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pekau
Caliph
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Topic: Huns' Appearance... Posted: 16-Jun-2007 at 15:42 |
I heard that Huns (Male, specifically) often make scars and mutate their face for psychological effect against the enemy troops. In military, it makes sense... but culturally? I am not sure if the women would like their husband to have scarred and mutated face...
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Knights
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Posted: 16-Jun-2007 at 18:46 |
Ammianus Marcellinus, the 4th Century Greek historian, describes the Huns as having "squat bodies, strong limbs and thick necks, and are so prodigiously ugly and bent that they might be two legged animals, or the figures crudely carved from the stumps which are seen on the parpets of bridges".
As for their scarred faces, Marcellinus also says "From the moment of their birth they make deep gashes in their children's cheeks so that when in due course when hair appears its growth is checked by the wrinkled scars; as they grow older this gives them the unlovely appearance of beardless eunuchs..."
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Tar Szernd
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Posted: 17-Jun-2007 at 02:51 |
That was not common:-) In a lot of the hunic mounted arrher graves were burried 180-190 cm short:-) warriors wit long, reflexed bows and 1-1.2 m long swords.
Maybe in Marcellinus work is written down (or in the one of Priscos), that the faces of the hunic babes were cut with blades because they had had to drop blood on to the earth instead of tears after they were born.
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Knights
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Posted: 17-Jun-2007 at 03:06 |
Do you have any sites which shows the remains of Hunnic peoples Tar? I'd be interested to have a look at them. I believe Jordanes's citing of Priscus, in his "Getica", mainly described the person of Attila, rather than the Huns as a people. His description of Attila is very similar to Marcellinus's over a century earlier. "...He was short of stature, with a broad
chest and a large head: his eyes were small, his beard thin and sprinkled with gray: and
he had a flat nose and a swarthy complexion showing the evidences of his origin..."
Gibbon paraphrases descriptions by earlier historians to come to this conclusion on Attila's person, it "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire": "large head, a swarthy complexion, small deep-seated eyes, a
flat nose, a few hairs in the place of a beard, broad
shoulders, and a short square body, of nervous strength,
though of a disproportioned form. The haughty step and
demeanour of the king of the Huns expressed the
consciousness of his superiority above the rest of mankind;
and he had a custom of fiercely rolling his eyes, as if he
wished to enjoy the terror which he inspired" - ChXXXV
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Tar Szernd
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Posted: 17-Jun-2007 at 07:09 |
I got a very good book from Istvn Bna (A hunok s nagykirlyaik-The huns and their main kings), and I'll post some pics from hunic and alanian graves (the girls got swords too!!:-)).
There was a german doku film series on ZDF, "Der Sturm ber Europa", and ther was shown a reconstructed hunic head from a hunic scull, but on a hungarian website the same head is avarian:-/
But it is true, that in the late -sarmatian period the mongolid sculls (and the long made sculls) get frequented in Middle and West Asia.
A hun on the left, and an alanian pair(the woman with the long sword:-)
The alans made the heavy cavalry in the hunic army, probably it was forbidden them to carry the bow.
Early hun (or hun aged) warrior with large composit bow and long sword.
Edited by Tar Szernd - 17-Jun-2007 at 07:19
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barbar
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Posted: 17-Jun-2007 at 08:41 |
Originally posted by Knights
Do you have any sites which shows the remains of Hunnic peoples Tar? I'd be interested to have a look at them. I believe Jordanes's citing of Priscus, in his "Getica", mainly described the person of Attila, rather than the Huns as a people. His description of Attila is very similar to Marcellinus's over a century earlier. "...He was short of stature, with a broad chest and a large head: his eyes were small, his beard thin and sprinkled with gray: and he had a flat nose and a swarthy complexion showing the evidences of his origin..."
Gibbon paraphrases descriptions by earlier historians to come to this conclusion on Attila's person, it "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire": "large head, a swarthy complexion, small deep-seated eyes, a flat nose, a few hairs in the place of a beard, broad shoulders, and a short square body, of nervous strength, though of a disproportioned form. The haughty step and demeanour of the king of the Huns expressed the consciousness of his superiority above the rest of mankind; and he had a custom of fiercely rolling his eyes, as if he wished to enjoy the terror which he inspired" - ChXXXV
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Typical biased historical description towards their strong foe.
The scaring was applied mainly during funerals to express their anguish for the loss of their family members, relatives or friends etc. these are some pictures from the Uyghur Caves, which show the practise continued until quite late.
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Xianpei
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Posted: 17-Jun-2008 at 12:07 |
I scrolled through this old thread; and found some questions that urge me to continue this :-
I have come to both Chinese and the Western records about how XiongNu's and Huns looked like. They conflict me as some Chinese records describe XiongNu with high nose which is non-orient (east asian) looking; whilst the Western ones say Huns are more orient looking (mongoloid)..... Assuming we are not debating whether Huns come from XiongNu or they were actually two different races, hence, HOW XiongNu physical appearance was and HOW HUNs physical appearance was? ** REMARKS: I MEANT THE ELITE RULING CLASS **
Hope some of you found it interesting to shed light on the topic.
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Leonidas
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Posted: 17-Jun-2008 at 13:26 |
could it be they were in between? relatively they may look Asian to a European and more Caucasian to a East Asian.
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Xianpei
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Posted: 17-Jun-2008 at 17:15 |
Hi,
Yes, it could be, but I am not so sure; So , to an Iranian & the Middle East peoples, would they find them relatively no difference then...? And so would be to a Central Asian & nowadays Turkish....? Or there would not be any clear answer yet up to present....?
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