Observaciones sobre la coraza y la mitra tracia

Abstract

The paper presents a complete catalogue of Thracian cuirasses and mitres. It reviews the typology and production as well as the distribution and social use of these pieces of armour. To do so, we have startedwith the fundamental work of L. Ognenova, comparing her observations with the archaeological data in an
up-to-date catalogue. At the same time, the Thracian inventory has been compared with the Greek one, in order to discuss its relation of dependence or non-dependence. Unfortunately, the partiality (or lack) of the documentation on most of the original archaeological contexts makes it necessary to wait for the discovery of new contexts to confirm the observations of the present work: The paper deals with four themes: classifying the cuirasses into three groups; establishing their chronology throughout the 5th century BC; confirming that they are exclusively Thracian products and not Greek imports; and, finally, seeing how their use was more related to social exhibition than to military or combat use, which in any case would not have any relation with cavalry for ergonomic and technical reasons. To explain this new aspect I suggest that the need of social self-affirmation motivated the manufacture of these pieces of panoply at a later time than their use in the Archaic Greek environment, where their social structure no longer needed them. All characteristics observed (typology, chronology, social use) give the phenomenon of Thracian armour a recognisable identity of its own, confirmed first by its spatial concentration and then by the transversal success it had among the elites of Thracian culture.