Tehenu Libyan Medium Archers

Among the purchases last Quarter were a bag of Libyan Archers from Old Glory.

With the Egyptians and Cannaanites slated to see action on the tabletop at home next weekend, it seemed  likea good time to paint them up!

These troops are depicted on ancient Egyptian paintings and Bas reliefs. 

Alan Buttery, in "Armies and Enemies of Ancient Egypt and Assyria" (WRG), describes them as "tall and muscular, with a thick head of hair". 

"They wore material bands crossing the chest..." "From a decorated belt hung a phallus sheath of leather, as well as protector for the hips and rear." Looks like the prototype of the "designer jockstrap" to me!  :-)

I think my freind Brent had these guys in mind when he characterized Chariot era armies as "Hordes of nearly naked guys". 

Here's the second unit of Libyans.

You can almost hear the "pointing guy" singing "Y - M - C - A..." 

These somewhat more well dressed chaps wear "a long open garment, fastened at the shoulder, highly decorated, and with only one sleeve" over their loincloths.

Ostrich feathers were worn in their hair. 

I used the Micron colored ink pens to draw crude designs on the fabric. 

These units could enemies or allies of the Egyptians. 

From Giovanni Battista Belzoni: various ethnicities portrayed in a scene from Seti I's tomb; a reconstruction. The Libyans are readily identifiable on the upper right. Evidently they commonly employed tattoos as well.