The Armour Archive

Norman

Kublai Kahn and his Empire were parasites on the back of host civilizations ... You know, the last time I read the term parasitic culture was in the context of blaming a thousand-year-dead kingdom for the woes of post-Soviet Russia. Then describe how the Mongols were not, instead of insinuating tha...

Norman

chef de chambre wrote:Kublai Kahn and his Empire were parasites on the back of host civilizations ...

You know, the last time I read the term parasitic culture was in the context of blaming a thousand-year-dead kingdom for the woes of post-Soviet Russia.

Norman

Actually, the Chinese did use cast iron swords (as well as cast iron chariot hubs and cast-iron-lots-of-other-things). The sources that I read (some years back) implied that they made up for quality with quantity. So it may have been a mistranslation, but they may indeed have recovered cast iron sw...

Norman

I found this with some searching. can't see the hats too well. the soldier on the left I ignored but I believe i see a Wide brimmed hat on the right. Very similar to the fur banded hat seen elsewhere without the knot on top. anyone else able to decode this better? I think its a bad victorian take o...

Norman

This thumbnail site about those actions, had what, to my eye was a strange combination; iron swords, and ceramic bombs (naval artillery explosive shot might be a better term.) Throw in the stone anchors, and you have what seems to me quite a mix of the primitive and advanced, for the period... I su...

Norman

If you were jewish, there is a hat called a Judenhut (I think) that was worn in the middle ages ... the illustrations I've seen of them have a pointy protrusion in the middle. Then of couse there is the 12th century German nativity scene that appears to have Gandalf in it. (????) -Cian You just men...

Norman

Chef, I was just making a little crack in the tail end of a long post on a specific question that seems to be of interest to the conversation. The level of vehemence you replied to this with ...and ignoring the existance of the bulk of the conversation to drill down to your own pet concern with a ne...

Norman

Olga doesn't count and it was not a revolt. Her husband went on an ill-considered raid and died there. She did not go to battle -- she burned envoys in a bathhouse. got any references for this version of events, that I can pass on? I'm know Nicky will be more than happy to adjust her summary there ...

Norman

Is he refering to a hand crosbow? The only place I'm familiar with these is from D&D (the drow like them) but I want to say I've seen them in ninja references, but more of the "American Ninja" 80's movie variety. "Arms and Armour of the Medieval Knight" has a picture (I thin...

Norman

There are galaxies of options when it comes to historic prepared meat, each kind with a rich -albeit many of them very difficult to research- history. Why bother with something as boring, ubiquitous and grossly anachronistic as jerky??? Okaydoke - can't find any Kosher jerky anyhow - so its Salami,...

Norman

That looks like scale rather than lamellar. the two sets of holes attach the plates horizontaly, there is another set of holes hidden that attaches each horizontal row to a backing fabric (in this case, I'm guessing leather). At a guess, this fellow is portraying a stylized Roman. I'm curious, then...

Norman

I'm working on a russian hat at the moment, see Varoslav the wise on wikipedia. its the round cap with teh fur trim on the bottom. You mean Yaroslav If you're going to do a Russian hat, you should do it right! Here's his grandson, Vladimir Monomakh's hat http://www.rusidea.org/picts/kalendar/shapka...

Norman

anyone have conmfirmation that the Varangians did? Cause I would so do that. I'm working on making my kit actually look Russian at the moment and I would totally wear that. Do you mean the kazoo or the skull cup? If Russains had them it was certainly pre-Christian. Also - as I understand the online...

Norman

That looks like scale rather than lamellar.
the two sets of holes attach the plates horizontaly,
there is another set of holes hidden that attaches each horizontal row to a backing fabric (in this case, I'm guessing leather).

At a guess, this fellow is portraying a stylized Roman.

Norman

An interesting starting point for more detailed research: m - ...In the 10th Century Aethelflaed, Lady of Mercia led troops against the Vikings and Olga of Russia ended a revolt in which her husband had died. Olga doesn't count and it was not a revolt. Her husband went on an ill-considered raid and...

Norman

Fictional stories are not documentary evidence, and are not appropriate as such. If it were the case, we must assume there were talking foxes named Reynaud, Dragons, Unicorns and centaurs and the like running about, when clearly there were not. The sociologist training I've had would disagree with ...

Norman

Uhg! Lost track of the topic of the post. Sorry. Here is another take on the basket hilt concept. (very late in period though) m I'm pretty sure Pata is very very post period. Weapons that evolved into the Pata in period was the Katar - it had two bars - one in front of the hand, the other in back....

Norman

Salted and smoked meat is obviously nothing new. However, when you salted or smoked something, the intention was always to preserve it so it can be *cooked* or otherwise prepared, and eaten later. The salt pork or smoked fish were no more considered ready-to-eat as they were than a beef quarter wou...

