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January 25, 2015, 05:48 AM
#1
Byzantine Soldiers in the 'Joshua Roll',10th century
Last edited by druzhina345; September 01, 2018 at 12:54 AM.
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January 25, 2015, 08:40 AM
#2
Re: Byzantine Soldiers in the 'Joshua Roll',10th century
Very nice. The 10th century was a very interesting period in military history in terms of the spread of military equipment and techniques from East to West.
One thing I notice is that many modern scholars like to distinguish antique forms of arms and armor from 'medieval' arms and armor.
But the fact is many of the forms of arms and armor have been around for thousands of years. Scale, leather, greaves, shields, spears, helmets, colors, embroidery, standards and all that stuff is old as the hills and not really new at all. I say this because the helmets and other parts of the uniform have been seen in eastern contexts going back to the Egyptians and Babylonians. But for some reason some historians seem to make a distinction between the late antique age of Romans and Byzantines and the early medieval period when in reality there was considerable overlap.
Of course the missing link is the Muslim world and their appropriation and usage of similar styles of arms and armor from the earlier cultures and the romans.
Unfortunately they didn't like to depict humans and a lot of what they actually used is somewhat off a mystery.
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January 25, 2015, 06:48 PM
#3
Re: Byzantine Soldiers in the 'Joshua Roll',10th century
Last edited by druzhina345; September 01, 2018 at 12:55 AM.
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January 26, 2015, 05:35 AM
#4
Re: Byzantine Soldiers in the 'Joshua Roll',10th century
Yes that is true, but they are few and far between to cover the whole expanse of the islamic world from Spain to North Africa, Southern Europe, Eastern Europe, Persia, the Levant, Arabia and into India and take into account all the regional traditions and customs in warfare. And compare that to the fact that even with the copious artwork from Rome, Greece and Persia there is still a great amount of gaps in places, especially for the late Roman/Byzantine era as most consider the art that remains as more stylistic than literal. And even then most scholars prefer physical artifacts over artwork for archaeological surveys. That leaves scholars like David Nicolle with trying to weave a narrative around tremendous gaps in the historical record, where a lot of it is based on subjective interpretation of surviving artwork.
That said, I can draw a line of influence just from the surviving artwork of the late antique age to the art of the high medieval era fairly easily. However, that is not something someone may take seriously in a scholarly setting. But your research still does help support those theories nevertheless. Actually, let me take that back, there is a great amount of knowledge about this transmission of styles if you get into very advanced art history courses. To the point where some folks can point out the symbolic language of some French paintings as reflecting elements of early Islamic mysticism or East Asian textile influence in European culture. But outside of art history, military historians are just the opposite and cling very hard to dogmatic traditions tied to European nationalism and pride more than anything else. The Germanic school of thought being a significant factor in this respect.
Last edited by ArmoredCore; January 26, 2015 at 06:34 AM.
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