Spoils from the Sultan (part II): Arms and armour captured from the Turks in 1529-1683, in the Military History Museum of Vienna

.
By Periklis Deligiannis
.
CONTINUED FROM PART I

Ottoman horsetail-standards (credit: Erich Lessing archive)

Spoils from the Sultan (part I): Arms and armour captured from the Turks in 1529-1683, in the Military History Museum of Vienna

The chichak type helmet of the Ottoman Grand Visier Sokollu Mehmed Pasha who as a military commander confronted the army of the Habsburgs in 1566, between the two sieges of Vienna (credit: http://www.tforum.info).
.
By Periklis Deligiannis
.
The two sieges of Vienna by the Ottomans in 1529 and 1683 and the intermediate wars between the Ottoman Empire on the one side and the Habsburg dominions and the Poles on the other, had been remarkably decisive conflicts for the History of Europe. In both sieges of Vienna and the subsequent battles, the Ottomans were finally defeated leaving behind many dead, prisoners and valuable arms and armourand other military items, while the victorious European side paid a heavy toll in casualties as well. Today the most important spoils captured from the Turks are exhibited in the Military History Museum of Vienna. In these posts I present some images of Ottoman arms and armour in this exceptional museum.

Teutoburg Forest: Aftermath

 

 

“Nailed” Roman legionaries after the massacre of Teutoburg Forest. A marvellous artwork by an unknown artist. Kudos to the creator.

Germanic lands according to Cl. Ptolemaeus (2nd cent. CE)

A map of the Germanic lands according to Claudius Ptolemaeus (2nd cent. CE)

East-West Christian schism (1054)

A map of Christianity in Europe after the great schism of 1054 CE (Wikimedia commons) between Orthodox Christians in the East (Roman/Byzantine Empire and East Slavic principalities) and Catholic Christians in the West (Holy Frankish/Roman Empire, the other Frankish kingdoms and their satelite states). Five centuries later, a new schism took place between the Catholics of SW Europe and the Protestant Christians of NW Europe.
The following map is a political map of Europe around 1000 CE, just a few decades before the first Schism. The main state units, the Roman Empire and the Principalities of Kiev and Novgorod for the Orthodox, and the Holy Frankish/Roman Empire, France and Hungary for the Catholics are shown.

Slaughter at the bridge: Discussion on a colossal Bronze Age battle

Republication from  www.sciencemag.org

 

How warriors were equipped for battle.

By Andrew Curry

About 3200 years ago, two armies clashed at a river crossing near the Baltic Sea. The confrontation can’t be found in any history books—the written word didn’t become common in these parts for another 2000 years—but this was no skirmish between local clans. Thousands of warriors came together in a brutal struggle, perhaps fought on a single day, using weapons crafted from wood, flint, and bronze, a metal that was then the height of military technology.

Struggling to find solid footing on the banks of the Tollense River, a narrow ribbon of water that flows through the marshes of northern Germany toward the Baltic Sea, the armies fought hand-to-hand, maiming and killing with war clubs, spears, swords, and knives. Bronze- and flint-tipped arrows were loosed at close range, piercing skulls and lodging deep into the bones of young men. Horses belonging to high-ranking warriors crumpled into the muck, fatally speared. Not everyone stood their ground in the melee: Some warriors broke and ran, and were struck down from behind.