NOT WELL IMPRESSED

I recently got an interesting edition of Ancient Warfare magazine. VolXII Issue 4. It is a special edition dealing with Successors at Sea, supposedly.

Get it HERE

I reproduce some illustrations from the article in question in the interests of  debate/criticism. The magazine is good value for money and well-produced. Buy it to see the whole thing and much else.

Many things caught my eye while reading it but none more than' THE MACHIMOI, WARRIOR SAILORS OF THE PTOLEMIES'. The title was a neon lighted misunderstanding for a kick-off. Warriors AND sailors. Tribal maritime raiders tend to be both sailors and fighters such as Vikings or Mycenaeans but Ptolemaics doing this.at a time when soldiers, sailors and oarsmen were three different professions.... mm let's see.


Machimoi is Greek for 'warrior' meaning a lower order of personnel than well-trained/professional troops i.e. 'the rest' - the rest in Ptolemaic Egypt were also non-Greek. Not really rated as good material. In Ptolemaic Egypt 'the rest' means the nonethnic -Greek (or part-Greek) citizens. How the author of this piece knows the ethnicity of Ptolemaic 'marines' is not explained.(1)

The main ilustration of the piece is a 'marine machairophoros'. Obscurantist language which is unecessary to entitle a man armed with a machaira if that is what one means. A machaira is a single-edged slashing sword or knife. This man is armed with a gladius. Why the contradiction? Why is he not a gladiophoros ? Or even a kopisophoros or even a xiphophoros ? This is a common trope in Osprey type books where a name must be found for an ancient troop type because soldier or spearman is not considered good enough. An ancient language must be invoked for authenticity.

MACHISMOs ? Not in that dress.Nice bracelet.

 Next, let's see what the latest style is this Spring for our machimos/machairaphoros.

The well-dressed machimos apparently wears padded or quilted armour. This is a sleeveless garment with a high round neck and vertical stitching. The author suggests this is a multi-layer garment made 'thickly padded' with wool or cotton. He uses the terms kasas and bambakos for this garment. Kasas is apparently Egyptian but we get no information as to what it means. Bambakos is a Greek term for padded armour known from the Byzantine period and this word just means 'stuffed' or 'padded'.

Bambakioi a go go. In the Byzntine era.

 Why this man wears this garment is an interesting story.

The author presents two pieces of evidence which are used to support the synthesis of this garment.

First is a fragment of an oil lamp from the British Museum which was found in Egypt. Here this fragment is said to show 'the padded garments of the soldiers'.

Second is a wall fresco from Kom Madi, illustrated from 'archaeologist Guidotti' - no further reference given.(3) This shows a procession of men with near identical equipment to each other. The procession illustrated is purported to show the deification of Alexander the Great.The author has decided the men shown are 'naval soldiers who seem to be wearing completely padded or quilted armour.'

NAVALSOLDIER IN QUILTED ARMOUR

Third, there is reference in the article to 'Roman triumphal monuments' but these are not further discussed or illustrated. Again, they are said to show 'naval soldiers who seem to be wearing completely padded or quilted armour.' (what could incompletely padded mean ?)


 .............space..for illustration of Romans in quilted armour on triumphal monuments.......


Lets have a closer look.

The lamp fragment is dated to 20BC to 20AD and is considered to refer to the Battle of Actium. (4)
It is 6 by 5 cm in size.It may be copied from Italian originals. If we examine it do we see soldiers with padded armour or do we see barely defined figures. One of which has a tunic with folds. All have Attic-type helmets and long shields which may be rectanguler or oval. One is holding a short sword en garde. 

foto Guy Ulrich and B.M.

You have to make your own mind up if this is a special padded garment or simple illustration of the folds of a tunic.  As indicated in many other works.

  In the absence of any supporting evidence I would suggest there is no evidence of a special garment. The author has form for seeing padded garments instead of clothing folds.

GO HERE TO SEE A CLOSELY PARALLEL UNIVERSE

 This type of lamp was mass produced. A negative mould was made in burnt clay or plaster. Raw clay was pressed into the form to impress the decoration, pulled out, and trimmed and fired to make the finished item. The areas for decoration are small. The finished item has to survive the production process unscathed and we must still consider how far it represented reality in its pristine state. The impression can be incomplete or distorted. Time and use can also do their work.

Many items show figures with folded cloth represented like this. Another lamp.......

