(Alert via Sean Manning, Book and Sword) Mark Shier of Gaukler Medieval Wares in Canada is now offering a bronze hand brooch of a correct type for the Achaemenid period, so there'll be no need to have one custom-made or try to fabricate one.
Showing posts with label fibula. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fibula. Show all posts
Thursday, June 23, 2022
Arm fibulae from Gaukler Medieval Wares
Wednesday, May 16, 2018
Cast arm fibula
Three years ago, I fabricated an arm fibula out of brass rod. I was never satisfied with the lack of depth afforded by filing the details into stock that was narrow to begin with, so I've always wanted to replace it with one that was properly cast.
Last semester I took foundry at BCCC again and took the opportunity to make a few more reenactment items. This one, which I finished up just last week, is wax-cast (as the originals probably were) and based on an example found at the Harvard Art Museum.
Although this is a huge step up from the brass one, I still made a couple of mistakes and compromises. First, I had been meaning to replicate one from Deve Hüyük, and ran a simple Google search for this purpose, but didn't read the article carefully enough. This example is of unknown provenance, although the article does point out that it's similar to two Deve Hüyük examples. All three are of unusually large size, each around 4 inches/10cm long, with "bead and reel" decoration, flared at the base, and having fingers filed in after forging.
I cast it as a blind vent on a larger assembly. The hand was cast as a bulb. Unfortunately, I didn't account for shrinkage, resulting in a mushy hole where the wrist should've been, and the bulb fell off during de-gating. I forged the bulb out into a flared catchplate roughly 1mm thick (finding out, along the way, that the Everdur silicon bronze Bucks uses actually hot-forges nicely). Luckily, crack lab technician Ray was able to weld the catchplate back on, but the result is a much thinner "wrist" than the original has (it's still thick enough, though).
You'll also note that the proportions are slightly off. This probably had to do with my inability to sculpt the wax for the beads and reels thin enough, and of course I bent the elbow a little too sharply. The rough patch on the elbow is a remnant of the chill ball, and I may grind it smoother later on. The original might have been cast straight and then bent, but I don't think this is the case, since it's slightly thicker where it's bent than immediately above or below.
The other problem that occurred with casting was that the slurry, which is quite thick, apparently failed to flow between most of the very thin wax noodles which formed the reels on my wax positive. The first pair of reels just below the elbow cast fine. The second cast part of the way. The rest cast as single thick reels with only a short groove in one or two places around. This was sufficient as a starting place for me to file the grooves in, but it means that the grooves are sharp and the sides a bit square, unlike the nicely rounded cross section on the original.
The fingers were filed before bending the catchplate over. It proved too difficult to get the bend in the catchplate to align with the pin, but as you can see, this was a problem with the original as well, so it's perfectly accurate.
I made the hole for the pin with a drill press, unfortunately a bit off-center. The pin itself is simply a piece of springy 3/32-inch steel welding rod hard-soldered into place. The original used bronze, but the bronze welding rod at Bucks was too thin and I imagined that brass would contrast unpleasantly with the orangeish Everdur. In any case iron was also commonly used for arm fibula pins.
Last semester I took foundry at BCCC again and took the opportunity to make a few more reenactment items. This one, which I finished up just last week, is wax-cast (as the originals probably were) and based on an example found at the Harvard Art Museum.
I cast it as a blind vent on a larger assembly. The hand was cast as a bulb. Unfortunately, I didn't account for shrinkage, resulting in a mushy hole where the wrist should've been, and the bulb fell off during de-gating. I forged the bulb out into a flared catchplate roughly 1mm thick (finding out, along the way, that the Everdur silicon bronze Bucks uses actually hot-forges nicely). Luckily, crack lab technician Ray was able to weld the catchplate back on, but the result is a much thinner "wrist" than the original has (it's still thick enough, though).
You'll also note that the proportions are slightly off. This probably had to do with my inability to sculpt the wax for the beads and reels thin enough, and of course I bent the elbow a little too sharply. The rough patch on the elbow is a remnant of the chill ball, and I may grind it smoother later on. The original might have been cast straight and then bent, but I don't think this is the case, since it's slightly thicker where it's bent than immediately above or below.
