AM-01: Byzantine Foot Archer
Item Code: AM-01
Description: Byzantine Foot Archer, Paleolog Armies - late 13th century
Type: Foot soldier
Scale: 65mm
Sculptor: Kostas Kariotellis
Product Contents :15 White metal cast pieces (head, torso and legs, left arm, left hand with bow, right arm and hand, shield, sword, 2 arrow holders, 5 arrows) and a metal base.
Documentation included : Historical note in English and photographic reference.
Dimensions: 100 X 155 X 35 mm
Suggested Retail Price: 24.60€
Illustrated model painted by Kostas Kariotellis and photographed by Nikos Apostolopoulos.
Historical Note
Paleolog Armies - late 13th century
During this Palaiolog period, it appears that some revival was brought upon the Byzantine armies. This revival, apart from reinstating some of the lost splendor of previous times is also characterized by a higher degree of both western and eastern influence on Byzantine arms and armour. Also during this Paleolog period the Byzantine forces were composed mostly by Greek armed men and eastern mercenaries since the danger was predominately perceived to be from the west. There are records of northern and western mercenaries (Varangian guard, Catalan Grand Company) but the role of eastern mercenary forces was ultimately more important. Records exist of “mourtatoi” archers which may have been Turkish prisoners or children of mixed marriages between the neighbouring Turkish populations and the Greeks.
Historical documentation indicates the importance of archers during this byzantine period. Evidently archery on foot continued to play a prominent military role in warfare, both in tactics as in the field. This is suggested by the high number of mercenaries armed with the bow that were added to the byzantine armies during that period. Moreover, larger composite bows of middle eastern form seem to have replaced the earlier so-called skythian type, reflecting the rising importance of infantry archery.
Some rare artistic representations that exist, primarily on wall paintings depicting warrior saints, represent men in western like coats-of-plates, with strong resemblances to those appearing in Western Europe, and as suggested by historical evidence archery weapons were similar or influenced by the eastern neigbours, the Turks and the Mongols. This could be a result of earlier efforts to defend against raids from the east by imitating Turkish and Mongol tactics undertaken by the Comnenus, John and Emanuel.
The miniature of this edition represents a late 13th cent. foot archer of the paleolog armies, wearing a lamellar or scale cuirass with leather fastenings at the back. The figure also wears the classic byzantine hood (coif) made of thick cloth or leather that provided extra neck protection, fact that might reflect the importance or archery in that period’s warfare. Over the cloth tunic and under the cuirass, extra protection was provided by a leather or thick cloth hauberk. The form of the hauberk is influenced by the Turkish style of the period. Extra lower leg protection was provided by hardened leather.
The weapons consist of the byzantine long straight sword (spathion), carried on left side hanging by a leather belt across right shoulder, Turkish or Mongol style composite bow carried in left hand, arrow case and bow chord pouch attached to leather belt with leather straps. Arrows with three feathers show out of arrow case. The shield has metal rim and centre part and was made out of straw. Inner padding was cloth or leather with leather straps secured on wooden or metal plate.
