On The Indo-European Etruscans?

Phaidimos Front of a limestone block from the stepped base of a funerary monument, mid-6th century B.C. Greek, Attic, Archaic Limestone; Overall: 12 1/2 x 33 1/2in. (31.8 x 85.1cm) The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Rogers Fund, 1916 (16.174.6) http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/249097 One of those tantalizing mysteries of the Classical World concerns the origins of … Continue reading On The Indo-European Etruscans?

A Message Even A Persian Could Understand

It has been said that the language of international diplomacy is one of subtle, implied threats delivered alongside cocktail-sticks, in foreign, exotic locales. This might seem an altogether modern maxim, yet as we shall soon see, it is one that is almost equally (if not, frequently, far further) applicable to the relations of the Ancient … Continue reading A Message Even A Persian Could Understand

Warrior-Women of the Steppe?

'Scythian' female horse archer; broadly representative of a perhaps surprisingly viable typology of the Indo-European folk of the Steppe. In my previous piece on Naga Panchami, I briefly mentioned the flawed speculative etymology of Sauromatai, the Sarmatians - noting that some had sought to suggest it derived from scale-like armour and serpentine standards of this … Continue reading Warrior-Women of the Steppe?