The fingers were filed before bending the catchplate over. It proved too difficult to get the bend in the catchplate to align with the pin, but as you can see, this was a problem with the original as well, so it's perfectly accurate.
I made the hole for the pin with a drill press, unfortunately a bit off-center. The pin itself is simply a piece of springy 3/32-inch steel welding rod hard-soldered into place. The original used bronze, but the bronze welding rod at Bucks was too thin and I imagined that brass would contrast unpleasantly with the orangeish Everdur. In any case iron was also commonly used for arm fibula pins.
Monday, February 29, 2016
Deve Hüyük - the full catalogue
Following Friday's post, I found Roger Moorey's catalogue of finds. It was embarrassingly easy and I don't know why my earlier searches didn't turn it up, but here goes anyway. Although most of what's shown is in the form of line drawings, it's still a rich gallery of objects common to our time period.
An important note on time periods: The site as a whole comprises several phases. Deve Hüyük I seems to be Neo-Assyrian, while Deve Hüyük II is Achaemenid. There's also a few Arsacid-period graves in phase II; these are termed Deve Hüyük III. Therefore if you're interested in any particular object, you need to confirm which phase it belongs to.
Moorey states, on the basis of the long sword and hilt fragments from Persepolis (see OIP #69), that the flanged dagger was used throughout the Achaemenid period. He also lends some credence to something I've long suspected, that this dagger is the same as the "Elamite" dagger worn by robe-clad Persians and Elamites in period art.
There's a lot of highly decorated pottery, including several "flasks" shaped like pointed amphorae but without handles. A canteen broadly similar to the ones from Persepolis but slightly different in detail is here described as a "pilgrim flask," while another, highly decorated glazed one is considered to be of Egyptian influence.
Those looking to add more flare to high-class impressions may look to the variety of bronze bracelets, anklets, rings and earrings, many of which should be simple to fabricate from metal rod or strips with annealing and filing. Beads of all sorts of materials appear, as well as small, ceramic human head and animal pendants.
Among toiletries are a pair of tweezers, several circular bronze mirrors, and tubes and applicator sticks for kohl, a kind of eyeliner. The kohl tubes and sticks are not necessarily feminine accessories, as Xenophon claims that Astyages, like other Median men, wore "pencillings beneath his eyes." (Some of the attached codes may clarify this but I'm only skimming for the time being.)
Achaemenid bronze bowls, rhytons, iron akinakai, sagarides, arrowheads, tanged javelin heads, a second gorytos cover decoration, snaffle bits, arm fibulae and cylinder seals mostly reinforce what we already know. One socketed trilobate arrowhead is attached to a bronze chain for some reason, and most of the spearheads run to proportionally rather narrow, though they may have corroded at the edges. There's also a bronze bell described as a horse fitting.
An important note on time periods: The site as a whole comprises several phases. Deve Hüyük I seems to be Neo-Assyrian, while Deve Hüyük II is Achaemenid. There's also a few Arsacid-period graves in phase II; these are termed Deve Hüyük III. Therefore if you're interested in any particular object, you need to confirm which phase it belongs to.
Moorey states, on the basis of the long sword and hilt fragments from Persepolis (see OIP #69), that the flanged dagger was used throughout the Achaemenid period. He also lends some credence to something I've long suspected, that this dagger is the same as the "Elamite" dagger worn by robe-clad Persians and Elamites in period art.
There's a lot of highly decorated pottery, including several "flasks" shaped like pointed amphorae but without handles. A canteen broadly similar to the ones from Persepolis but slightly different in detail is here described as a "pilgrim flask," while another, highly decorated glazed one is considered to be of Egyptian influence.
Those looking to add more flare to high-class impressions may look to the variety of bronze bracelets, anklets, rings and earrings, many of which should be simple to fabricate from metal rod or strips with annealing and filing. Beads of all sorts of materials appear, as well as small, ceramic human head and animal pendants.
Among toiletries are a pair of tweezers, several circular bronze mirrors, and tubes and applicator sticks for kohl, a kind of eyeliner. The kohl tubes and sticks are not necessarily feminine accessories, as Xenophon claims that Astyages, like other Median men, wore "pencillings beneath his eyes." (Some of the attached codes may clarify this but I'm only skimming for the time being.)
