Genava55

Documentary mostly giving evidences from the Alemanni Small documentary about the Frankish warrior during the 5th century AD: Some footage from the place:

Germanic Shield Combat https://www.patreon.com/posts/37656473

True but ancient authors tell us that people faked Tyrian purple with indigo, and probably also by mixing different pigment.

Torcs weren't in use by Germans and weren't found in Germanic context. It is possible they would have been accepted as a gift however the torcs have no meaning for them. Maybe it is instead the Kronenhalsringen? Or even the Roman phalerae with smaller torcs? Good question. Generally the few representation of Germanic women didn't represent their costume like this. In the case of the Portonaccio sarcophagus, a woman shows her breast only because her sleeve/strap is down.

"like now" probably not. Northern Sahara knows an increasing trend of desertification that is due from a very long term change itself due to global and regional climate changes as you pointed out with the cycle of humid and dry periods, however the trend is still going. Furthermore, the rise of pastoralism accelerated the trend of desertification up to the modern period when a more productive agriculture started with the colonization. This further accelerated the desertification. Anyway I wasn't suggesting the elephants were everywhere in Northern Sahara. It is simply that a huge number of ecosystems were connected during the African Humid Period, with steppes, lakes and forests. Since this period ended between 4000 and 3000 BC, there was indeed a rapid change in the Sahara transforming the landscape in a desert but they were actually still remaining ecosystems in the margins at the end of the bronze age. Notably in West Africa where the change is less abrupt and close to the Tibesti mountains like in the case of the Lake Yoa. It took millennia for these ecosystems to completely collapse. So I have personally the hypothesis that elephants were still present in remaining pockets of these ecosystems during Hellenistic times (like the Atlas mountains woodland at the foothills but not only). Maybe these elephants are simply smaller because of insular dwarfism.

Ok thanks for the clarification. I thought the term was used for tribes at the West of Nile as well, closer to the Tibesti Mountains, but I was wrong. I found really weird they distinguish coastal and interior elephants from really further lands if there is no difference between them. There is also evidence for elephant remains in Northern Tunisia during the 9th century BC: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352409X16302693

Maybe I am confusing with Caesar account in book 6: Probably a reference to transhumance.

Thx. Seems an interesting article and I will read it later. The thing I found particularly interesting is the mention of Troglodytic elephants, which could be an adjective for Libyan elephants. Herodotus did mention elephants previously in Lybia but his concept of Lybia is less clear than for later historians. It is interesting to have literacy evidences for elephant in North Africa and not only the neolithic carvings in Atlas mountains and skeletons from Tibesti in the Lybian desert dated from late bronze age and iron age. Yeah me neither. I wasn't sure about this opinion as well. This is why I asked your opinion, you know better than me the classical sources. And against the Gauls in southern France, Ahenobarbus used elephants against the Arverni and the Allobroges (121 BC).

@m7600 Don't take personally the previous messages from Lion.Kanzen. English is not his mother tongue, he didn't express well his intents. He wasn't trying to be rude.

There is also evidence in Tacitus account for pastoralist nomadism in their societies.

@Nescio do you know the Adoulis inscription? Another question, in this article the author wrote: "Notice the absence of the turret, which could only be used on Asian elephants (Elephas maximus)." Do you think it is correct? https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0752/8/4/160/htm Edit: with the terracotta found in Pompei from your excerpt of Bar-Kochva's book, I am not sure it is correct. That makes sense. It is the case with ancient horse as well. Iron age horses were smaller than medieval and modern ones but were actually belonging to the same species and are not related to Przewalski's horse or to Exmoor ponies.

Elephant Size in Antiquity - DNA Evidence and the Battle of Raphia http://www.steiner-verlag.de/fileadmin/Dateien/Steiner/Zeitschriften_Historia/Historia_2016_1_53-65_Charles.pdf To give an idea of the actual size of an Indian elephant:

Well I agree in general with your suggestion but isn't it already the idea? 0 A.D. Empires Ascendant to be the base game and expansions to add new civ from 1 to 500 AD? The day 0 A.D. reaches the beta phase it would be an interesting topic and debate but until then... it is pointless.

