Nisa helmeted warrior

Nisa helmeted warrior
Sculptured head of a warrior, Old Nisa, 2nd century BCE. National Museum of Turkmenistan
Material	Molded clay and paint
Size	34 cm
Created	2nd-1st century BCE
Discovered	Nisa, Turkmenistan
Present location	National Museum of Turkmenistan
Nisa Show map of West and Central Asia Nisa Show map of Turkmenistan

The Nisa helmeted warrior was found in 1984 during excavations of the Building with a Square Hall at the Old Nisa settlement. ^[1] It is the head portion of a large clay statue, dated to the end of the 2nd century BCE-1st century BCE. ^{[1] [2] [3] [4]}

Discovery

The "Building with a Square Hall" was part of the central complex of Old Nisa. It was an independent structure, but, like other buildings in the complex, its façade opened onto a large northwestern courtyard. The main volume of the building was occupied by a large square hall with an area of about 400 square meters. In addition to the hall, the building had five auxiliary rooms. ^[1] Huge statues (about 2.3-2.5 m. high) in Greek or sometimes Scythian costume used to be standing in niches high up above the ground in the square hall and were transferred to a small adjoining room during the late Parthian period. ^[5]

These statues were broken, and only fragments have been discovered within fillings inside the room. The fragments seem to have belonged to five or six clay statues: one of them is female, the rest are male. ^[1] The head of the "Nisa helmeted warrior" was found in the middle of the room, under a layer of loose loess 25 cm thick. The head was almost whole, with damage to the left side only (ear, brim and cheek piece of the helmet). ^[1] The head had a layer of paint, which has peeled off in some places. ^[1] The head belonged to a statue that was approximately one and a half times taller than a human. The height of the head from the crown to the chin is 34 cm. According to the standard proportions typical of Greek art, the full height of the statue must have been around 238 cm. ^[1]

Construction

The head has a large internal cavity, and was modelled. It was probably made from a plaster mold. During its manufacture, the mold was initially filled from the inside with a thin layer (0.5-2.5 cm) of gray-brown finely ground clay, then a coating of greenish-gray clay was successively applied in ring strips, serving as a kind of frame. The total thickness of the walls of the head reaches 2.5-6 cm. Molding, apparently, was carried out through the neck opening. The head was then covered with gypsum primer and painted. ^[1]

In the parietal part of the head, at the first stage of molding, an opening was left, which was probably intended for better adhesion to the head of the helmet crest, glued on after removing the head from the mold. Then it was subjected to the necessary corrections, covered with gypsum primer and painted. ^[1]

Description

The sculpture represents a bearded man of mature age, with regular facial features. The thin nose continues the line of the straight forehead. The relief-modeled eyes have carefully worked out eyelids, convex eyeballs, the borders of the iris and pupil. The eyebrows are thin and arched. The moustache frames the mouth and merges with a short, rounded, slightly wavy beard. The hair is depicted as large, smoothly curved strands. ^[1]

Coin of the Bactrian Satrap Sophytes.
Obv: Sophytes in profile with tight helmet and wreath.
Rev: Cock standing to right, with caduceus, and legend in Greek: ΣΩΦΥΤΟΥ "of Sophytes". Circa 300 BCE

The head is covered by a hemispherical helmet, strongly flattened from the sides. It is equipped with slanted downward brim. Their edges are strongly broken off, making it difficult to determine the exact shape. A massive longitudinal ridge runs along the top of the helmet, with a height at the top reaching 5 cm. Figured cheekpieces are attached to this rim on the sides of the head with loops, colored in red paint. The cheekpieces are long, descending almost to the bottom of the chin. The back edge has an arched outline, in the middle of the front there is a pointed protrusion. The front plane of each cheekpiece is occupied by a large relief image of the emblem of Zeus: a bunch of lightning bolts, equipped with a pair of spread wings. ^{[1] [6] [7]}

The face and hair of the statue are painted in a rich red-brown color, the iris of the eyes is brown, the pupil is black, on it a highlight is given with white paint, giving the look a natural liveliness. The outer surface of the helmet is painted white, which possibly indicates that it is made of iron. The chin straps are painted bright red. The back side of the helmet brim has the same color. ^[1]

The head was made by an experienced sculptor, with great realism and attention to detail, and the helmet as a good copy of known combat headgear of the Hellenistic period. ^[1] Similar helmets are typical of the end of the 4th century BCE, and can be seem on the coins of Seleucus or the Bactrian satrap Sophytes. ^[1]