Achaemenid bronze bowls, rhytons, iron akinakai, sagarides, arrowheads, tanged javelin heads, a second gorytos cover decoration, snaffle bits, arm fibulae and cylinder seals mostly reinforce what we already know. One socketed trilobate arrowhead is attached to a bronze chain for some reason, and most of the spearheads run to proportionally rather narrow, though they may have corroded at the edges. There's also a bronze bell described as a horse fitting.
Monday, April 6, 2015
Fabricating an arm brooch
Marathon 2015 is set for seven days in late October and early November, and Jevon Garrett informs me that rain is possible.
It's easy to pick gear for summer weather, not so much for rain and cold. Among reenactors, it's popular to wear tightly-woven wool cloaks with natural lanolin. I've said in the past that "Persians didn't wear cloaks as we know them," but more recently I've come across statements indicating that arm fibulae have been found in Iran proper. This means that commoners may indeed have worn cloaks, as opposed to kandyes, which are believed to be status items.
These fibulae were almost certainly wax cast, but since I'm taking foundry for the first time this semester, I didn't want to test the professor's patience by asking to do too many personal projects. Luckily, I could picture a method of creating one by hand which, while not strictly accurate, should be passable.
We start with two thicknesses of brass rod, 3/16 for the body and 1/16 for the pin. The body piece started at three inches and ended up two and a quarter inches.
I don't trust myself to file the grooves straight to begin with, so instead I etched shallow channels to act as guides for the files. Above, the rode is masked with permanent marker and covered with wax at the tips.
Some floss is lashed on with wax and the brass goes into a ferric chloride bath for about 40 minutes.
The string fell off, so I recovered the brass with rubber gloves and washed it in nail polish remover. Here's the initial etch.
A combination of fine files deepen and round out the grooves. I also ground the middle slightly thinner with the stone bit on the Dremel.
The brass rod is thin enough to be coiled by hand, but I didn't get it nice and even, and it hardened quickly. That can be fixed.
A little jury-rigged way of holding the pieces while they're annealed with a butane torch. Yes, the torch is on; it just doesn't burn brightly. Those rippling air currents do show up on the backdrop though.
After annealing, it was easy to correct the coil of the pin.
Repeated annealing and hammering and the catchplate begins to assume its shape.
On the originals, the pin was often iron (usually corroded away) and emerged from a hole in the middle of one end. I have no tool that would make drilling a hole in the middle feasible. Instead the pin is soldered into a groove in the side. This is also why it's brass instead of iron or steel. This step and the next one should actually be done with two hands.
When the groove is deep and wide enough to accept the pin, you can begin adjusting how the pin will fit into the catchplate. Enough of the catchplate needs to be folded over that a casual bump won't dislodge the pin. I plied, hammered and re-annealed it for an hour, and it's still shallower than it should be, but also more curled. This luckily gives it a bit of a snap without locking it into place irreversibly, but you can't count on that happening..
Widening the groove with a riffler. I also wound up filing the pin slightly for a better fit.
Once the fit was flush, I dipped the base of the pin into flux and got help holding the pin in the groove with pliers while I applied torch and solder.
The finished product after burnishing. At this point one could continue filing or etching individual fingers, which I may do in the future.
It's easy to pick gear for summer weather, not so much for rain and cold. Among reenactors, it's popular to wear tightly-woven wool cloaks with natural lanolin. I've said in the past that "Persians didn't wear cloaks as we know them," but more recently I've come across statements indicating that arm fibulae have been found in Iran proper. This means that commoners may indeed have worn cloaks, as opposed to kandyes, which are believed to be status items.
These fibulae were almost certainly wax cast, but since I'm taking foundry for the first time this semester, I didn't want to test the professor's patience by asking to do too many personal projects. Luckily, I could picture a method of creating one by hand which, while not strictly accurate, should be passable.
When the groove is deep and wide enough to accept the pin, you can begin adjusting how the pin will fit into the catchplate. Enough of the catchplate needs to be folded over that a casual bump won't dislodge the pin. I plied, hammered and re-annealed it for an hour, and it's still shallower than it should be, but also more curled. This luckily gives it a bit of a snap without locking it into place irreversibly, but you can't count on that happening..
Once the fit was flush, I dipped the base of the pin into flux and got help holding the pin in the groove with pliers while I applied torch and solder.
