A Historical Interlude: Bronze Age people by Michael Perry

Two additional figures from the Wargames Foundry range - an older woman and a young man - note the 'pageboy' hair cut and the hairnet!

A few weeks ago, I published a post about my love for the Foundry's European Bronze Age range and discussed how the 1921 discovery of the Egtved Girl came to inspire Michael Perry's sculpting. She certainly inspired me too, and I have continued to work on this seemingly unpopular, but excellent range, as you can see! 

This time we are going to have a closer look at the garments worn by people in North West Europe around 1600 BC, as illustrated by these two wonderful character figures. I like to think that these represent the Egtved girl's family; perhaps her parents or siblings and that they inhabit the same village or environment. Roleplaying is possible in Europe's distant past, see? Though as we will find, these two additional figures may be more closely matched to each other than I originally thought. 

So what do we know of the people who inhabited this sceptred isle three and a half millenia ago? The first thing you need to forget is the concept of the nation state. Modern views of nationality and regional identification didn't really develop into the form we recognise today until the end of the 18th century. People were tribal for sure, but where one tribe began and another ended is now largely lost to us. 

Here, in what would one day be called England, population density seems to increase significantly from the Neolithic period, with smaller family clans gradually morphing into settled, larger communities. Some scholars have even suggested that the total population of the British Isles (that includes Eire, remember modern geo-politics don't apply here) could have reached 1,000,000 by 2000 BC. 

Ye Olde illustration of Bronze Age costume inspired by the Danish oak coffin finds. Again, note the hairnet and rounded hats, both present on Michael Perry's models. 

The reasons behind this population increase are hotly debated by prehistorians to this day, but the general consensus is that farming practices developed rapidly and this resulted in a more substainable food source. As the population grew, there were more people to work the land and in turn generate further produce. Environmental archaeology, particularly the discipline of palaeoethnobotany, has provided evidence to suggest that these growing populations cleared large areas of forest to develop the first field systems. Occasionally, these fields were enclosed with boundries, using earthworks, wooden pallisades or drystone walling, such as at the Dartmoor Reaves. Much of the woodland remained as a managed resource, with scholars arguing that around fifty-percent of forest growth had survived by the Middle Bronze age. Ancient versions of barley and wheat (remember, our crops are the result of thousands of years of manipulation: GM produce being nothing new) were harvested, alongside hay and straw to aid in animal husbandry, thatching and many other purposes, such as bedding. Malt was also cultivated, as alcoholic drinks were fermented and no doubt enjoyed in copious quanities- just like today! 

Climatology surveys suggest that the weather was probably slightly warmer in the Bronze Age, with a two degree difference on average to modern times, and this obviously effected agricultural land use, as arable farming was able to spread to moorland and upland environments. By the later Bronze Age, this weather pattern changed into the cooler, wetter variety the inhabitants of these islands are famous for enduring, and so many of these upland farms were abandoned. 

With food production no longer a day to day necessity for all, some people began to specialise in skilled activities. Evidence for metal workers, shipwrights, leather tanners and so on suggest a varied cabal of craftsmen operating throughout the Bronze Age. Despite having the name 'Bronze' in this period, stone tools were still used extensively, though their production lack the artistic finess of the Neolithic or Mesolithic periods, and any modern day search of freshly ploughed land, or even your own back gardens here in Europe, can result in the discovery of these stone relics if you know what you are looking for.

Bronze Age stone tool, discovered by the author in his garden. 

As we learnt from the Egtved Girl's teeth, travel around the European continent seemed to be a common enough occurance three and half millenia ago. Archaeological excavation has proven time and time again that there were strong trade links between the British Isles and the continent even then, with metalwork and ore (particularly tin) being shipped out and amber, jade and such being imported, and that these links were probably already well established by the Neolithic. Exotic or unusual items would have been seen as status symbols and the relative 'worth' of a item needs careful examination and avoidance of modern bias. A good contemporary example of this can be found in Ancient Egypt, where silver was deemed of greater value than gold, something that was beyond the ken of our Victorian antiquarian forebears. 

