From: Torsten
Message: 66472
Date: 2010-08-18
--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Torsten" <tgpedersen@...> wrote:
>
> > Here's another fact:
> > http://tinyurl.com/2uphpjk
> > 'The standardization is manifested also by the forms of some
> > artifacts: shaft weapon heads, which are a particularly individual
> > element of grave goods, become more uniform in the analysed phase
> > (especially types VI-VIII according to Kaczanowski (1995).
> > Moreover, the shaft weapon heads allow to draw some conclusions
> > about the fighting techniques. This is connected with the well
> > known opinion that in the case of occurrence of two shaft weapon
> > heads in one burial, one was considered as an element of a lance
> > and the other, of a javelin (spear). The lance would serve in
> > hand-to-hand combat whereas the javelin was used for throwing. The
> > possibility of distinguishing such two kinds of shaft weapons has
> > been already discussed for a considerable length of time (e.g.,
> > Nadolski 1951, p. 150; 1954, p. 51;
> > WoÅÄ giewiczowie 1963, p. 11;
> > GodÅowski 1977, p. 52;
> > Fogel 1979, p. 88; 1982, p. 97;
> > Kaczanowski 1995, p. 9).
> > To clarify this issue for the Przeworsk culture the author studied
> > the changes in frequency of burials equipped in more than one head
> > in the Late Pre-Roman Period and in the Roman Period (Diagram
> > 3)[23]. A following picture of changes has been obtained: more
> > than one head can be found already in burials of phase A1, but in
> > this and the following phase they are very scarce. From phase A3
> > the discussed combination grows in importance and the increasing
> > role of javelins is supported also by the appearance of barbed
> > spearheads in the grave furnishing (see DÄ browska 1988, p.
> > 43-44)[24]. The upward trend continues in the following periods to
> > achieve culmination in phase B2b (more than 70% of weapon graves
> > contained more than one shaft weapon head). Afterwards the
> > importance of such assemblages in grave goods declines and they
> > are finally absent in phases C2-D[25]'
> >
> > In other words, with phase A3, the phase of my postulated
> > invasion, a burial set with two sets of shaft weapon heads, of
> > which one is that of a javelin, ie a darrað (OE daroð "leichter
> > wurfspeer", ie "javelin". It seem very likely that this javelin
> > was called, by the people who introduced them into Przeworsk, by
> > the Greek words δÏÏÏ , dóru and δοÏÏαÏ-, dóurat-. Why would the
> > elite call them that, if they were indigenous to Przeworsk?
>
> cf.
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Javelin
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilum
> 'Legionaries of the Late Republic and Early Empire often carried two
> pila, with one sometimes being lighter than the other. Standard
> tactics called for a Roman soldier to throw his pilum (both if there
> was time) at the enemy just before charging to engage with his
> gladius. They could also be used in hand to hand combat, or as a
> barrier against mounted charges. Some pila had small hand-guards, to
> protect the wielder if he intended to use it as a melee weapon, but
> it does not appear that this was common.'
>
> Peter Krentz
> Fighting by the Rules: The Invention of the Hoplite Agôn
> HESPERIA 71 (2002), p.29
>
> 'In the Archaic period, the distinction between "light-armed" and
> "hoplite" was not always sharp, as a few examples will demonstrate.
> Athenian red-figure vases sometimes depict archers with greaves,
> helmets, and shields and a mid-6th-century bronze statuette of
> Herakles as an archer, found near Amphipolis, wears a bronze
> cuirass. A 6th-century molded pithos found at Sparta shows a slinger
> with a crested helmet. The north frieze of the 6th-century Siphnian
> Treasury at Delphi has two giants, armed with helmets and shields,
> throwing stones. The interior of a 6th-century cup found in the
> Athenian Agora shows a running warrior wearing an Oriental leather
> cap and greaves, carrying a hoplite shield and two spears. The Chigi
> vase from Corinth, ca. 640, shows fully armed hoplites with two
> spears, one a javelin. Athenian vases continue into the 5th century
> to show some hoplites with javelins, and burials excavated at
> Sindos, in northern Greece, regularly include a larger and a smaller
> spear until the late 5th century.'
>
> Summary:
> 'This examination of the unwritten rules of Greek warfare suggests
> that the ideology of hoplite warfare as a ritualized contest
> developed not in the 7th century, but only after 480, when
> nonhoplite arms began to be excluded from the phalanx. Regular
> claims of victory, in the form of battlefield trophies, and
> concessions of defeat, in the form of requests for the retrieval of
> corpses, appeared in the 460s. Other 5th-century changes in military
> practice fit the theory that victories over the Persians led to the
> idealization of massed hand-to-hand combat. Archaic Greeks probably
> fought according to the limited protocols found in Homer'.
>
> ie. the use of javelins within the hoplite itself was banned in
> Greece proper after 480 BCE. The question is whether the custom of
> having two shafted weapons was continued in Maeotia.
cf.
Portuguese dardo (javelin, spear, dart, bolt, darts)
Russian дÑоÑик (drotik) (javelin, dart)
Ukrainian кидалÑний дÑоÑик (javelin),
дÑоÑик (javelin, needle)
Apparently the Greek(?) doru, dorat- appears in no other Slavic language. One
might wonder how that distribution came about.