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Peoples of the empire: The Cappadocians
Cappadocia (O.P. Katpatuka) lay between the Halys and northern Euphrates in central Anatolia. The region still goes by this name (Kapadokya in Turkish) for tourism purposes.
According to Herodotus, the Cappadocians are the people who were classically known to the Greeks as Syrians. This would seem to be the result of an excessively wide application of the name Syria, which is probably a Greek garbling of Assyria (which ruled the lands to the south of Cappadocia).
History
The land where Cappadocia later existed was the center of the great Hittite empire in the Bronze Age, but by the start of the Achaemenid period the Medes had already been ceded the land by the Lydian empire, when the Halys became the border between the Medes and Lydians. (As usual, it should be noted that we do not know how "imperial" the Medes actually were: The Cappadocians' subjection may have been only nominal.)
Cyrus the Great conquered Cappadocia in 547 BC, and Darius the Great placed them in the third tax district and imposed a yearly tax of 360 talents. At the Persepolis Apadana, the Cappadocians bear tribute consisting of a horse, coats and trousers. Ctesias refers to the first satrap of Cappadocia as Ariaramnes, a name shared by Darius' great-grandfather.
According to Herodotus, the Cappadocians in Xerxes' invasion of Greece served as infantry under Gobryas (Gaubaruva), Xerxes' half-brother by Darius (not to be confused with the Gobryas who helped place Darius on the throne). He does not mention them among the cavalry despite their historical connections with horse-rearing.
From the Anabasis of Xenophon, it is believed that by the time of Artaxerxes II southwestern Cappadocia was part of a satrapy called Greater Phrygia. In his reign, Cappadocia was administratively divided into Cappadocia and Paphlagonia.
According to the 1st-century BC Roman historian Cornelius Nepos, a Cappadocian satrap in the early 4th century, Datames, played a major part in imperial politics and war. Nepos describes Datames as a Carian, son of Camissares, satrap of Cilicia. Datames took part in the 385 invasion of Cadusia in northern Iran, where Camissares died. Afterward he put down several revolts, and King Artaxerxes II appointed him to lead the reconquest of Egypt, but court intrigue led to Datames relinquishing this appointment; it was taken up by Pharnabazus of Phrygia and failed in 373. Datames then joined the Revolt of the Satraps, and repeatedly defeated the royal armies sent against him. Cappadocia was in revolt from from 372-362, when Mithridates, son of fellow rebellious satrap Ariobarzanes of Phrygia, defected to the king, assassinated Datames and extradited his father to Artaxerxes.
Cappadocia was captured by Alexander the Great early in his invasion of the Persian empire. The last Achaemenid satrap, Mithrobuzanes, died during the Battle of the Granicus in 334. (However, Diodorus has an Ariamnes as satrap during this time; possibly they were satraps of different parts of Cappadocia). Alexander appointed a native Cappadocian, Abistamenes or (according to Arrian) Sabictas. However, his rule appears to have been tenuous; he ceases to appear in history after the Battle of Issus. Cappadocians fought as cavalry on the Achaemenid side at the Battle of Gaugamela in 332, under the command of Mazaeus, governor of Babylon.
After Alexander's death in 323, Macedonian general Perdiccas acted as regent for his young sons. In this role he gave the rule of Cappadocia and Paphlagonia to Eumenes, a high-ranking Greek general. Eumenes contended with Ariarathes I, a son of the aforementioned Ariamnes, who had seized power in 330. Perdiccas captured and killed Ariarathes, but was himself to fall in the Wars of the Diadochi, and Ariarathes' nephew Ariarathes II took central and northern Cappadocia to create a new kingdom with its seat at the already ancient city Mazaca (later Caesarea, Kayseri in Turkish).
Cappadocia was initially a tributary of the Seleucids and became independent in the 3rd century. Hellenistic influence was strong; the kings were of mixed Greek and Persian descent and used Ariarathes as a regnal name. During Roman expansion in the early 2nd century, Cappadocia first sided with the Seleucids, then with the Romans. Meddling by Mithridates VI of the nearby kingdom of Pontus led to the collapse of the Cappadocian dynasty in 96 BC. A new dynasty was founded by native noble Ariobarzanes I, but was highly unstable due to both competition from neighboring countries and its own shifting alliances with the Roman Triumvirates. In 41 BC, Marc Antony deposed Ariobarzanes' grandson Ariarathes IX and appointed as king Archelaus, the high priest of the Cappadocian city of Comana.
