Posts: 740 Location: Netherlands
Fri 29 Jan, 2010 7:58 am
Yep. You know, there's archeogical/historical evidence of the use of horned helmets, double axes, wearing of animal hides with hair on and long beards from various periods and cultures. That doesn't mean that this supports that the following reconstruction of a
Viking has any historical accuracy:
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If you base your reconstruction on things that can't be supported by archeology, that's what you are ending up with in levels of historical accuracy. Now naturally even if we use all the archeological evidence we do have, we will still often end up with something that would looking like a 20th century reenactor wearing a WW2 helmet, Nikes, bermuda shorts and a blazer jacket riding a WWI plane. Unless, you use pictorial evidence that is. That's why these psalters are so incredibly important. But first you need to establish that what you see in these pictures actually represents the look of people in the appropriate location and time. This can be done by first checking the date and place of creation of the images, and comparing it with archeological evidence from the same time and period. This you also need to be able to interpret what you see in the pictures. Unfortunately, they don't show very well what material things are made off f.e. So that makes proving whether anything you see is made from
leather f.e. You can look at the colors for that, but those are quite deceptive, as they often are not realistic. The Stuttgart psalter seems pretty accurate, but there are examples were you will see red and green horses f.e. indicating that color was applied more randomly to accentuate things from one another (unless you're willing to believe that they painted their horses). Regarding the images and armour, you have to keep in mind that
leather could be dyed, so even if you see f.e. green, and it is the natural color, it can still be
leather. So you will need to look for other clues then just color as well. Basing on memory from looking at the images, I can't remember anything that stood out as potential
leather.
However, the following does make me wonder. Below is a scene featuring Charles the Bald, Gold Codex of St. Emmeram, Hofschool, around 870AD. Munchen, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek (CLM 14000, f5v):
[ Linked Image ]
[ Linked Image ]
It could just be clothing though (luxury clothing as royal guard?), which I actually think is the most likely. At any rate, those helmets are quite interesting :)