Style

Front view of the terracotta head

This type of sculpture is known from other archaeological sites of Central Asia, such as the facial "masks" of Ai-Khanoum and Takht-i Sangin, and reveals a significant similarity with the stone sculpture of the Hellenistic period, both in the general stylistic direction, the desire to create a living realistic image, and in individual techniques (the modeling of the eyes, the manner of depicting the hair). ^[1] It follows the canons of Greek art. It is thought that it initially developed with the direct participation of Greek masters, and largely followed the canons of Greek art. ^[1] Before the Greeks, during the Achaemenid period, round sculpture had been poorly developed, even in the leading cultural centers of the empire such as Persopolis, Pasargadae and Susa, and for Central Asia it is generally unknown. ^[1]

Still, to some extent, the features that became fundamental in the "Parthian art" of the first centuries CE, such as frontality, staticity and emotional detachment, can also be perceived in the sculpture. ^[1]

Physical appearance and interpretation

The physical appearance of the warrior reveals striking "Greek" features, such as the line of the forehead, nose and chin, all located almost in the same plane. The external appearance is characteristic of the Greeks. The style of the sculpture and its "Olympian" calm, may indicate that a Greek deity is intended. ^[1]

An anthropological comparison of the facial features with those from the portraits of Parthian kings (Mithridates I and Mithridates II, Artabanus I and Phraates II), showed that there are significant differences in their physical appearance. In addition, the absence of Parthian symbols of royal power such as a diadem suggest this is not the image of a Parthian king. ^{[1] [8]}

Only the head was found, and it has not been connected to specific fragment of the torso. Among the other fragments from the room, were discovered fragments of torsos in armor, and female torsos draped in the Greek manner. But fragments of arms with narrow, tight sleeves and transverse folds were also found, which are typical of the Iranian costume. Thus, it must be assumed that the Building with the Square Hall housed statues in both Greek and Iranian attire. It is unknown whether these were images of gods and heroes, or whether the statues represented members of the ruling dynasty. ^[1]

The statues may also have been intended to represent Seleucid princes, as enemies or relatives of the Arsacids. ^[9]

Remains of another helmeted head were also found, with the design of an anguipede fighting figure on the helmet flaps, all in purely Hellenistic style, suggesting the representation of a divine figure, rather than any Parthian individual. ^[10]

Other Central Asia terracotta heads

• 
  Head of a Greco-Bactrian ruler with diadem, Temple of the Oxus, Takht-i Sangin, 3rd-2nd century BC. This could also be a portrait of Seleucus I. ^[11]
• 
  A Saka warrior, as a defeated enemy of the Yuezhi, Khalchayan. 1st century BCE ^{[12] [13] [14]}

Other readings

• BRILL "Archaeological Studies in Turkmenistan"

