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There is a less journalistic account of the provenance of this helmet on the Royal Ontario Museum website.  Curiously, the finder also went to Thermopylae and found another "Spartan" helmet there (but no skull).

Quote from: gavindbm on May 28, 2024, 10:16:11 PMHow about 'medieval infantry was useless against (easily defeated by) mounted knights'.

As it happens, I was wondering about something on the "Age of Cavalry". I think that something of the old attitudes of Charles Oman back in 1885 still pervade at least wargamer history

Troops like the Scotch Lowlanders, with their long spears, or the Saracen auxiliaries of Frederick II, with their cross-bows, deserved and obtained some respect on account of the uniformity of their equipment. But with ordinary infantry the case was different; exposed, without discipline and with a miscellaneous assortment of dissimilar weapons, to a cavalry charge, they could not combine to withstand it, but were ridden down and crushed. A few infantry successes which appear towards the end of the period were altogether exceptional in character. The infantry of the 'Great Company,' in the East beat the Duke of Athens, by inducing him to charge with all his men-at-arms into a swamp. In a similar way the victory of Courtrai was secured, not by the mallets and iron-shod staves of the Flemings, but by the canal, into which the headlong onset of the French cavalry thrust rank after rank of their companions.

Note how tactical competence of the infantry has been reduced to some luck with terrain.

We might also note he said

When the enemy came in sight, nothing could restrain the Western knights: the shield was shifted into position, the lance dropped into rest, the spur touched the charger, and the mail-clad line thundered on, regardless of what might be before it. As often as not its career ended in being dashed against a stone wall or tumbled into a canal, in painful flounderings in a bog, or futile surgings around a palisade.

I think this created a persistent myth which turned up in many wargames rules - impetuous knights.

In fact, even Oman moved away from being quite so extreme in his two volume 1924 version of the Art of War in the Middle Ages.

Calling it a myth, though, is a tough one because academic military historians are divided about the relative importance of cavalry and infantry pre 1300 and whether there was an Infantry Revolution in the 14th century. So you have the Bachrach's and their school proclaiming infantry was alway the dominant force on the battlefield, whereas the counter-revisionists saying "Hang on a minute - rubbish infantry might have been a myth but knightly cavalry was the decisive arm."  Perhaps needs more of an examination in its own right than putting in there among the myths, though.

It has always been my opinion that ceremonial armour probably evolves from battlefield armour OR is more artistically worked version of battlefield armour. The alternative, that someone decides to coat themselves with metal clothes, does not make much sense. I know some ceremonial clothes have become ridiculously unwieldy but this is also often an evolution over time.

https://www-kentlive-news.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.kentlive.news/news/kent-news/archaeological-find-could-halt-5000-9302826.amp?amp_gsa=1&amp_js_v=a9&usqp=mq331AQGsAEggAID#amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&aoh=17169612063126&csi=0&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.kentlive.news%2Fnews%2Fkent-news%2Farchaeological-find-could-halt-5000-9302826

We can but hope...

https://greekreporter.com/2024/05/28/battle-of-marathon-helmet-soldier-skull-still-inside/

Eek...

https://greekreporter.com/2024/05/28/samnites-italian-enemies-rome/

Short article on the Samnites mYbe of interest...

Didn't you know?

Tsk tsk

 

I did, though haven't had any direct response from Nigel yet.

Duncan did post this (paywalled) article, which might be useful, and Nigel said it should be on JSTOR next year.

Quote from: Imperial Dave on May 28, 2024, 09:01:44 AMhttps://www.archaeology.wiki/blog/2024/05/23/3500-year-old-mycenaean-armour-was-suitable-for-extended-battle/

Interesting stuff and right up my alley

So the Mycenaeans were from Wales as well were they now?

Some great photos of lovely games including some marvellous ones in our period - the A&A miniatures 3rd century Romans look magnificent (and I already have Palmyrans and Sassanids...)