MON AMOR OR MON ARMOUR ? - armoured matresses must be solid, durable, absorbent?

The wall fresco has no demonstrated connection with 'naval infantry'. The men all have pleated garments. But are they padded armour?

If we look at the figure - he has 7 vertical lines of stitching on his 'quilted armour'. If we look at the fresco the men have 10/11 strips on their torso and 15/16 on the skirt- The skirt reaches the knee and is full. The illustration has a short stiff skirt - as a quilted armour garment must be. The 'quilting' on the fresco run down off the shoulder of the men as if they are loose fabric. The illustration is given an armless garment ' to allow the arms to move more freely'.

 It is difficult to see how the fresco garments have any relation to the synthesised illustration at all.

I make replica jewellery. There is a basic law that a copy will always lose detail. Anything gained is noise. If one does not count repeated ornament elements carefully one cannot make a replica, just a 'similar-ish' thingy. Or, the lowest blow - ' imaginative reconstruction'/ 'artists impression'.               True replication or re-creation is something different from this.  Dare I say it.

Third. Roman triumphal monuments. ?  ...?  ..? Waiting...

The last details of the synthesised figure are his sword and shield.
The sword is taken from an Egyptian find which is as good an example of a 'Spanish' sword or gladius as one could hope to see. Perfect for our 'machairophoros' ? The sword they are shown with on the fresco is actually much more interesting !!!!!! It is like a cross between a rhomphaia and a machaira. Write about that ! It is interesting !  It is Egyptian ......!!!???? Possibly a khepesh?

The shield of the illustration is a round 'leather covered' shield with a simple small boss and a centre grip. No reference for this is given. But for some reason it was not suitable to try and recreate the shield of either the lamp soldiers or the fresco soldiers. Eh?!

Oh , and 'small boots' complete the equipment. Hopefully not too small for his feet ? Ouch.

The boots are important, because they are the only item accurately represented from the fresco.

The text with the illustration again says .. 'the wool/felt/cotton armour, visible on a variety of monuments.' Which ones ? One asks.

 Back to the frescoes. The fresco warriors have what in any other context one would describe as thureos type shields common in the  Hellenistic world. But we have no date for this fresco.....
The fresco warriors also carry what can only be described as machaira if they were in a Hellenistic context. These men can be described as machairophoroi. Contrary to the synthesised illustration. Now, how about changing that word to 'invented' or 'hypothesised'. Certainly not 'reconstructed'.

 

The last detail is quite revealing. The extreme left figure is not armed as far as we can see. It also looks feminine. Possibly a priest or aristocrat or royalty? Anyway, this figure has its clothing depicted in the same way as the 'naval soldiers'. But it is longer. Is this another example of special quilted armour?. So long one could not walk in it? Or is it a figure in a long robe/tunic - meaning the figures all wear loose pleated -folded garments suitable for the Egyptian climate? Or of rich stuff?

Oh yes, imagine being a 'naval soldier' in quilted armour in Egypt. The Crusaders found it ...warm...And if one ended in the drink... lots of absorbent stuff there.... not good. Although the lack of protection for the arms in a fight would mitigate the tendency to sink or cook, maybe.

The rest of the article discusses Ptolemaic sea power. It is brief and debateable. Did the Ptolemaic kingdom spend 80% of its wealth on the military ? Did the Ptolemaic navy undergo a revolution because or to avoid impressment ? That  'the ethnic composition of the marines, officers naval troops(what are they?!) and sailors was typical of the Hellenistic Age' is difficult to dispute. But then the author states that officers were mostly Greeks. .........

The final point is that the author has decided that the men on the fresco are Egyptian rather than Greek.  How he does this is not apparent. The colour of the man in the illustration is much darker than the flesh tone of the fresco.

Way to go signor D'Amato. For it is he.

Left: Imagination -
Right : Pre-Ptolemaic Super-Heavy Egyptian lotusophoros.
Note quilted armour that appears surprisingly light and handy to wear.

1: https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/brill-s-new-pauly/machimoi-e715600
2: https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/machaira
3: The reference to Guidotti is as follows - from World Cat
Bresciani, E. (2003). Kom Madi 1977 e 1978: Le pitture murali del cenotafio di Alessandro Magno. Pisa: ETS.
4: Williams, H. 1981 A ship ofActium on a Roman Lamp-. IJNAUE 10.1

RULES PREVIEW

I have put up a better preview of Shock!andOars at the slowly expanding website. 

