nothing is known of the history of the region from the time of Vivâna and Vahyazdâta until Alexander's invasion, when in March of 329 he visited the satrapy, then ruled by someone named Barsaëntes, who joined Bessus in opposing Alexander.  According to Jona Lendering, Alexander renamed the satrapal capital Kapisakaniš as Alexandria in Arachosia.

(Some historians believe that this city is identical to modern Kandahar, and its name derives from a mutation of "Alexandria"; others believe the name comes from the nearby land of Gandhara, while others think connect it to the Persian and Pashto word for "candy" because the area is known for producing fruit.)

Like many regions, Arachosia was fought over by a series of kingdoms from the Seleucids onward.  The Indo-Scythians settled in Arachosia and Drangiana in the 2nd century BC, giving the region the alternative name of Sakastan ("land of the Saka"), which was later contracted to Sistan.  Like Aria, the rule of Sistan was contested in recent centuries by Iran and Afghanistan.  This time, the dispute was arbitrated by the British (who were heavily involved in the region at the time) and the region divided into modern Sistan and Baluchestan Province in Iran and Nimruz, Kandahar and Zabul provinces in Afghanistan.

I can find virtually nothing about the religion or language of Arachosia in Achaemenid times, though it is plausible that Eastern Iranian languages were dominant.  From the Islamic conquest of Iran until the 11th century, Arab writers said that the Sistanis worshipped a god named Zun, of whom was made a golden statue with ruby eyes.

Clothing and arms
Arachosians and Drangians, who are portrayed identically at Persepolis and Naqš-e Rostam (the tomb of Darius) wear close-fronted tunics like the Medes and Persians, combined with baggy trousers seen more among Eastern Iranians.  Like the Arians, their trousers are tucked into pull-on boots with pointed, upturned toes, similar to heel-less cowboy boots.  The ones at Persepolis come up to just over the ankle, those at Naqš-e Rostam are knee-high.  Some of the Persepolis boots have little cords hanging over the front of the boot tops, possibly a forerunner of blousing bands.

Persepolis also provides some excellent illustrations of Arachosian accessories.  Instead of hats, they wear headbands with square ends, tied in the back, and the hanging ends pulled up and tucked in.  They also wear distinct earrings consisting of a ring from which hang two beads and then a long inverted-teardrop pendant.

Almost nothing is shown of their weapons other than the one at Naqš-e Rostam who wears an akinakes.  Spears and B-style bows carried in gorytoi are plausible but I can neither confirm nor deny at this time.

The early Achaemenid sash and weapon belt: COMPLETE

Update 12/10/13:  This post contains information that is probably incorrect.  Please see here.

This is a rough-draft recreation of the Achaemenid sash and weapon belt.
 
The sash

The sash is a length of plain-woven cotton belting or "web," which is not strictly accurate - it should probably be wool (as cotton had to be imported from India and was quite expensive), and the only evidence for the type of weave I have found, the Egyptian statue of Darius the Great, has a fancy pattern which I would surmise to be herringbone twill with additional strips appliqued with a holbein stitch along the entire length of the sash.  Whatever material you use, it should be flexible enough to pleat and knot easily, so not too heavyweight.

When worn with a weapon belt, the sash and belt appear to be about the same width, which looks to me somewhat more than an inch, perhaps one and a quarter to one and a half inches (3.2-3.8cm).

First, square-knot the sash around your waist and cut it to the proper length.  A good length for the hanging ends is about six to 10 inches (15-25cm).

Next, double-whiptstitch the cut ends to prevent them from unraveling.

My technique for creating the little round things on the ends may not be accurate, but it's easy enough:

Fold the end into pleats.

Draw the needle and most of the thread through the pleats.

Wind the thread tightly and heavily around the end and tie it off several times before trimming off the excess.

Interestingly, a shorter and narrower, but fundamentally similar, sash is worn by a Parthian on the Arch of Septimus Severus, seven hundred years later.

The belt
The weapon belt is made of heavyweight, vegetable-tanned leather - about 8 ounces is a good weight.  Wrap it around your waist to a comfortable snugness and mark with a pencil where it should end and where to punch the holes.  A few inches of overlap is good.  Make holes with a leather punch, awl, drill, etc. and insert the leather lace.

Nothing quite resembling the conical bronze conchos used by the Medes and Persians is currently being produced by anyone that I've found, although a jewelry-casting studio should be able to make them easily enough and I intend to look into that when I'm not so unemployed.

As a stopgap measure, here I am using a "northern-style" concho, which is widely available from Native American craft suppliers.  It's made from heavy brass sheet, domed, and usually sold with a soldered loop on the back.  Soldering isn't a rock-solid method of attachment, but don't worry; the way we're using it here doesn't require the solder to bear any weight.  The belt and concho in the above pictures are 1-1/2 inch and 1-1/4 inch, respectively.

Finally, position your bowcase and/or dagger scabbard just forward of your right and left hips, and punch holes in the belt to attach them.

 For comparison, see page 5 of Nirupars' Persepolis gallery, second row from the bottom, middle photo.

