Massagetean heavy cavalry in Gaugamela?

[MeinPanzer]

Dr Olbrycht in his book 'Alexander and the Iranian World,' says (p 144-145) that S.P. Tolstov reconstruction is wrong regarding the protection of hips and sides (aroudn his waist) - he goes with messer Gorelik reconstruction of these rounded plates as arms and shoulder protections and neck guard - as in the watercolor drawing you published).

The problem is that the remains of armour are so limited that we can't really say much of anything about how they were assembled other than through comparison with iconographic sources. The long, wide plate which Tolstov took to be some sort of side flap (he never explained his reconstruction as far as I have been able to tell), and which Gorelik took to be either a portion of the collar or a wide belt-plate (he reconstructs the panoply as including both), is so fragmentary that we can't say much of anything other than it measured at minimum 9x12 cm.

Other images - the terracotta from Koy-Krihglan-kala in Uzbekistan there is a kontophoroi - lancer, with pointed bashlik headgear and holding a lance with both hands parallel to the ground at the waist level, as the Sarmatians later on.

That Kroi-Kylgan-kala terracotta fragment is very interesting, but I am dubious of any claim that it shows a two-handed lancer. The problem lies in the reproduction of the sherd. If you take this reproduction:

http://www.antiquemilitaryhistory.com/i ... nkala2.JPG

It looks like the rider is holding the spear with both his right arm and his extended left arm. However, if you look at this reproduction:

http://www.antiquemilitaryhistory.com/i ... nkala1.JPG

It seems that what appeared previously to be his left arm is instead a portion of the reins, and that his left arm instead runs behind the horse's neck. Both are from Tolstov's publications. I am inclined to take the latter image as the more precise, since it was published later and seems to have been rendered with more care.

There is also this sherd from the same site:

http://www.antiquemilitaryhistory.com/i ... nkala3.JPG

Which is interesting because it shows that the Chorasmians A) wore their daggers strapped to the thigh very early, before it spread throughout just about the entire Iranian-speaking world, and B) that they decorated their horse furniture with phalerae well before it became widespread. Also neat to note that the dagger is very similar to contemporary Sauromation examples.

The Taraz piece is very interesting, sort of along the Orlat plate, except that the hip protection appears to be shorter -

The reason the skirt is shorter is because this figure was supposed to ride a separately-cast horse, and the artisan seems to have made his upper body quite a bit larger than his legs, so it appears to be very short.

I have some Russian language articles regarding the times and area so I will look for some info amongst them - meantime do peruse the website - http://kronk.narod.ru/library.htm
Saka warrior armament http://militera.lib.ru/h/korolev_k/13.gif
Pazyrskij Saka http://history.novosibdom.ru/files/u9/sibir_85.jpg
Armor from the Altai V-III century BC http://new.hist.asu.ru/skif/fotos/pub/051.gif

Maybe you could help me with this. I've seen Solov'ev's reconstruction of an armoured Pazyryk warrior before, but what is his source? I've done a lot of research on Pazyryk warrior burials, consulting many Russian sources, but I've yet to find an example of scale armour which has been discovered in the Altai between the 5th and 3rd c. BC. The only example I know if is a tiny plate dating from the 7th-6th c. BC which Gorelik published in his "Oruzhie Drevnego Vostoka" (Pl. LVI, 12). What evidence are those reconstructions of cuirasses based on?