The version I have concentrated on is 1/350 for my card ships but they should work from 1/300 down to 1/1200. Smaller ships make it impossible to represent deck fighters so some recording ends up being necessary. The strategy I have used to avoid paperwork is to evolve a control console and markers which are anti-cheat, unobtrusive and quick to use. The differing skills of crews and commanders adds a level of the unknown and extra character to the fight.

I have two (or even more) sets of rules which are suitable for 1/900 or so ships and 1/3600 ships.
These are for progressively larger battles but of necessity lose details I was deterrmined to include in a set of galley warfare rules and so  the bigger ships - my own cards ships - got priority. |If you look at this blog you can see I was at different times considering 1/300 and 1/500 ...This was a tough decision after also building fleets of 1/900 ships from plasticard, paper, bristles and god knows what else.

The focus is on a battle of several squadrons which can be used to fight parts of the larger ancient battles...explanation of this in the rules. I have also made a simple map campaign to allow fights to be easily linked for realistic priorities in battles.

Maybe I am too prefectionist but I dont want this project to be a damp squib like many other wargame rules projects. Money is not the thing (how many galley wargamers out there ?..not many) but the idea of creating a rules set which can recreate this type of warfare and still be authentic and interesting,,and fun..!

I am simultaneously finishing a book on the Four so things are a little pressed. And I would like to put more on the blog. I can safely say that ancient galley warfare is the most interesting and most diverse subject I have found in wargaming over now xxx years and would like to share more before I kick the bucket. I first made a set of rules for galleys in 1980 and was disappointed when I found quickly out they were boring and inauthentic and that the subject was an iceberg of classical scholarship tipped by Charlton Heston and Jack Hawkins on a raft. But I have not let it lie.

I would appreciate a comment from the SandO website if you think this rules set appears interesting.

Our group's ship, Aslak - squint a bit and it is an ancient galley on a Mediterranean shore.!

 Shock!andOars website HERE,,,,, It is @  SHOCKANDOARS.com

Another Fine Mess

One of the things delaying the rules is..
how to write a fool-proof protocol for sorting-out this kind of thing!

There are four squadrons of ships here. Two Persian, with red squares, and two Greek.
There are 15 ships, two of which are swamped, two of which are damaged. Some have rammed and then in turn been rammed. 

The dilemma is that one wants the capability to create such chaotic melees of ships but this then creates the problem of adjudicating the fight.

Who does what and with what and to whom and when do they do it.......???????
I am close, I can smell the cigar, but I don't have it just yet,,,,,,

The Last Galley

Some reading for you. Pleasurable, not a chore...

Arthur Conan Doyle penned a series of stories about the ancient world in 1915. The anthology is entitled 'The Last Galley - Impressions and Tales'. The stories are short but many quite evocative in the way he describes the ancient world they are set in. Some ideas are anachronostic or even quaint but the stories work anyway when penned by a master story-teller.

Conan Doyle was no stranger to life on the ocean wave. He was doctor on an expeditionary ship in the Arctic Sea. He kept a notebook now available from the British Museum.

Conan Doyle 3rd from left.

 'The Last Galley' is about a Carthaginian galley. While it is a short piece it is full of atmosphere and has a lethal twist in the tail. In a few words he brings the Mediterranean to life.

Could be 'The Last/Lost Galley ?   Found this at random. No i.d. Anyone know where this 'ship' is ? Looks like a copy of Olympias but crazily shortened- stern ornament stowed inside.

You can read the book HERE at Project Gutenberg, choose any format.

If you don't know Project Gutenberg, ..shame on you.. . Out of copyright books available for no money. Many classics, a lot of academic works and historical material. Go there and get lost for a few hours. e.g.

Title: Ancient and Modern Ships. 

Part 1. Wooden Sailing Ships
Author: George C. V. Holmes

Title: Famous Sea Fights 

From Salamis to Tsu-Shima
Author: John Richard Hale

Title: The Certainty of a Future Life in Mars

Author: L.P. Gratacap 

GALLEYS IN THE BASEMENT

Beautiful but hideously rugged coasts of the Dodecanese : hunting grounds of the war-galley

 I was recently in the Dodecanese to gather information for a book. Apart from a great chance to examine earthquake damage from last year's magnitude 6.7(!) earthquake, I had a look at some shipsheds.