Peoples of the empire: The Medes

History
Herodotus writes that the Medes (Gk. Medoi) were originally called (as rendered in Greek) Arioi, which is almost assuredly related to Old Persian self-designation Ariya, "Aryans."  The Median language is scarcely attested, but appears to have been in the Northwestern Iranian branch and possibly ancestral to Old Azeri.

The historian also says they consisted of six tribes, called (in Latin translation) the Busae (Gk. Busai), Parataceni (Paratakenoi), Struchates (Strukhatai), Arizanti (Arizantoi), Budii (Budioi) and Magi (Magoi).  Magi (sing. magus, Gk. mágos) elsewhere in Greek histories refers to the priests of Media and Persia, and some historians believe that they are one and the same; in other words, that the Median tribe traditionally acted as the Iranians' priests, as the tribe of Levi did among the Israelites.

There is no certainty that the Biblical Magi were Medes, or any sort of Iranians:  By the late Hellenistic period, the term had become generic for priests and scholars from Mesopotamia, the Iranian plateau and the Indian subcontinent.  Its association with occult knowledge, by extension, gave rise to the words "magic" and "mage."  For all that, early portrayals of the Biblical Magi do show them in Iranian (specifically Parthian) clothing, though this may simply be meant to indicate that they came from the same general part of the world.

Media (O.P. Māda) was the first nation the Persians conquered.  It was located in the central Zagros north of Persia.  According to Greek histories, the Medes formed a centralized monarchy centered at Ecbatana (O.P. Hamgmatana, modern Hamadan) between the 7th century BC and 549, when Cyrus overthrew them.  There is as yet no clear archaeological record of such a state.  It likely was more of a tribal confederation, lacking the Achaemenids' political centralization.

The Medes and Persians were at least nominally subject to the Assyrians and often suffered raids or had to pay tribute to them, but between 616 and 605 the Medes allied with the Babylonians and Scythians in overthrowing the Neo-Assyrian empire.  The defeat left the Median confederation and the Babylonian empire as the two great spheres of influence in West Asia, Babylon in most of the Middle East, and Media from the Halys River (modern Kızılırmak) in Turkey to perhaps as far east as Bactria in northern Afghanistan and south as far as Persia.

According to Herodotus, Cyrus was the son of a Median princess and Persian tributary king, thus leading to the famous Delphian quip that Lydia (Cyrus' next conquest) would fall "when a mule sits on the throne of Media."  Medes remained an important part of the early Achaemenid government and military, providing officers such as Mazares and Harpagus, who conquered Asia Minor under Cyrus, and Datis, who (together with Artaphernes) led the first Persian invasion of Greece.

After Alexander conquered the empire, he divided Media into northern and southern satrapies, eventually reinstating the native satrap Atropates (Âtarepâta or Aturpat), who went on to found the kingdom of Atropatene (Aturpatakan), which lent its name to both the Iranian province and the state of Azerbaijan.  The Medes themselves are often held to be ancestral to the Kurds.

Dress, arms and fighting methods
We've already, for all practical purposes, covered Median clothing and arms, which were very similar to those of the Persians, but lacking the elements borrowed from the Elamites, such as the court robe.  Like the Persians, they relied heavily on cavalry and wore the cavalry costume, both in combat and at the royal court.  The Medes in Achaemenid art are attested as carrying the gorytus and akinakes, and are usually identified by their large domed hats.  However, you can also elect to wear a tiara or kidaris, which is the usual headwear for "Persians" in Greek art of the time.

Peoples of the empire: The Elamites

So far, this blog has focused on the history, society, clothing and arms of the Persians.  However, it was rare for any Achaemenid army to lack a significant number of troops from other nations.  This week, I'll begin a series of brief overviews on other national contingents found in the imperial armies during the Graeco-Persian wars.

We'll start with the Elamites.  I'd like to point out that because of certain difficulties with the uniquely Elamite costume, I don't recommend attempting it at this time.

History
Elam (Hebrew, derived from Elamite Haltamti) emerged as a civilization around 6,000 years ago and developed unique writing systems around 3000 BC, though only those documents written in cuneiform (2200 onward) have yet been decipered.  They thus predate the arrival of Indo-Europeans like the Iranians by many centuries.  Their language was either an isolate or possibly a sort of aunt to the Dravidian family, now represented mainly in South India and Sri Lanka.  They were polytheists, though I assume that over time, as Iranic culture became dominant in the area, their descendants took up early forms of Zoroastrianism and related faiths.

The country lay in the southwestern Iranian Plateau and its foothills.  Its most important cities were Susa (modern Shush) in Khuzestan Province and Anshan in Fars, the latter close to where Pasargadae and Persepolis were later built, and their kings frequently styled themselves "King of Anshan and Susa."  The name of Khuzestan derives from Susa via Old Persian "Huza" due to the Iranic tendency to transform initial S into H (cf. Sanskrit Sapta Sindhu, "[land of] seven rivers" = Avestan Hapta Hendu*); it later hardened into KH.