From
Margarita TaÄeva
On the Problems of the Coinages of Alexander I Sparadokos
and the So-Called Thracian-Macedonian Tribes
Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte,
Vol. 41, No. 1 (1992), pp. 58-74
'In the second half of our already retreating century the historiography concerning the Antiquity, including the history of the Balkan land, has many achievements in the different areas of research. They have changed many formulations that were inherited from the 19th century and had become classical, even those based on monographic and other studies conducted both before and after World War II. In many numismatic studies the old inertia has been overcome to a great extent', but not with respect to the coinage of Alexander I and the so-called "Thracian-Macedonian" and Thracian coinage connected with it. What is more, the inaccurate definition "Thracian-Macedonian" seems to have a chance of being totally replaced even in the future by "Macedonian", a concept totally devoid of any grounds. Actually, the contribution of the ancient Macedonians to the 5th century BC coinage should be limited to the establishing of the traditional Thracian image of a warrior with a broad-brimmed hat and two spears near a horse or on horseback as a characteristic features of the coinage of the Argeadae in the 5th century BC. This was the conclusion reached by the author after a prolonged study of the numismatic heritage of the Northern Balkan lands in the first half of the 5th century BC, in seeking the place which should be attributed to Sparadokos as a Thracian ruler and to his coinage. The present paper should not be perceived as an encroachment by a historian on the sovereign scientific discipline of numismatics, but as the declared wish for closer contacts between historians and numismatists in the sphere of research.
...
1. On the Problems of the Coinage of Alexander I of Macedon
...
2. Pelasgian or Mycenaean Cultural Characteristics of the Coinage in the Northern Aegean Area
...
The male naked figure, most frequently with two spears and with a broad-brimmed hat (standing, riding, or charioteer, and connected with a horse or ox) is most closely associated with the Pelasgian past. It is characteristic of the lands from Pelasgiotis in Thessaly to the Thracian Chersonesos and personifies the links between the royal and the religious power, preserved in the Samothracian cult of the Kabeiroi and in the cult of Hermes as a Thracian royal cult (Her. 5,7). This phenomenon is considered to contain the roots of Thracian Orphism as a religious-political doctrine of the Thracian basileis who outlived the Mycenaean ones.
...
3. The Armament with Two Spears
This armament of a male figure (either naked or of a warrior) either on horseback or near a horse (or oxen) occurs not only on the obverses of coins of Larissa, the Thracian Chersonesos, the Bisaltae, the Orrheskioi, Alexander, Mosses, Sparadokos and Perdikkas, but also in the black- and red-figured vase paintings, on reliefs of Darius from Persepolis and Naks-i-Rustem; on paintings of the Thracian goddess Bendis, called by Hesychius "Dilonchos", i. e. with two spears, etc. To the best of my knowledge, in the specialized and non-specialized literature there are no argumented views or hypotheses. There is an opinion that the two spears on the obverses of Alexander's coins are hunting spears, but specialists in classical archaeology fail to see in them a manifestation of cultural or religious symbolism. I was tempted to seek such symbolism by two royal Thracian tombs dated to the second half of the 5th century BC, in which two spears have been added to the burial inventory but separately from the armament. In one of these tombs there was also an Attic red-figured hydria from the last quarter of the same century, featuring probably a Thracian Orphic initiation with a theoxenia of the Kabeiroi-Dioscuri, armed with two spears each.
Homer's epic works describe the throwing of one or two spears during the combats between the noble participants in the Trojan War; the Thracians that came from the Hellespontos fought with long spears (Il. II, 844-850; the Paionian hero Asteropaios came out of the river against Achilleus with two spears which he could throw with both hands, and the Paiones also fought with long spears (Il. XXI, 139 sq.). The warriors of unidentified ethnic belonging on 8th century BC black-figured vessels are also armed with two spears each. In 6th century archaic painting Exekias depicts Achilleus, Aias and the Dioscuri also with the same armament. In the 5th century BC the two spears were a characteristic attribute of Bendis the Dioscuri-Kabeiroi, and the Thracians in the red-figured painting. Representatives of the people of Skudra are also depicted with two spears, as subjects and gift-bearers in the reliefs from Persepolis and Naks-i-Rustem. In the latter relief they are represented separately from the "Ionians with a petasos", i. e. the conquered Northern Aegean Thracian and Hellenic population until Thessaly (including the Macedonian court, if we can trust Herodotus' evidence that Amyntas was of Hellenic origin and hyparchos of the Macedonians). Consequently, Skudra was the Hellespontic Thracians, Bisaltae, Orrheskioi and Paiones along the lower course of the Strymon river, conquered by Megabazos.
The conclusion reached on the basis of these observations is that the two spears were the armament of the Thracian and Mycenaean aristocrats, bound by the Pelasgian(?) Orphic cult of the Kabeiroi. The royal power surviving in Thrace preserved them as a divine characteristic feature of the dynast's rule among Paiones, Orrheskioi, Bisaltae and other tribes, or rather of the heirs to the throne, judging by the significance of the Dioscuri during the Roman Imperial
period, or by the armament of the two companions of the delegate from Skudra in Persopolis. Probably perceiving of the two spears as armament on Alexander's reverses is also reflected in the images of his contemporary "the Penthesilea artist". While in his early works the spears are the armament of men wearing Thracian clothing, one of the later vessels features a horseman devoid of such an ethnic characteristic. Obviously, through Alexander's issues the warrior armed with two spears lost his Thracian ethnic characteristics.'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paiones
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bisaltae
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bendis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dioskouroi#Depictions
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kastor_Niobid_krater_Louvre_G341.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabeiri
cf. in
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_names_of_Odin
Biflindi: Spear Shaker, Shield Shaker
Darraðr, Dorruðr: Spearman
Geirlöðnir: Spear inviter
Geirölnir: Spear charger
Geirtýr: Gore/Spear God
Geirvaldr: Gore/Spear Master
Hötter: Hatter
SÃðhöttr: Broad Hat
Ãrór: Thracian (my interpretation)
Torsten