As a client of the Romans, Archelaus was compelled to go to Rome at the behest of Tiberius in AD 17, where he was accused of plotting rebellion. He died there, ostensibly of illness (Tacitus considers it possible that he committed suicide). Thereafter, Cappadocia became a Roman province, which it would remain under the Eastern Romans (Byzantines), Seljuks and Ottomans.
Language
Try as I might, I have yet to find anything at all regarding the Cappadocian language(s) during the Achaemenid period. A reasonable guess, however, might be a development of Hittite or Luwian, Indo-European languages of the Anatolian branch.
The language of Cappadocia in later centuries was a dialect of Greek, which is preserved today by those who were sent to Greece in the 1920s during the population exchange between Greece and Turkey.
Religion
Likewise I can learn little about this. Archelaus' home city, Comana, was sacred to the moon goddess Ma.
Clothing and arms
Clothing
In Persian art, the Cappadocians' clothing and hairstyles are much the same as the Medes, Persians and Armenians, including the tunics, footed trousers, shoes strapped around the ankle, and narrow, knotted sashes. They wear tiaras with the peaks laying to one side (which, as I have previously discussed, probably indicates a fine woven fabric - felt simply doesn't lie down like that) and the earflaps tied up at the back of the head, like a modern ushanka. Examples may be seen here (second photo up, center) and here.
The most notable difference is that rather than overcoats like the Medes, Cappadocians wear short-ish square cloaks, closed by bow-shaped fibulae at the shoulder. (In some images these fibulae appear to be ribbed and may resemble examples found at Deve Hüyük.)
Weapons
Herodotus describes Cappadocian equipment as "like the Paphlagonians," which in turn consisted of "woven helmets... small shields and short spears, and also javelins and daggers..." At Naqš-e Rostam the Cappadocian has an akinakes. On balance - considering, for example, the similar costumes - it seems plausible that Cappadocian arms were also similar to the Iranians'; they may, for example, have used crescent shields and daggers of the akinakes type, if not necessarily the particular Achaemenid style.
According to Herodotus, the Cappadocians are the people who were classically known to the Greeks as Syrians. This would seem to be the result of an excessively wide application of the name Syria, which is probably a Greek garbling of Assyria (which ruled the lands to the south of Cappadocia).
History
The land where Cappadocia later existed was the center of the great Hittite empire in the Bronze Age, but by the start of the Achaemenid period the Medes had already been ceded the land by the Lydian empire, when the Halys became the border between the Medes and Lydians. (As usual, it should be noted that we do not know how "imperial" the Medes actually were: The Cappadocians' subjection may have been only nominal.)
Cyrus the Great conquered Cappadocia in 547 BC, and Darius the Great placed them in the third tax district and imposed a yearly tax of 360 talents. At the Persepolis Apadana, the Cappadocians bear tribute consisting of a horse, coats and trousers. Ctesias refers to the first satrap of Cappadocia as Ariaramnes, a name shared by Darius' great-grandfather.
According to Herodotus, the Cappadocians in Xerxes' invasion of Greece served as infantry under Gobryas (Gaubaruva), Xerxes' half-brother by Darius (not to be confused with the Gobryas who helped place Darius on the throne). He does not mention them among the cavalry despite their historical connections with horse-rearing.
From the Anabasis of Xenophon, it is believed that by the time of Artaxerxes II southwestern Cappadocia was part of a satrapy called Greater Phrygia. In his reign, Cappadocia was administratively divided into Cappadocia and Paphlagonia.
According to the 1st-century BC Roman historian Cornelius Nepos, a Cappadocian satrap in the early 4th century, Datames, played a major part in imperial politics and war. Nepos describes Datames as a Carian, son of Camissares, satrap of Cilicia. Datames took part in the 385 invasion of Cadusia in northern Iran, where Camissares died. Afterward he put down several revolts, and King Artaxerxes II appointed him to lead the reconquest of Egypt, but court intrigue led to Datames relinquishing this appointment; it was taken up by Pharnabazus of Phrygia and failed in 373. Datames then joined the Revolt of the Satraps, and repeatedly defeated the royal armies sent against him. Cappadocia was in revolt from from 372-362, when Mithridates, son of fellow rebellious satrap Ariobarzanes of Phrygia, defected to the king, assassinated Datames and extradited his father to Artaxerxes.