Norman

Oh wait, are period fiction stories and romances appropriate evidence for use in this thread? I sometimes think the stories a culture tells about itself are as important as the physical evidence they leave behind. For instance, what do you think of Silence - girl raised as a boy, lots of adventures...

Norman

who exactly used human skull drinking cups? was this a common practice? how were they preparde? are there any surviving examples? The Pechenegs defeated Knyaz Svyatoslav (of Kiev) and made a cup of his head. This would be about 971. One Russian chronicle says that this cup was used in a marital rit...

Norman

Lenin was a well known French hater. Gulags were invented as a punishment for eating escargots. In fact gulag means punishment for gluttony with regards of escargots. But we must remember that Lenin and the main idea people of the revolution were actualy away at the time the February revolution sta...

Norman

Jerky is, for all intents and purposes (and especially in its modern incarnations) a New World product. What is your basis for this? In Russia we comonly had dried fish (salt smoked and then dried out). This is similar to what the Chinese use to cook with (but more smokey and salty), but Russians e...

Norman

I am familiar with these authors. Recall you say "One of the main points of the invention of chivalry was that of assuring fair treatment and protection of women." When do you think chivalry was invented? How do you think these late sources support this proposition that this was one of th...

Norman

Yes, the different hole patterns are because there are a variety of lacing patterns. IMHO 19, 20, 21 have the middle hole too low. I think 21 is pure SCAdianism and this is probably also true of 8b, 19 and 20. Of the ones you picked, 8 is best. Though it would probably do better if it extended a bit...

Norman

Lilies War = Anglo-Saxon/Norse Little archery, lots of smaller field battles My understanding is that the Norse had archery. In a way, for SCA purposes, it was more than the high middle ages -- because the nobles were doing it whereas later it seems to have been relegated to a lower-class weapon (a...

Norman

The main languages in the Middle Ages (spoken by kings) were Turkish, Russian, Mongol of secondary importance (religious and commercial) were Greek, Hebrew, Italian they spoke Latin and French mostly in the cold, gloomy backwaters. A southern German dialect penetrated in some tightly knit enclaves. ...

Norman

Norman is taking spotty evidence, and errecting it into something it is not, to create a pleasant historical fiction The history of religious opression in Spain (whether Moslems on Christians, Christains on Moslems, or either of them on the Jews) is certainly by no means pleasant. First to the base...

Norman

Piers Brent wrote:I would be a much more content person if I was born 550 years ago then I am today.

Right now, I have a wife and two children. With everything else being equal, if it was 500 years ago my wife and my first born would have died during childbirth.
Thank God for progress.

Norman

Again, you make the Iberian penninsula sound like some sort of colony composed mostly of non-christian, or non-islamic natives, with the Celtiberians as being the imports. I honestly can't see how I do so chef. The Jews probably came later than the CeltIberians, the Visigoths came substantialy late...

Norman

because they straight forwardly eliminated the anti-Jewish laws and restored equality of status among Spanish peoples. Well as long as they paid their additional very heavy taxes and didn't try and proselyte and accepted the supremacy of Islam. If not then its the sword. What you didn't read that S...

Norman

It seems pretty clear that in Western Europe in the Middle Ages a woman could not participate in a military sport event as anything more than a novelty. This is incorrect. There is *Zero*, *Nada*, *Zip,*Zilch*, no evidence, whatsoever, that women participated in tournaments, in the mounted, militar...

Norman

Agh I said fragmentary The first time I saw this was as an off-hand comment in David Nicolle's Medieval Warfare Source Book v2 He has a couple of appendixes in the back and in one there's a one-line mention that the first invasion was by Jewish Berbers. Its actualy not so far-fetched as it sounds. I...

Norman

The Jewish population of Spain were immigrants, or forcible transplants, they were not native to the region, which was dominated by Iberian and Celtiberian tribes. You give the impression that somehow, the Iberian penninsula is a district of Jerusalem in your initial post. First post "civilian...

Norman

Wow, this is realy straining far afield from the question of the thread. ...the Berber liberation of Spain... ??? The Visigoths invaded Spain in roughly 400 CE. They practiced a particularly fundamentalist form of Christianity, butchering and enslaving the local non-Christian population. Spain was l...

Norman

...the Berber liberation of Spain... ??? The Visigoths invaded Spain in roughly 400 CE. They practiced a particularly fundamentalist form of Christianity, butchering and enslaving the local non-Christian population. Spain was liberated from the Visigoths between 711 and 715 CE by the Moors (I misre...

Re: Iron Swords and Ceramic Bombs?

Re: drinking skulls

Re: Medieval Meat! Carolingian Cooking! Viking Veal!

Re: Do wars have "personas"?