Talas-Tal bronze figurine

[MeinPanzer]

Ruben,
I can open it now. Thanks.
How do you see the armour the figure is wearing? Is he a cavalry figure?
Greetings
Philip

I have no doubt that this is a dismounted cavalryman, as we also see on one issue of Azes I. This was a figurine attached to a bronze cult altar, and so it perhaps represents a warrior god or a nobleman. The armour represented is quite clearly the same as we find on the Indo-Saka issues, Khumbuz-tepe fragment, Siberian bracer, etc. We see the same ridged helmet; high three-sided rectangular collar; and the skirt with rows of armoured plates. The only thing is that due to the crudity of the figure, the artisan did not depict the plates on the torso or the skirt; laminated armour was perhaps also intended to be shown on the arms and legs, but were not shown for the same reason.

http://s557.photobucket.com/albums/ss12 ... akaeu8.jpg

I think this might be a reconstruction of the Talas-Tal figure.

This definitely seems to be, but I disagree with a number of points in the reconstruction. Firstly, the helmet shown on the figurine has a continuous ridge running from the brow to the back edge of the helmet, not just a small "handle" as shown here. Secondly, the artist has interpreted the featureless torso and rows on the skirt as solid metal armour, which is clearly wrong: we find no such evidence for solid plate anywhere else among the Saka (the artist has also misinterpreted this on the skirt of the mounted figure). Finally, though he was shown on foot, this man was almost certainly a cavalryman.