non combat gear

[jabames]

Do you guys know where to get non-combat gear? like tunics, knives, eating/cooking utensils, footwear accurate to greek armies time???

[jkaler48]

Greek military shoes here.
http://daniyalgreekcollection.blogspot.com/

[Iraklitos]

Most people just make the tunic (chiton) as it's just a large rectangle.

Canteen - Crazy Cow trading post has groud style one's.

[jkaler48]

Gourd canteen from Crazy cow link:

http://www.crazycrow.com/mm5/merchant.mv...range_high=

[Iraklitos]

Also for the net forage bag, unless you know finger looping I got mine at:

Suzes sashes and stashes. Her's is one of those E-bay stores.

Item # 120611759104 Title: Fingerwoven, Jute, native, F&I hunting, game bag, mess kit for $30.00.

As it's just the bag I had to pick up a plain cotton edging from a fabic store and sew up a shoulder strap for it.

The satchel I found at a leather merchant at a Pirate Faire. Look for something plain like a map case, satchel, carry bag.

[jabames]

already got a good buckskin shoulder bag, juss need a good period knife, maybe I can carve my own birch burl cup idk

[Kineas]

There's quite a lot to know about an knife, a canteen, or a shoulder bag. I'd warn against "back in the day" crude--everything we see made in Archaic Greece is well made.

There are eating knives at Sardis and Olympia--most of them are bronze. I just photographed a bunch of knives from Epadavros in the Peloponnese, and they all seem to be bronze, too. NB that may be a matter of survival. Iron goes fast. But Occam's razor says you're better off with a simple, flat bronze blade in a pair of slabs, fastened with rivets. That seems to be the commonest form.A spike tang in wood or bone also seems common. Contact me by PM and I'll post a sample of originals.

Gourd canteens--good notion--any supporting contemporary evidence?

Buckskin bag--ditto?

But I'm delighted that non-combat gear is getting this attention, because in our unit, we require it first.

[Kineas]

And just to add snarkiness--after Marathon, I don't think any of us will ever buy from Deepeeka again. First, their "tunics" are just wrong (and there's ton to know about a Greek chiton and the chitoniskos!) and the sandals don't stand up to use for three days--the helmets are too soft and the wrong shape...

Just say no...

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Thanks for the warning Christian!

[hoplite14gr]

After the 10 day "carnage in Biskupin" I state that only the custom made (for war!) equipment of our armorer made it through this grueling days! Most industrial
mass-produced stuff(combat or non combat)is only for show :!: :!: :!:

Eves staged strikes destroy this things!

Kind regards

[Kineas]

These are from 6th c. BCE Epidavros in the Peloponnese.

There ARE medical instruments in the case, but these are mostly eating knives.

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Epidavros, that is a facinating place! i was there in 2002, there were a few excavations going on
I think it was roman remains they were working on.

[Iraklitos]

Gourd canteens--good notion--any supporting contemporary evidence?

This is something (along with the other non-combat items) that first came up in a previous thread.

While I've only done the lightest of checking, it really comes down to a 'why not?' type of thing.
#1 there had to be something other than a pottery type. #2 they did have a suitable gourd in ancient Greece that could have been used for this purpose. #3 With just about any culture that had suitable veggies, a hollowed out something was used to transport fluid in. #4 If you can get past the taste of the water, it makes a $uitable alternate to the pottery model offered (a good $20.00 less) and unless you look real close at the Crazy Cow one you'd never know it was made from a gourd as it's shaped just like a normal canteen.

Not the most scientific of reasoning I know.

[Giannis K. Hoplite]

And just to add snarkiness--after Marathon, I don't think any of us will ever buy from Daniyal again. First, their "tunics" are just wrong (and there's ton to know about a Greek chiton and the chitoniskos!) and the sandals don't stand up to use for three days--the helmets are too soft and the wrong shape...

Just say no...

Christian, did any of you have DSC tunics? I didn't know they actually had tunics, but i will agree that there is so much to know about a greek chiton! Mostly because it is just a rectangular piece and you have to make it into fashinable clothing only with the way you will wear it. You can't really wear wrongly a t-shirt!

Also i though that the only people with DSC sandals at Marathon was Athanasios Porporis and myself. We both wore them for four days with no problems. I actually wore them day and night and some times also in the sleep, with modern and period clothing. I also drove with them despite the hobnails. I walked in the sea with them and the only fault i saw after four days was that the top thin layer of the sole might need a bit of glue around the edge, or i might even put a cork layer, as i have seen a pair in the Amphipolis museum.
So i don't really know why you think the sandals didn't work. No hobnails came off either,despite the 10 km walk in the asphalt.

Finally, i forgot to hand it to you so we could compare, but my illyrian helmet is quite sturdy and not that light. I have to admit that it was one of the first though, and i don't know if they made their later ones thinner. Perhaps it is explained by the fact that the corinthians and chalkideans all have a raised edge whereas the illyrians don't, so no need for thinner metal.
I agree though that most of their helmets need further corrections on design. On the face of it however, i still prefer then to the deepeeka ones!
Khaire
Giannis

[Kineas]

The Illyrian helmet was excellent.

Oops, though, the bad is on me, because I didn't mean DSC but Deepeeka. Damn. Apologies to everyone. That's Marathon fatigue. It's the Deepeeka helmets that were wrong, and their the ones with the utterly wrong tunic, too. And the sandals that fell apart!

DSC did much better.