Macedonian iron armour from Agios Athanasios

[Duncan Head]

The Agios Athanasios tomb from near Thessaloniki, well known for its paintings of warriors, has also produced substantial remains of an iron panoply - quite similar to the "Philip II" panoply from Vergina.

There are two interesting articles by Maria Tsimbidou-Avlonitou at academia.edu; Tomb article discusses this and another tomb, and has a brief description of the armour. My thanks to David Karunanithy for pointing this one out to me.

At Armour of the noble dead is an article, mostly in Greek but with an English summary, including photos of the armour finds.

[Patrick Waterson]

That is interesting, Duncan.

Here is the paragraph (from page 7 of the paper) describing the armour:

"Countless iron fragments were collected, from which the armour of the dead man has been restored (Tsimbidou - Avloniti 2011). Among others, a pair of iron greaves was reconstructed (Fig. 19), a unique find to date, as all the other surviving examples are made of  bronze. Our conservators were also able to reassemble an iron, leather-coated cuirass almost identical to the one found in the royal tomb of Vergina (Andronicos 1984) (Fig. 20). Thus, the finds appear to be the complete weaponry of a companion of the Royal cavalry, as represented in the burial monuments of Macedonia but also in the painted decoration of his own tomb."

[Duncan Head]

The Greek article also speaks of pieces from an apparent iron-faced hoplite shield - still in conservation, so no photos. That was a surprise.

[Imperial Dave]

Apologies for what may be a completely facile question Duncan but regarding the adoption of iron armour, what is the accepted view in terms of a timeline?

I ask this in terms of what proportion a Imperial Macedonian army might have sported in terms of iron armour (panoply +/- helmet but not necessarily the shield leaving that to one side for the moment) vs say the Antigonid Macedonian army at Cynoscephalae?

I ask this in terms of a guide to painting such forces

[Duncan Head]

Apologies for what may be a completely facile question Duncan but regarding the adoption of iron armour, what is the accepted view in terms of a timeline?

I ask this in terms of what proportion a Imperial Macedonian army might have sported in terms of iron armour (panoply +/- helmet but not necessarily the shield leaving that to one side for the moment) vs say the Antigonid Macedonian army at Cynoscephalae?

We don't really have enough data, except to say that iron armour is virtually unheard of - except maybe for some iron scales - before the later 4th century, then occasional high-profile examples start to turn up. Personally, I doubt if the rank and file ever wore iron; I'd limit it to officers and guardsmen.

This article has some evidence on the spread of iron.

341 BC, Carthaginian infantry wear iron cuirasses and bronze helmets.
336 BC, if the Vergina tomb is Philip II's, iron helmet and cloth-covered iron cuirass with bronze greaves and shield.
333 BC, if the Mosaic represents Issos, Alexander wears an iron-scaled cuirass.
331 BC, Alexander wears an iron helmet and gorget at Gaugamela.
330 BC, Persian iron scale armour left in the ruins of sacked Persepolis - but there are too many Persian and Scythian examples to list.
317 BC, if the Vergina tomb is Philip III's, iron helmet and cloth-covered iron cuirass with bronze greaves and shield.
325-300 somewhen, Agios Athanasios tomb with leather-covered iron cuirass, iron helmet, iron greaves, iron shield.
c.310 BC (??), infantry helmets on the Alexander Sarcophagus are roughly half-and-half yellow (for bronze) and blue (could be for iron, or just painted - I still think paint is more likely).
305 BC, Demetrios Poliorketes is given two heavy iron panoplies from Cyprus.
Second half of the 4th century?, iron helmet from Marvinci, northern Macedonia.
First half of the 3rd century?, iron muscle-cuirass and helmet from tomb at Prodromi, Thesprotia.
3rd century?, iron helmet from Pletena, Thrace.
Later ?, iron Hellenistic helmet in the Hermitage, possibly from Melos.

[Imperial Dave]

Thanks for the information Duncan, much appreciated. As you suggest I'll keep any odd bits of iron on my figures (if any) to the officers and guardsmen.

Those links you post up from the Academia site are very useful indeed so thanks for that as well!

[Jim Webster]

The Academia site is starting to be useful, far too many other sites are behind subscription walls

Jim

[Duncan Head]

I've just come across an article about two Hellenistic iron cuirasses from Sarmatian burials in the Urals - see https://www.academia.edu/7235752/On_the_Dating_of_Hellenistic_Iron_Cuirasses_from_the_South_Ural_Region.

It's in Russian, and most of the illustrations will be familiar;  but there some small ones of the piece under discussion. And maybe someone here reads Russian well enough to give us a summary?

[Sharur]

And maybe someone here reads Russian well enough to give us a summary?

A better option might be to use Google Translate, and you could give us your own thoughts that way, Duncan? Translate's always at least a little dodgy, I know, and heavily dependent on perfect proof-reading of the original, but maybe better than nothing.

[Duncan Head]

Its translation of the summary was not all that promising - "The article deals with the problems of dating the two shells of the Hellenic Railways rannesarmats-cal burials Southern Urals". Certainly not a better option, I fear.

[Sharur]

Its translation of the summary was not all that promising - "The article deals with the problems of dating the two shells of the Hellenic Railways rannesarmats-cal burials Southern Urals". Certainly not a better option, I fear.

Sadly not a great surprise from my previous experiences with Translate. I had a quick check through some of the main texts this morning - hadn't time left yesterday evening - and they don't seem much better. Puzzling as to why, unless there's a peculiar usage of colloquialisms or technical terms the system doesn't recognise. But then again, it is Translate...

Impressed there's a discussion of the early Hellenic Railways in the southern Urals though. Perhaps the Trans-Siberian Railway wasn't such a great marvel after all...

[Patrick Waterson]

Impressed there's a discussion of the early Hellenic Railways in the southern Urals though. Perhaps the Trans-Siberian Railway wasn't such a great marvel after all...

And "shells ... burials" could be a poorly-translated reference to tunnels ... we know Hellenistic engineers invented the steam engine (or at least the aeolipile) and the mechanically intricate Antikythera mechanism, so a railway system does seem to be a logical development.

Not sure where the suits of armour come in, though.

[Sharur]

Not sure where the suits of armour come in, though.

Greek Mecha - Transformers of their day, perhaps (with Dendera as the "playsuit" version) 

[Patrick Waterson]

Greek Mecha - Transformers of their day, perhaps (with Dendera as the "playsuit" version) 

Aha - we start to come closer to the legend of Talos ... 

Meanwhile the 'Hellenistic' tag given to those suits of would fit Duncan's outline for general usage of iron armour.