Canakkale Persian armour reconstruction

[Merlkir]

Nice work! I hadn't thought of this interpretation and it is plausible i think. But i tend to believe it is cuilted linen. We don't see any stitching implication,but it has the same redish colour that other persian cuirasses have in the Alexander mosaic,for instance. It could also explain the sleeves,since medieval padded jackets could have workable sleeves and still they maintained some stiffness. I just can't ecplain why there is no carved line on the back of the "sleeves" to indicate a separate piece!

Also,the akinakes should hung from the belt that is visible in his waist. What you interpreted as laces around his thigh is his tunic hunging under the armour.
Nice painting!
Khaire
Giannis

Thanks for the reply!

1) I considered quilted linen and it's quite plausible, yes. I will probably do that variant as well. What goes against it is indeed the lack of any visible quilting. Could it be like a thick felt coat? (I don't know how worthy of a noble warrior this would be, but I've done a drawing of a ptolemaic cataphract wearing felt armour before)
About the sleeves - yes, sleeves of a quilted linen coat would be possible. I'm not sure I'm convinced though, because the arm guard is very rectangular and very sharply carved, with a sharp edge! It's obvious the artist used softer rounder edges where he suggests round arm in a cloth tunic, I wonder if it's really a sleeve.

It could be also a thick cloth plate - perharps worn similarly to a byzantine kavadion's sleeves?
(horse archer to the right)
[url:1mctq3m3]http://i664.photobucket.com/albums/vv10/SergejKorolev/Osprey%20Publishing/Byzantine%20Cavalryman/Training.jpg[/url]

2) About the akinakes - I started painting it hanging from the belt. But! There is no attachement visible connecting the scabbard and the belt, the akinakes I've seen in other carvings have such funny ornamental buckles for that. I thought it was lacing of a tunic too, but when I looked closely, there are 4 visible lines, which would make two laces at the bottom of the tunic. Is this common? Te me it immediately looked like a leg strap.



What sold me on the strapped akinakes theory was this - in all other depictions of akinakes, the sword is hanging down, obviously attached by the buckle to the belt. Here it's angled quite a lot, in a direct line with the leg.




Although this saka reconstruction makes me think that there may be such a simple strap (which would angle it quite a lot), but the detail is worn off and no longer clearly visible in the relief.

[url:1mctq3m3]http://img304.imageshack.us/img304/7615/skythe28ak.jpg[/url]

Still I must say, the akinakes would then hang really quite low! Compared to the other versions I posted, they hang much closer to the waist.

Anyways, most likely I'll make another version of this soon, probably the quilted coat one. Thanks a lot for the feedback.