References

1. Pilipko, V.N. (1983). "Helmeted head from Staraya Nisa" (PDF). Bulletin of Ancient History (in Russian). 3: 167–177.
2. Invernizzi, Antonio (2011). "Parthian Art – Arsacid Art". Topoi. Orient-Occident. 17 (1): 189–207. doi:10.3406/topoi.2011.2403.
3. Farrokh, K.; Karamian, Gh.; Kubic, A.; Oshterinani, M.T. (2017). "An Examination of Parthian and Sasanian Military Helmets". Crowns, hats, turbans and helmets: Headgear in Iranian history volume I. K. Maksymiuk & Gh. Karamian, Eds., Siedlce University & Tehran Azad University. pp. 121–163.
4. "Welcome to Encyclopaedia Iranica". iranicaonline.org. A sculptured head from Nisa (2nd–1st cent. B.C.E.) wears a bowl-shaped helmet with corrugated visor, high crest, and moveable cheekpieces. Helmets of the Parthian period are known from works of art. A sculptured head from Nisa (2nd–1st cent. B.C.E.) wears a bowl-shaped helmet with corrugated visor, high crest, and moveable cheekpieces. This type of helmet probably goes back to Hellenistic prototypes.
5. Gaibov, V.A.; Koshelenko, G.A.; Bader, A.N. (1995). "Archaeological Studies in Turkmenistan". Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to Siberia. 1 (3): 273–288. doi:10.1163/157005794X00156. There were large (about 2.3-2.5 m. high) male and female figures standing in niches high above the floor. Some of them were represented wearing Greek clothes and armour, some dressed in nomadic Scythian costume. In the late Parthian period the vast majority of these sculptures were transferred to a small room adjoining the square hall (fig. 9). Their fragments were discovered here by V.N. Pilipko.
6. Canepa, Matthew P. (1 November 2020). The Iranian Expanse: Transforming Royal Identity through Architecture, Landscape, and the Built Environment, 550 BCE–642 CE. Univ of California Press. p. 75. ISBN   978-0-520-37920-6. Warrior whose cheekpiece bears the thunderbolt of Zeus
7. Ellerbrock, Uwe (24 March 2021). The Parthians: The Forgotten Empire. Routledge. p. 222. ISBN   978-1-000-35848-3. Head of a warrior, sun- baked clay, found in the Square Hall at the Palace of Nisa. The warrior wears an Attic helmet, the cheek-pieces are decorated with a winged thunderbolt and an armed, snake-foot Triton. The work is in a Hellenistic style. National Museum of History, Ashgabat
8. Pilipko, V. N. (1994). "Excavations of Staraia Nisa". Bulletin of the Asia Institute. 8: 101–116. ISSN   0890-4464. JSTOR   24048768. The third head, depicting a male with a handsome, noble face and a luxuriant beard, is the best preserved. His aloof, distracted gaze contrasts with the meticulously detailed helmet, typical of the Greco-Macedonian milieu of the Hellenistic period, on which the cheek flap bears a thunderbolt, an emblem of Zeus. (...) These heads provided further confirmation of the high degree of professionalism of the Nisa sculptors. They are rendered in the best traditions of Hellenistic art, in a realistic manner with a careful treatment of detail. The similar appearance of the Nisa heads, the helmet, and other traits entirely corroborate the early date of these sculptures, which, according to the date of the Building with the Square Hall, falls between the second and the early first centuries BCE It appears that the statues adorning the Square Hall were all of a type: full-length sculptures in the round, over 2m high. Fabricated on the site from unfired clay, some pieces, particularly a number of heads and torsos, were molded in special matrices. While the identity of the statues is not known at this point, since it has not been possible to restore any of the statues completely, it is quite unlikely that they are portrayals of Parthian kings and queens. In the first place, the realistic physical features of the heads show no likeness to the portraits of Arsacid kings on Parthian coins. Second, among the rather numerous finds there are no insignias of royal authority such as diadems or torques. Third, there are fragments depicting bare shins, which is contrary to the aesthetic norms of the Parthian milieu.
9. Heckel, Waldemar; Naiden, F. S.; Garvin, E. Edward; Vanderspoel, John (16 June 2021). A Companion to Greek Warfare. John Wiley & Sons. p. 192. ISBN   978-1-119-43881-6. At Old Nisa, a helmetted sculpted head was discovered in the Square Hall Building (second century). The helmet is of the Attic type and features cheek pieces. Such helmets were used by Greek or Macedonian soldiers enlisted in contingents of Parthian armies or garrisons. It is likely that the helmetted head belonged to a composition depicting figures of Seleucid princes, as enemies or relatives, stressing the glory of the triumphant Arsacid house.
10. Pilipko, V.N. (2002). "The Second Helmeted Head from Old Nisa". Journal of the British Institute of Persian Studies. 40 (1): 273–276. doi:10.1080/05786967.2002.11869204 (inactive 1 July 2025). The helmeted head seems entirely Greek and if it had been found at a Hellenistic site in the Near East or the Mediterranean, there would be no reason to assume a Parthian origin for it (Bieber 1955, Richter 1965,Smith 1991). (...) The clay sculpture from the square hall dates from the second to the beginning of the first century B.C. In conclusion, the helmeted head from Nisa followed Greek artistic traditions and should not be seen as a depiction of a Parthian king or a Parthian in general; it is probably a representation of a divine figure.
11. Bopearachchi, Osmund (1998). "A Faience Head of a Graeco-Bactrian King from Ai Khanum". Bulletin of the Asia Institute. 12: 27. ISSN   0890-4464. JSTOR   24049090.
12. Abdullaev, Kazim (2007). "Nomad Migration in Central Asia (in After Alexander: Central Asia before Islam)". Proceedings of the British Academy. 133: 87–98.
13. Greek Art in Central Asia, Afghan – Encyclopaedia Iranica.
14. Also a Saka according to this source: