Its discoverer dated it to the 2nd-century BCE, which makes it the oldest of the known Isis aretalogies. Though it is also the most different of the aretalogies, and aims to interpret Isis to Greeks by connecting Her to Demeter, Athens, and Eleusis, scholar Louis Zabkar, who has studied the hymns to Isis at Philae as well as the aretalogies, is convinced that the original text on which this hymn is based is indeed Egyptian.
A few of the 15th century misericord carvings of Cartmel Priory, c1440. Cartmel, Cumbria.
A misericord is a ledge projecting from the underside of a hinged seat in a choir stall which, when the seat is turned up, gives support to someone standing.
1,500 year old Byzantine mosaics in Ravenna. Hands down one of the most amazing experiences I’ve had here.
~ Pottery: black-figured kantharos with donkey-head attachment.
Culture/Period: Attic
Date: 520-500 B.C.
Place of origin: Attica, Greece
Medium: Pottery
Jesus in Ancient Japan?
In a small town called Shingo, located in the Sannohe District of Aomori Province, Japan, the local people have a maintained a very unusual and interesting tradition for generations. According to the people of Shingo, their small town is the final resting place of Jesus Christ, the holy savior of mankind in Christian theology. According to the legend, during Jesus’ younger days, a period of time which is little mentioned in the Gospels, Jesus moved to Japan in order to study religion and theology. At the age of 33, Jesus moved back to Judea to preach to his people. As we all know, his religious and spiritual message was not well received, and he was condemned to be executed by Crucifixion. However, instead of being crucified and resurrected, his younger brother Isukiri took his place on the cross while Jesus escaped back to Japan. Once in Japan, Jesus settled down as a garlic and rice farmer, married and raised three children, then died at the age of 106. He was then interred in a small tomb at a local hillside, a site which today is maintained and managed by a local yogurt factory.
Every year in spring, an annual Christ Festival is held where a religious ritual is performed to “console the spirit of Jesus”, a ritual that has been staged by the local tourism bureau since 1964. There is also a museum called the “Legend of Christ Museum”, which houses relics of the Japanese Jesus and sells souvenirs such as coffee mugs and coasters. Entrance fee to the museum is 100 Yen (about 85 cents). It is interesting to note that only one resident of Shingo is a Christian, and most of the 20,000 yearly visitors of the grave are non-Christians as well. However the people of Shingo passionately maintain that their grave is the real deal. Local scholars claim that the village was founded by a group of diaspora Hebrews, and cite as evidence cultural attributes of ancient residents during the time, and a handful of words in the local dialect which kinda sort of somewhat sound like Hebrew.
However the ultimate proof is in a set of scrolls, memoirs and the last will and testament of Jesus himself. Unfortunately the scrolls were destroyed in a firebombing raid during World War II, however the Legend of Jesus Christ Museum houses a translated replica. The replica scrolls are signed, “Jesus Christ; Father of Christmas”.
Arming jacket or doublet, 16th century. Note the maille sleeves and maille integrated into the body of the piece. There are a number of doublets that outwardly appeared to be unarmored, but in fact had maille sleeves and an up-armored torso (both maille and scales of plate), and were fairly prevalent in the 16th and 17th centuries. Vincento Saviolo has an anecdote where two individuals went out of a city to fight a duel, and one man asked the other to open his (armored) doublet and assure him that he was not carrying a concealed pistol. The asker prompty stabbed him. The stabee survived and tracked the fellow down again to return the favor, but everyday wear often included various components of light armor. [ @we-are-rogue , relevant to your present discussion of light armor? ]
on the note of later stuff there was a thing called jack of plates, and looks kind of similar to other textile armours.
But actually between the layers of textile there were little square shaped metal plates sewn inside and overlapping. It could actually protect from pistol bullets as you can see it on the picture. The bullet did not penetrated the inner layer
Here are a few more pic about that thing and aslo X-ray pics too.
Yeeaaa buddy. Love this stuff for the lattice that was used to distribute force. Really popular England too, especially the Border Reivers.
I’d like to make something like in the first post. I’ve made maille before, so I can get that worked out. Anyone out there have any good patterns or ideas/experience sewing the linen part? I’m figuring something along the lines of linen interior with sail weight canvas exterior and 2 to 3 inch cotton batting I’m between. It should sew down to about an eight to a quarter inch thick and become fairly dense…. just not sure about patterns for the jacket or how to attach the maille sleeves and voiders…
@fulminata2 you’ve made one of these before, correct? At least the cloth substrate?
Here is an English doublet of defense circa 1580, from the 1996 Peter Finer catalog. As far as I’m aware the catalog is the only place this piece was published. It is a padded doublet rather than plated.
The brigandine was an earlier version of the jack-of-plates, and in many instances made a style statement of the rivets holding the “concealed” plates - everyone knew they were there - in place between the layers. The rivets were polished, gilded, arranged in patterns, sometimes even star-shaped; it was all to Look Good. This is ancient and faded; when new the fabric would have been crimson velvet (completely covering the plates) and the rivets would have been tinned silver-bright against the dark red.
Note: the OP arming-doublet is the plate-armour equivalent of the padded gambeson / aketon worn under mail; instead of being two separate layers, the arming-doublet was a padded garment with attached sections of mail to cover vulnerable places between the plates, usually on the arms - elbow joints and armpits in particular.
This is Archduke Sigismund of Tyrol’s Gothic plate: it doesn’t have an arming-doublet in place, but the red under-garment shows where mail would be required.
Arming-doublets are an integral part of a more complete armour, and shouldn’t be thought of as a stand-alone “garment” of the same style as the Doublet of Defence or even the Jack of Plates, both of which could be dressed up (or made “privy and secret”) with a top layer of more dressy fabric.
The top layer of an arming doublet was plate steel.
The top layer on the breast portion of that style of arming doublet wasn’t always full plate though! For shock cavalry, they often favored the more mobile maille sleeves of the arming doublet with a breastplate and gorget on the top of the merely padded segment. My favorite portrait of Phillip II includes just that arrangement. Note that his breastplate has a lance rest and that he wears spurs, in agreement with the image of a cavalry trooper:
In a desperate bid to contribute to this conversation, I’d like to bring up the ancestor to, well, everything made of plate.
The coat-of-plates!
Made up of larger plates than the Brigandine or Jack-of-Plates, in the early days, it was worn over full bodied maille, not dissimilar to the style of armor worn by later shock cavalry. The earliest recorded coat-of-plates is on the statue of St. Maurice pictured above, and also below from behind, ca. 1250!
Also similarly, it can be assumed that something like a light gambeson or early arming doublet would be worn beneath the coat-of-plates and maille.
The Kojindani Sword Find,
In 1983 some construction workers near Kojindani, Japan were busy building a logging road when they stumbled upon one of the greatest archaeological finds of Japanese history. The area around Kojindani is known for many Yayoi Period ruins and sites, however this find would become a national treasure of Japan. Discovered at the site was a hoard of bronze weapons, 358 swords, 16 spearhead and halberds, as well as 6 bronze bells. The Yayoi Period (300 BC - 300 AD) is a little known period of history and not a lot of written records exist from the era. The Kojindani sword find is important for fleshing out a little known era of Japanese history.
The swords themselves were found stashed in eleven rows, almost as if in storage.
None of the swords or other weapons were sharpened, leading to the theory that they might not have been actual weapons but ceremonial pieces. They could also have been blanks, saved to be sharpened some time in the future. Each measure between 50 to 53 cm’s long (19 - 20 inches). Today the entire collection is housed in the Shimane Museum of Ancient Izumo. At the Kojindani sight itself the swords, spearheads, and bells have been replaced with realistic looking replicas.
The First Sack of Rome, 390 BC
Throughout history Rome was sacked many times by invaders, perhaps the most popular sackings being in 410 AD by the Visigoths and in 455 AD by the Vandals. Both sackings symbolized the fall of the Roman Empire. however the very first sack of Rome occurred early in Roman history, and symbolized the birth of the empire.
