Sea People armour

[Andreas Johansson]

On the painting table I've got a few Sea People warriors looking rather like the figure from AANE below. So, the question is, how do I paint the upper body armour?

The Nigels suggests that it was bronze or leather, while D'Amato in his Osprey volume on the Sea Peoples, in an evident attempt to be even less helpful, says it may have been bronze, leather, textile, or a combination. So, baring some recent archaeological miracle I've missed, the simple answer is presumably that nobody actually knows, and I should go with whatever I think looks right. Which'd probably be some sort of organic armour, metallic armour on common foot soldiers seems unlikely in the Late Bronze Age and the army list is pleased to class these guys as "Fast", which doesn't rhyme well with the weight of bronze armour.

But first I thought I'd invite the resident cognoscenti to sure any insights or suggestions they might have Maybe there's even been an archaeological miracle?

(If it makes a difference, I'll be using these figures in the first instance as Lukka auxiliaries in a Hittite army.)

[Swampster]

I wonder if this is an Egyptian portrayal of the bronze armour shown in e.g. https://mmoedlinger.eu/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/2017_mc3b6dlinger_ba-armour.pdf

The shoulder guards could be similar to the Dendra ones but perhaps lighter as with the thinner later cuirasses.
The author even comments how the fighting style changed to a faster and looser method at around 1200 BC.
Edit
I remembered something Nigel T put on the Dbmmlist about European Bronze Age armour and he points out the similarity between a cuirass of the style in the article and the Sherden. I think he particularly picked them out because of another comment regarding the use of horned helmets in N Europe.

[DBS]

Gosh, thought you were going to ask something really difficult, like the nature of the headdress...

On balance, fairly rigid leather has seemed to me most likely, but bronze not impossible.  on the face of it, cost and availability of bronze seems a problem, but...

a) If, like me, you believe the Sherden probably came from Sardinia, rather than it just being a coincidentally similar name or (to my mind much less likely) they migrated to Sardinian after their eastern Med adventures, then the Sherden at least may well have been controlling the premier metals distribution hub.

b) We think of the lads portrayed thus as "common foot soldiers" but are they?  Are the Egyptians portraying their enemies with a bias towards the best and most physically distinctive gear?  Is the chap you show from the Nigels a common soldier, or a leader?  Palace aristocrats have bronze scale armour for riding in their chariots.  These chaps do not seem to use many chariots, not having tank landing craft, but the leaders at least might still value some superior protection if they can afford it.

c) Scale - how many Sea Peoples actually came a-Viking?  The LBA records suggest loads, but in a sense, they would, would they not?  Is it perhaps the equivalent of Dave's recent queries about the size and nature of the Other Dark Age armies?  If each ship perhaps contains thirty to forty men, tops, for a jaunt round the Med, are they perhaps better equipped (at least after a few successes) than infantry in Egypt or Hatti, but a lot fewer in number?

All that said, the shields do seem a decent size, which is probably the best protection.  If the shoulders are protected with a degree of rigid armour as shown by the Nigels (though somewhat tentatively if I recall), that might well make sense versus possible downward slashes, either hard leather or even thin bronze plates.  Heaven alone knows for the torso - articulated rigid armour, or layers of linen or similar.  I suppose one could also look to the Dendra armour for a certain similarity, if much lighter and less extensive.

[Andreas Johansson]

Thanks for the replies - and keep 'em coming if anyone has anything to add!

I'm skeptical that the Sherden were anything to do with Sardinia, but in any case mine are supposed to be Lukka, so from southern Anatolia.

Regarding "common foot soldiers", another aspect is that under DBMM rules, three figures will represent some 200-250 men, so the guys depicted might well be particularly well equipped frontrankers, similar how to how the armigerous knights in my feudal army represents both themselves and various less gorgeously equipped sergeants and whatnot.

As Hittite auxiliaries, they're closer to home than those who invaded Egypt - but still perhaps self-selected for being particularly martially inclined.

This far you're making me drift towards bronze ...

[DBS]

but still perhaps self-selected for being particularly martially inclined.

I think this is the key - regardless of geographic origin, these are chaps who have gone a-wandering, whether as raiders or mercenaries.

[Swampster]

As Hittite auxiliaries, they're closer to home than those who invaded Egypt - but still perhaps self-selected for being particularly martially inclined.

In many cultures, they only need to be more inclined to try their luck abroad rather than being a landless younger* son.
Or for the rest of their community to make the decision for them.
That may mean that they start off with worse gear than those left behind - whether this improves may be down to opportunity, prowess and fate.

*or in some other way unable to gain enough land to support themselves.

[stevenneate]

One element is 200-250 men. Yes, that's an army of 5-6 boatloads of raiders.

Personally, I favoured leather or linen armours and a mixture within the unit. Bronze is expensive, heavy and requires an industrial base to gather the raw materials and make it. This comes back to your argument about who is depicted, how common and how this information was fed back to the stone carvers. The scenes could have been carved based on a couple of captured trophies. 

Bottom line? Whatever looks good to you.

[Andreas Johansson]

Cowardly option: use the bright red, white, and blue colours that Rava uses for some Sea People armour. He seems to use it for armour he believes organic, but telling painted leather from painted bronze in 15mm is hard.