Elam was a powerful state that competed with Babylonia and Assyria for much of the 2nd and early 1st millennium BC.  However, a few centuries in, war had weakened and disunited the kingdoms.  At this time some Persians appear to have peacefully immigrated and settled alongside the Elamites, while others remained as nomadic tribes.  As Cyrus the Great in his famous Babylonian cylinder described himself as King of Anshan, it appears the Persians had at some point seized power in the ancient capital.  If Achaemenes existed, he may have been the first Persian king of Anshan.

The early Achaemenids would use Elamite as one of the languages in their inscriptions and administrative tablets.  In these records appear people identified as Elamites but bearing Iranian names.  It is likely that as time went on, the Elamites were absorbed by the Persians.

Dress
The robe
At Naqš-i Rustam, the tomb of Darius the Great, a table of nations is carved representing the Great King under Ahura Mazda supported by the many peoples of the empire, each identified by nationality.  The first three are a Persian, a Mede and an Elamite.  The Elamite wears a long, pleated robe identical to that of the Persian, while the Mede and all other Iranic peoples other than the Persian wear some sort of cavalry costume (tunic or jacket and trousers).  However, in most art not produced for the Great King, the Persians are seen wearing the cavalry costume, which Herodotus attributes to the Medes.  The simplest explanation is that rather than being specifically Median, the cavalry costume is actually the common dress of all Iranic peoples including the Persians, who adopted the robe when they came into contact with the Elamites.  Because it's seen in art produced for the royal court and the king's use, it's believed the Persians wore it as formalwear and so is also called the court robe or court dress.

The associated strapped/buttoned shoes are probably Elamite as well.  The best image I have found of these shoes is the fifth photo on this page.  I don't know how they were constructed.

The robe falls to just above the ankles and rises slightly where it is pleated in one or two long gathers down the front.  The gathering is held in place by a narrow, square-knotted sash probably made of fabric.  A good three-dimensional representation can be seen on the Egyptian statue of Darius the Great.  The upper appears to have been covered by a sort of poncho.  A frontwise view of this poncho (if such it is) may be seen in the fourth photo here.

Cavalry costume
In any case, Elamites on campaign in the Graeco-Persian wars probably wore Medo-Persian dress (tunic and trousers).  I have never seen any images of the Elamite robe in Greek art.  According to Herodotus, "The Cissians [people of Susa] in the army were equipped like the Persians, but they wore turbans instead of caps" (7.62, tr. A.D. Godley).  The translation "turban" may be misleading; it probably refers to the twisted headbands seen on many soldiers who wear the robe in imperial art, whereas "cap" is probably the earflapped tiara.

Arms and fighting methods
Elam was not a heavily equestrian culture, so they probably fought in a manner similar to Persian infantry.  The tradition of large pavises and archery is also seen in Mesopotamian warfare.

The bow
Their bows were the D-shaped ones with recurved tips also associated with Elamite dress in Achaemenid art, which are again similar to Mesopotamian models.  It was popular for the tips to be highly recurved and carved into birds' heads, but unfortunately no one I know of sells anything like this off the shelf.  The best option is probably an Assyrian bow.  Grozer Archery sometimes has some available, and you can find more with a simple Internet search, although be sure to ask around for recommendations (arms sites such as RAT and myArmoury are a good place to start).

The strung bow was carried around the left shoulder rather than in a case.  Arrows were kept in a large quiver behind the right shoulder.

Some soldiers in robes can be seen wearing gorytoi, which presumably contained the Scythian or B-shaped bows.

The dagger
The Elamites, and Persians dressing like them, also wore a dagger with a very wide, offset throat, tucked into their sashes diagonally across the belly.  The aforementioned Egyptian statue also provides a good closeup of this weapon.  I know of no archaeological findings, nor what they looked like when drawn from their scabbards, but based on the shape of the hilt, I surmise that they had tapered blades and were similar to earlier West Asian bronze swords with flanged slab tangs.  The large iron sword from Persepolis may be a related type.

* The same shift occurs in Greek, as in hepta ("seven," modern efta) versus Latin septem.

Update 4 (and hopefully last) on belts

I have Mom to thank for this one.

Hypothesis:  The so-called "flower buckle" (as seen in OIP 69) is not a buckle at all, but exactly what it appears to be - a concho.  The early Achaemenid weapon belt laces closed and the lace also attaches the round object, but as a purely decorative element.

We have no solid evidence for this hypothesis, but given the lack of contrary evidence, it should work with what we do know.

Recursive resourcing

I noticed a spike in traffic here from Fémkeresők Fóruma, a Hungarian-language forum.  This appears to be because forum member guny made use of my April 2012 article I'll show you where you can stick your bow when illustrating a point about the gorytos belt attachment in Re: Múzeumokkal, régészekkel való együttműködés.

First of all, thank you, guny, for the traffic boost.

Moreover, I'd like readers coming here from elsewhere to check out the post because the third link shows another possible type of belt attachment.  This one is a separate (metal?) piece with loops on the back for the thong to go through.  While I'm not familiar with the source and can't say whether this is the definitive method we should use, it is definitely on the table.