Pictures of warriors who adopted Steppe warfare

[Temüjin]

i've planed this thread since ages but never came around doing it. here i want to post pictures of warriors who look like Steppe warriors or adopted certain items from the Steppe. they will be more or less randomly from different ages and regions, mostly Steppe neighbours or urban empries created by Steppe people.


Siberia:






early Ottomans:





early Mughals:





Goguryeo (medieval Korea):




Tanguts (Tibetan tribe):





later more (Rome, Russia, China, Persia and others)

[H. İhsan Erkoç]

Add the pictures you have and I will help you with mine if necessary

[BAWIR$AQ]

Nice pics

Although Yakuts (Sakha) are originally Turks from Central Asia, they migrated to Northern Siberia pretty recently

Both Ottomans and Mughals also originate from the Central Asian steppe tribes, Ottomans are Oghuz Turks and original Mughals are Chaghatay Turco-Mongols.

[Temüjin]

yes i know but they do all not live on the Steppe, except for the Tanguts of the western Xia. also, they are urban civilizations, except for the Siberian people but they live in forrest land, not the Steppe.

[Temüjin]

Caliphate & Muslim dynasties of Persia:














ancient china:

cavalry first adopted during warring states by the country Zhao:


cataphracts introduced by Xianbei during northern & southern dynasties:

[H. İhsan Erkoç]

To which state do the soldiers in the last plate of Caliphate-Iranian plates belong to?

[Temüjin]

Buwayhids

[H. İhsan Erkoç]

I asked because I didn't know that the Buwayhids used elephants

[Temüjin]

yes, War elephants were afaik only used by the Ghaznavids, Buwayhid armies were largely composed of Dailamite infantry and Turkish Ghulams.

[H. İhsan Erkoç]

Yes, in fact, the Buwayhid garrison of Baghdâd was under the command of a Turkish ghulām commander named Arslan Besâsirî.

[cataphract]

Some Achaemenid Persians.
Although they developed the Persian armoured saddle (proto cataphract armour) of number 1 in the drawing, they switched to Saka (Massagetae) auxiliaries like number 6 ( with their armour much alike later real cataphract armour) for their heavy shock cavalry.
Although the name armoured saddle suggests that the thigh guards were attached to the saddle, it seems not to be the case.
Most authors believe that the thigh protectors were made of wood covered with scales and were suspended by a strap over the base of the horse's neck.
Instead of wood I like to think they were made of hardened leather shaped in the form of the rider's legs and suspended by a strap over the horse's neck.In my opinion they were also fastened in some way to the back (girdle) of the rider.
Either way, it's an interesting piece of armour.
Can anyone tell me more about this armour? All info is very much welcome.
Greetings.

Cataphract

[cataphract]

The Saka in the drawing is ofcourse number 7, not number 6.
Greetings.

Cataphract

[Temüjin]

i also have pictures with this strange armour, but what is the source of it? from what i know the massagetes were the first to develop cataphract armour in the area of Kwarazm at the time of Alexanders conquest. i haven't posted them yet because i'm unsure about the source of this armour and because it doesn't seem to originate from the Steppe. Xenophon says the guards of Cyrus the younger were armoured horsemen but their armour was set by more conservative reconstructors to much fewer than those examples, more similar to examples of Scythian armour...

also, the persian cavalryman uses a bow from horseback. from what i know Persian archery was restricted to the infantry and Persian cavalry were traditionally skirmishers with their javelins. from what i know horse archery became only prominent in Sassanian persia AFTER it was introduced by the Parthians. but more recent recosntructors also altered this and turned them into horse-archers...i wonder if this is really based on new research and findings...

BTW there is another cavalryman on your picture with a Thracian helmet, who is he? he looks more like a cavalryman from Alexanders army.

[cataphract]

The other cavalryman is a Lycian warrior.If you look good, you can see he wears the same leg armour as the Persian warrior.
The origin of the armoured saddle isn't clear.The Lycian tomb of Payava depicts a warrior wearing this armour, so some scholars think the origin of the armoured saddle lies in Lycia (Anatolia).The tomb depicts no scales on the armour, so this might have been a hardened leather prototype which the Persians further developed.If I find a clear foto of the tomb I'll post it.
What we know for sure is that the Persian cavalry used the armour.The panoply existed of the thigh protectors (parapleuridia), upper body armour(scales) covered by a tunic and helmet.Sometimes they had uncovered scale body armour with a high gorget, tubular arm protection and helmet.The early Seleucid cataphracts also made use of the armed saddle.
I posted the drawing because the Persians swapped this form of armour for auxiliaries of steppe origin with armour which originated on the steppe.
The sakas introduced body armour as well as horse armour.The body armour was in the beginning certainly scythian inspired, but developed through the ages in the body armour we know of the Parthians,Sassanians etc.We may not forget that it takes time to develop a full panoply of metal armour.It changes through time.Look at the medieval knights who needed almost 4 centuries to develop a full plate armour.
I would like to see the pictures you have of the armoured saddle. Hope you can post them.
Greetings.

Cataphract

[Temüjin]

i'm a bit reluctant to post them here because the thread was not intended for them. anyways, i'm really curious to see this tomb to judge by myself.