The first sack of Rome supposedly occurred in 390 BC, although the date varies a bit from source to source and dating system. At the time Rome was a mere city state, it’s borders no larger than a 30 km radius from the city of Rome itself. It was then that Rome earned the ire of a Gallic/Celtic tribe called the Senones, who were led by a king named Brennus. The Senones had earlier invaded Northern Italy and settled the Adriatic coast. In 390 they attacked the Etruscan town of Clusium, Clusium appealed to Rome for help, and the Romans sent three ambassadors to the Senones to warn them that they would defend the town. During the negotiations, a fight broke out and one of the Roman ambassadors murdered a Senones ambassador. In order to exact revenge, the Senones gathered their army and marched on Rome.
The Roman and Gallic armies met at the Allia River, about 16 km north of Rome. Exact numbers are very fuzzy, with the Romans having around 20,000 - 40,000 soldiers and the Senones having around 12,000. Other sources say that the Romans had much more men while the Senones army was a gigantic raging hoard as large as 70,000. However, it is most likely that the forces involved were much smaller, and that the Roman’s greatly outnumbered the Senones. Despite having a numerical advantage, the Roman Army of the early republic was not the highly skilled, heavily trained Roman Army of the later republic and empire. It was a small citizen militia force, poorly trained, poorly equipped, while using simple tactics. Soldiers were required to provide for their own weapons, armor, supplies, and training, thus wealthier Roman citizens were better armed, while poorer citizens were lightly armed.
The Romans were arrayed with their heavy infantry in the center, consisting of 2-4 legions in phalanx formation. Guarding their flanks were light infantry, consisting of the poorer Romans who had lesser quality weapons and less training. At the rear was a reserve force of light infantry on a fortified hill, which was to counterattack if the Roman flanks collapsed. At the outset, the Gauls attacked the Roman flanks. The Celtic Senones were alien to the Romans, with their long hair and tall muscular physiques making an intimidating sight. Rather than fight, the Roman light infantry forces at the flanks fled in terror while the reserve force was easily crushed. The more experienced Roman heavy infantry bravely held their ground but being outflanked and surrounded was quickly annihilated. The Romans who survived the battle fled to Veii, a nearby city which had been recently conquered by Rome, or took up a fortified position on the Capitoline Hill.
The Senones stormed Rome and looted the city. Most of the Roman population scattered to the countryside while those who could take up arms occupied a fortress on the Capitoline Hill. Roman Senators who could neither take up arms or lead troops in battle stoically sat in front of their estates, wearing their ceremonial garb, waiting for the Gauls to arrive and kill them. The Senones were unable to take the hill, and thus settled down to besiege the remaining Romans. After several months famine began to take hold. Finally both sides agreed to a deal in which the Romans would pay 1,000 lbs of gold if the Senones withdrew from the city. During the weighing ceremony the Senones supposedly rigged the scales to their favor. When the Roman’s called out the Senones for cheating, Brennus took off his sword and dropped it on the scales exclaiming, “woe to the vanquished.”
According to Roman historians before the gold could be exchanged a massive Roman army led by the hero Camillus arrived just in time and destroyed the Senones army, saving the day. Most likely this part of the story didn’t happen, rather being a piece of Roman propaganda added after the fact in order to save face. I would more likely believe stories that the Celts rode unicorns into battle and that Brennus was a Decepticon. More likely, the Senones took their plunder and left. Rome was devastated, with much of the city reduced to rubble and ashes. The Roman’s themselves considered moving to the vacant city of Veii, however the new leader Camillus convinced the Roman’s to rebuild rather than relocate. One major blow for historians was the destruction of the temple which housed Rome’s official records. Studying history one tends to notice that Roman history pre-390 BC is much less detailed, more hazy, and more mythological in tone. Roman history after 390 BC is much more detailed, documented, and more rooted in reality.
After the Senones’ departure Rome’s situation would only grow worse as Rome’s neighbors would attack in an attempt to take advantage of Rome’s moment of weakness. Amazingly, after decades of reconstruction while being constantly under attack, Rome would manage to not only rebuild, but conquer most of central and northern Italy. Rome grew stronger as a result of the calamity, growing much more militaristic and conquest hungry as a result. In fact, the sack of Rome in 390 BC is probably a reason for Rome’s expansionist policies throughout the later Republic and Empire. From 390 BC onward, Rome’s politics, culture, and military power would be devoted toward conquering and controlling everything around it in order to ensure that the barbarians beyond the horizon could never sack Rome again.