So, I found myself in the basement of a police headquarters with 5 policemen, 2 armed,2 museum security guards and, maybe because it was the foundations of a neorion I was examining, a naval officer!

Looking down a slipway..plastic canoe at right is not original inhabitant of this neorion, pillars are modern!

The ship was dragged up a sloping ramp over beams/sleepers in the floor and then supported in place by wooden stays. Gear could be stored above or alongside. Some shipsheds took several ships side-by-side or end-to-end.

picture by Yannis Nakkas for Zea Harbour project

The slots for the sleepers are still visible....

 
Shipsheds are a fantastic type of building, the remains of which allow us to learn about the vanished galley fleets. Rather like the naust used to store wooden boats over winter in Scandinavia, The neoria of the ancient Mediterranean protected the galley from sun and weather over the winter season or when it required repair or maintenance.

I am sure galleys laid up in neoria grumbled and gossiped as much as steam engines !

 Neoria can tell us how many ships were stationed at a harbour, how big the ships were and how these changed with time. They had a light structure of columns bearing a tiles roof but the base for the columns and the slipway up which the hull was dragged, were solid enough to survive as some kind of remains.

Zea harbour :  again by Yannis Nakkas

 The simplest forms were rock-cut slipways which probably had a light timber roof originally.
This one is at a Rhodian anti-pirate naval station and probably accommodated 2 hemiolia.

2200 years of waves have taken their toll but the cut on the right is still obvious and the parallel sides

There are hundreds of slipways identified all over the Mediterranean, above which were once erected neoria. The haydays of Athens and Carthage as well as the long arm of Ptolematic Egypt, and the scale of naval investment by the tiny island states all become apparent from the study of shipsheds.

Carthage Admiralty island by Peter Connolly

Mediterranean cats are always appealing.

SHIPWAYS ? NOT AT THESE PRICES!

3D printing is here to stay and is making increasing inroads on the sculpture and modelling world. If you can master RHINO or SKETCHUP or another 3D CAD package then the world may be your 3D printed oyster.....

D3 printing solve your modelling problems can it do not

Issues of quality have now been largely solved. Some beautiful things can be produced with 3D printers in various materials.I have used SHAPEWAYS to make some 'safe' flexible plastic javelin heads and they are great.

Available HERE - you get two heads

SHAPEWAYS is one way to overcome the outlay on a 3D printer. They are still not cheap if you want a good one. Another argument against buying your own is the time, noise and temperature required.


Printing things takes time when using a fine strand of medium to build up the model. Hours are needed for even small things. The machines are not silent by any means and trying to sleep with a 3D printer chugging in the next room is difficult! A friend had to move his to the garage at his wife's insistence! (her or machine, he chose to move the machine ..new bed for her in the garage was too expensive).  Another factor is that the medium must be kept at a specific temperature range and this may involve insulating the printing pad or the room...

etc. etc.

SHAPEWAYS idea is that you send the file, they print it , you get the thing. Great !  They offer a great range of different materials from ceramic to plastics to steel !!!!! Once you set up your page there you can also sell to th epublic if they want a copy of what you have modelled.

There are galley models available on SHAPEWAYS. They look very nice. They are not so accurate representations of any ancient prototype but they prove it could be done. Relatively simple models should be easy and look very nice at various scales. Search for galleys or modern warships and you can find some nice looking stuff.

See at shapeways HERE

The big downside with SHAPEWAYS is the price. Economies of scale have not kicked-in yet. My javelin heads were so expensive I could not sell them. The model above is 26 Euro for a 6cm long model. Ancient galley battles require a lot of models...

The best function for SHAPEWAYS just now is for prototyping. Make your original and cast it in resin or lead.

The future is beckoning, though. Many times we can see CAD images used in advertising for miniature figurines rather than real figures. Look at Zvezda who use a lot of tech versus Streltsi who do not.

What the actual model looks like is another question...

 Soon the quality of 3D printing may approach a true copy of the CAD images.  The skills of the physical sculptor will vanish like the galleys we love.

Can the next one be a warship, please ?

Another well-preserved wreck from the Black Sea. At 2000m depth !

A small freighter of the size of the replica 'Argo or so. Cargo intact, wood preserved.


Read the whole story at BBC (pic from there too)