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Does anyone know why did they die out? A gorytos seems like a really good idea, especially if you make it big enough to hold larger-style horsebows as well (which shouldn't be too much of a problem). I'm designing one at the moment for my Grozer Old Scythian + arrows but want to know if there's anything inherently wrong with the design that led to their decline.
Thanks!
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Aside from the often correct answer to why a 'practical' artifact disappears, namely 'fashion', perhaps the introduction of larger more powerful bows such as the Hunnic bow made the gorytus too, larger to the point of impracticality......
"dulce et decorum est pro patria mori " - Horace
(It is a sweet and proper thing to die for ones country)
"No son-of-a-bitch ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country" - George C Scott as General George S. Patton
Paul McDonnell-Staff
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Quote:Does anyone know why did they die out? A gorytos seems like a really good idea, especially if you make it big enough to hold larger-style horsebows as well (which shouldn't be too much of a problem). I'm designing one at the moment for my Grozer Old Scythian + arrows but want to know if there's anything inherently wrong with the design that led to their decline.
Thanks!
If I would hazard a guess it would be basically what Paul has stated: as time went on, bows became larger, as did arrows, and so it became too difficult to make a manageably-large gorytus that didn't restrict the amount of arrows that could be carried. If you look at the bowcases of steppe nomads into the mid-second millennium AD even, they are very similar in form to the widespread gorytoi in use in the latter first millennium BC, but their quivers are much larger and longer. From around the first few centuries after the introduction of the Hunnic bow, we still see very large quiver tubes attached to gorytoi (as in, for instance, on the Orlat battle plaque), but they are by then almost longer than the bowcases themselves. In the end it probably just became more practical to separate the two, which also allowed more arrows to be carried.
Ruben
He had with him the selfsame rifle you see with him now, all mounted in german silver and the name that he\'d give it set with silver wire under the checkpiece in latin: Et In Arcadia Ego. Common enough for a man to name his gun. His is the first and only ever I seen with an inscription from the classics. - Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian
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Thanks for the replies!
Why do you need a very long arrow section for longer arrows? Modern quivers are quite short, less than half the length of the arrow, and field quivers are even smaller, and the type of quiver which is commonly associated with Turkish archery isn't very tall either.
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Modern/field quivers are not used for the rigours of life on the steppes or in battle.....a 'field quiver' would not help much in merely riding past a bush, or rubbing up against another horse while herding etc......you need a higher degree of protection !
"dulce et decorum est pro patria mori " - Horace
(It is a sweet and proper thing to die for ones country)
"No son-of-a-bitch ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country" - George C Scott as General George S. Patton
Paul McDonnell-Staff
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Fair enough ... I guess I need to rework my designs then. Or just separate the two.
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Have a poke around on this site
http://www.atarn.org/frameindex.htm
There is a wealth of knowledge from all over the world. Teachers,bowyers,historians. Just about anything you would like to know about ancient and modern Asian archery.
Jon R
There are no real truths, just stories. (Zuni)
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I read there is/was a find of the wooden core of an gorytos in one of the skythian Kurgans of Kertsch. Are there any publications, pictures or drawings about it?
lg Stephan
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Do you mean a wooden frame suporting the leather? Somewhere I have apattern for said style of gorytoi. If
it would be of help I can mine my HD for it.
Jon R.
There are no real truths, just stories. (Zuni)
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Yes such a sort of gorytos I meant. It would be great if you can give me some information about. I am upgrading my 4th century skythian-kit, especially the gorytos but all I could find untill now about was the shematic drawing of the Kertschgoryt [url:co0kyl6h]http://picasaweb.google.com/GentesDanubius/Unsichtbares?authkey=Gv1sRgCLWmot-OjsqHfg#5333028471545786258[/url] (the right one), the metallfittings of Vergina, Solocha and so on, and the woodfittings of Arzan which are to early because 9th-8th century bc.[url:co0kyl6h]http://picasaweb.google.com/GentesDanubius/Unsichtbares?authkey=Gv1sRgCLWmot-OjsqHfg#5333028489836461506[/url] [url:co0kyl6h]http://picasaweb.google.com/GentesDanubius/Unsichtbares?authkey=Gv1sRgCLWmot-OjsqHfg#5333028498821359938[/url]
It seems that there is no great difference between the 8th century find of Arzan and the frames at gorytimages of the vases of Kuloba and Gajmanova mogila or the Tolstaja Mogila Pektorale but I'm not sure at all.
lg Stephan
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Heres a pattern for a plain leather one.
http://www.atarn.org/islamic/patterns/t ... quiver.jpg
Heres another
http://www.atarn.org/letters/letr_mar04 ... search.jpg this one is Parthian(?)
I will see if I can find the other pattern I had.
Heres a few pcs of a Scythian style.
http://198.170.107.188/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1087
Jon R.
There are no real truths, just stories. (Zuni)