In Bar-Kochva (1976) on the Seleucid Army: So it seems that Persian archers and Neo-Cretan archers are the most credible possibilities.

I remember this thread on twcenter: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?778511-Syrian-Archers-and-Europa-Barbarorum-2 Edit: in EB2 the Seleucids can recruit them https://europabarbarorum.fandom.com/wiki/Kamandar_i_Pars_(Persian_Archers) https://europabarbarorum.fandom.com/wiki/Kamandar_i_Pahlav_(Parthian_Foot_Archers) https://europabarbarorum.fandom.com/wiki/Aryanag_Payadag_(Eastern_Iranian_Archer-Spearmen) https://europabarbarorum.fandom.com/wiki/Eranag_Payadag_(Western_Iranian_Archer-Spearmen) https://europabarbarorum.fandom.com/wiki/Thanvabara_Katpatuka_(Anatolian_Archers)

Mmm I wonder if the Illyrian helmet is the best choice for a Syrian archer in the Seleucid army.

For French speaking people, a channel with several conferences about the La Tène and Hallstatt iron ages: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCp-zXMnTNdK9A1X784NdV8A/featured?fbclid=IwAR2ykLqCg6at9WHO0iMc43b6ZPpwx-tC0DB67r7gsHeYT5HcdAxznKOhov8

There are several statues of this kind in Southern Gaul, close to the Mediterranean Sea. This is due to the influence of the Iberians and of the Etruscans, maybe because of the Elisyces described by Herodotus. However, they cannot be more recent than the 5th century BC, after that the La Tène culture overwhelm the region. They could be incorporated as mercenaries or regional units but that's all. This is not really Gallic, their Celtic character is not sure, this is why I don't rely a lot on the material found in Entremont and Roquepertuse that much. Those are local particularities. https://musee-fenaille.rodezagglo.fr/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/dossier-de-presse-celtes-final-web.pdf

Funny I have just found that an Italian Museum reconstituted one of the Monte Bibele helmet:

I have a few ideas to include Celtic cavalrymen from the Balkans as mercenaries, based on material found in Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia. However for the moment I am waiting for the release of A24. Also I still want to upgrade the two Celtic factions to make them more interesting, more diverse and more accurate. But currently I am waiting to see how the players will react with A24 changes and I am waiting if borg and the others will continue their balancing work. Actually it was the case already during the 4th and 3rd century BC. With the helmet from Amfreville (bronze basis with iron, bronze, enamel and gold addition), the helmet from Canosa (iron basis with coral and bronze in addition), the helmet from Tronoën (iron basis with bronze and coral in addition) and the two helmets found in two different tombs from Monte Bibele (both iron basis with bronze in addition). The same for one of the 10 helmets found in Tintignac, probably dated to the first half of the 2nd century BC, a helmet with a iron basis and with bronze sheets in addition. Yes. It could work for the Lugii. Although it doesn't concern this thread.

The last one is from River Sava in Croatia*, territory under the control of the Taurisci or of the Scordisci. The other one is from Russia, it is not the first time that La Tène items are found in the North Pontic. The design of the heads is similar to the Gundestrup cauldron and it is probably an import. So it looks like Celtic but anyway we know that other cultures used those protective gears as well. The Dacians notably. The helmet of Siemiechow in Poland is also an indication that the Lugii/Vandals used this kind of helmet as well. *https://www.researchgate.net/publication/27212568_The_late_La_Tene_bronze_helmet_from_the_Sava_at_Stara_Gradiska

https://www.facebook.com/Maziars.workshop/

Ah yes a typo, sorry. About the Eastern Montefortino, it is mostly in use in the Eastern regions but actually there is one found in Southern France at Tintignac, so I wouldn't be to strict on this. However I think the common Celtic Montefortino found in Italy would be more widespread in Carthaginian mercs. This is the type found among Northern Iberians as well.