Some of the poses are quite dynamic and really give the impression of a skirmisher about to let loose his javelin. All the figures are depicted with mohawks which has an ornament tucked through the front of it:
They remind me of North American natives, apart from the shields:
I am still not quite sure what the shield are meant to depict; possibly some form of hide shield with feathers attached at the top. I looked online and couldn't see any examples, so went with a brown hide look with white feathers attached:
Apart from one which I painted up as a pineapple:
That's the third unit finished with some Carthaginian Sacred Band figures currently on the painting table and nearing completion.
These javelinmen are really neat! Head and Heath's Armies of the Macedonian and Punic Wars state that Herodotus describes the Makai as having ostrich-skin shields. If that is the case, then the tops of the shields could be ostrich plumes. If you don't have this book, it is a great resource to have on hand.
ReplyDeleteThanks Jonathan, that looks like what is being portrayed. I have the Phil Barker book of that name but not the Duncan Head edition, which looks very useful.
DeleteGiven that some Ostriches are brown and also have white feathers as well as black, I'm probably not too far off. I might go back and do a few interspersed black feathers on some of the shields, but will keep the pineapple.
Well, I have a spare copy of Duncan Head edition, if you are interested.
DeleteThanks Jonathan, that's extraodrinarily kind of you but I'm nearly through these now and only have some Numidians and Republican Romans left to go, for which I'll use my Ospreys to guide me through. I find nowadays there are so many good examples of what others have done available on the internet it usually takes away most of the speculation, although of course when one person has made a mistake you see it repeated across many later examples. It was quite amusing pulling out the old Phil Barker book and looking at the black and white line drawings again. Not a bad resource for its time and there really wasn't much else available then as I recall.
DeleteNow that is. Fine bunch of fellows Lawrence. Sure must have been a lot of Ostriches in Lydia...always thought they were a creature of the Savannah
ReplyDeleteMake that LIBYA not Lydia....damned spell check!
DeleteThanks Mark, they probably are now after the Libyans turned all their ancestors into shields. It was something I didn't know either, until Jonathan enlightened me.
DeleteSuch a great collection of javelinmen, great job and lovely shields!
ReplyDeleteThanks Phil, I was happy with the way they turned out.
DeleteI like those too!
ReplyDeleteCheers Fran.
DeleteI hadn't seen shields like that previously, either, but I like them. Very unique!
ReplyDeleteThanks Peter. They must have been modelled on the description in Duncan Head's book that Jonathan mentioned, because I couldn't find reference to them anywhere else. It's a nice bit of information to have for when they finally make it to the table.
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