Cappadocia was captured by Alexander the Great early in his invasion of the Persian empire. The last Achaemenid satrap, Mithrobuzanes, died during the Battle of the Granicus in 334. (However, Diodorus has an Ariamnes as satrap during this time; possibly they were satraps of different parts of Cappadocia). Alexander appointed a native Cappadocian, Abistamenes or (according to Arrian) Sabictas. However, his rule appears to have been tenuous; he ceases to appear in history after the Battle of Issus. Cappadocians fought as cavalry on the Achaemenid side at the Battle of Gaugamela in 332, under the command of Mazaeus, governor of Babylon.
After Alexander's death in 323, Macedonian general Perdiccas acted as regent for his young sons. In this role he gave the rule of Cappadocia and Paphlagonia to Eumenes, a high-ranking Greek general. Eumenes contended with Ariarathes I, a son of the aforementioned Ariamnes, who had seized power in 330. Perdiccas captured and killed Ariarathes, but was himself to fall in the Wars of the Diadochi, and Ariarathes' nephew Ariarathes II took central and northern Cappadocia to create a new kingdom with its seat at the already ancient city Mazaca (later Caesarea, Kayseri in Turkish).
Cappadocia was initially a tributary of the Seleucids and became independent in the 3rd century. Hellenistic influence was strong; the kings were of mixed Greek and Persian descent and used Ariarathes as a regnal name. During Roman expansion in the early 2nd century, Cappadocia first sided with the Seleucids, then with the Romans. Meddling by Mithridates VI of the nearby kingdom of Pontus led to the collapse of the Cappadocian dynasty in 96 BC. A new dynasty was founded by native noble Ariobarzanes I, but was highly unstable due to both competition from neighboring countries and its own shifting alliances with the Roman Triumvirates. In 41 BC, Marc Antony deposed Ariobarzanes' grandson Ariarathes IX and appointed as king Archelaus, the high priest of the Cappadocian city of Comana.
As a client of the Romans, Archelaus was compelled to go to Rome at the behest of Tiberius in AD 17, where he was accused of plotting rebellion. He died there, ostensibly of illness (Tacitus considers it possible that he committed suicide). Thereafter, Cappadocia became a Roman province, which it would remain under the Eastern Romans (Byzantines), Seljuks and Ottomans.
Language
Try as I might, I have yet to find anything at all regarding the Cappadocian language(s) during the Achaemenid period. A reasonable guess, however, might be a development of Hittite or Luwian, Indo-European languages of the Anatolian branch.
The language of Cappadocia in later centuries was a dialect of Greek, which is preserved today by those who were sent to Greece in the 1920s during the population exchange between Greece and Turkey.
Religion
Likewise I can learn little about this. Archelaus' home city, Comana, was sacred to the moon goddess Ma.
Clothing and arms
Clothing
In Persian art, the Cappadocians' clothing and hairstyles are much the same as the Medes, Persians and Armenians, including the tunics, footed trousers, shoes strapped around the ankle, and narrow, knotted sashes. They wear tiaras with the peaks laying to one side (which, as I have previously discussed, probably indicates a fine woven fabric - felt simply doesn't lie down like that) and the earflaps tied up at the back of the head, like a modern ushanka. Examples may be seen here (second photo up, center) and here.
The most notable difference is that rather than overcoats like the Medes, Cappadocians wear short-ish square cloaks, closed by bow-shaped fibulae at the shoulder. (In some images these fibulae appear to be ribbed and may resemble examples found at Deve Hüyük.)
Weapons
Herodotus describes Cappadocian equipment as "like the Paphlagonians," which in turn consisted of "woven helmets... small shields and short spears, and also javelins and daggers..." At Naqš-e Rostam the Cappadocian has an akinakes. On balance - considering, for example, the similar costumes - it seems plausible that Cappadocian arms were also similar to the Iranians'; they may, for example, have used crescent shields and daggers of the akinakes type, if not necessarily the particular Achaemenid style.
Saturday, May 18, 2013
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.
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.
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