If we now return to the subject of clothing, we can understand that there is a good likelihood that textiles would have been traded and may have seen specialised production, though if we look at comparative societies in the Iron Age and Medieval periods, the production of textile was an activity carried out by women and sometimes children. Though I very much doubt that the production of textiles was a 'women-only' pastime, sewing was a skill of great importance for thousands of years, and it didn't matter if you were a queen or a milkmaid, you still spent some of your time at the loom and needlecraft was a highly valued skill. 

Though we can never know who actually made clothing in the Bronze Age, at least we have a few glimpses of how clothing was made and what these outfits looked like, largely thanks to the Danish Oak Coffin burials we touched on last time. The Egtved girl being one of the twenty so far unearthed. Hopefully, the ongoing investigations at Must Farm (nicknamed Britain's Pompeii) will reveal more in future about clothing in what would one day become England. What we do know is that clothing was mostly wool based, with a variety of weaves and more sophisticated that the animal hides worn during the Stone Age. As natural dyes were used to colour clothing, we can expect fairly drepressing shades of brown, green and dark red to have been the norm. Leather was plentiful during the Bronze Age and was probebly used extensively in clothing, and elsewhere. A shoe dated to 1420-1260 BC was found by accident in Norway in 2006, thawed from an icefield in the Jotunheimen mountains, and was found to be an equivalent size to a UK size seven. One of the shoe's seems was very well preserved and there was some indication that shoelaces were used to fasten the garment. 

Interestingly, the simple design remained in use until around AD 1600! 

A great reconstruction for Bronze Age clothing found at Ancient Craft, though not exactly like the outfits worn on our miniatures. 

The male miniature seems to have been based on male clothing excavated as part of a suspected family group found at Borum Eshøj. First discovered in 1871, these burials were uncovered inside a large barrow situated near Århus, the second largest city in Denmark, and weren't fully recovered until 1875. Sadly, both excavation and preservation techniques were primitive at best, with local visitors recorded as poking and proding the bodies after their removal. 

The excavations of 1871 resulted in the discover of a single grave with the body incased in a oak coffin, similar in many ways to the Egtved Girl's. Inside, lay the remains of an elderly woman. During more extensive fieldwork four years later, two further coffins were discovered and were found to contain the bodies of two men - one considerably older than the other. It has been suggested that the barrow itself was originally raised over the body of the older man, and the subsequent two further burials were added later. Dendrochronology provided a date of roughly 1350 BC for the oak coffins used, so about twenty to forty years after the Egtved Girl. 

Careful analysis of the skeletal remains, suggests that the older man had reached later middle age when he died, around fifty to sixty years while the younger male was around twenty years when he was buried. The female's age was estimated at being similar to the older man. 

The primary inhumation was very well preserved and had to be dismembered for transport to Copenhagan, as the sinews and muscles were still holding the skeleton together. His nails were well manicured and his face newly shaven, perhaps suggesting that he had been cleaned up after death as some people still do today. Like the Egtved Girl, he lay on a cow hide and was covered by a woollen blanket. He wore a wool hat, its crown round in shape, a kidney-shaped cloak, a kilt, two foot cloths and and belt. As far as I could gather, the only other item of clothing in the grave was a wooden needle, which may have been used to fasten the cloak around the neck. 

The female had a short but stocky build, and the preserved traces of muscle on her bones suggests she carried out a great deal of hard physical work. Again, her clothes are well preserved and were more numerous. A dress made from several rectangular pieces of cloth made up her dress, along with a blouse, hairnet, cap and two belts, all made from wool. She was clearly a wealthy individual, and this is reflected in the many grave-goods associated with her burial; a bronze belt plate (similar to Egtved Girl); two tutuli (ornamental bronze plates in case you were wondering), a neck ring, arm rings, spiral finger rings and a clothes pin. A ceramic vessel, a wooden box, a bronze dagger and a horn comb were also found in her coffin. 

The preserved clothing of the older male found at Borum Eshøj is practically identical to our wargames miniature's.

The younger man most closely resembles the figure shown here. He was twenty years old when he died, and again his body was well enough preserved that his muscles and other tissues were still attached to much of the skeletal remains. His hair was also very well preserved and could be described as being in the modern 'pageboy' style popular in the 1970s and with George Lucas' leading boys ever since, just check out Jake Lloyd in the Phantom Menace and you will get the general idea. Like the older man, he wore a kilt of woven wool and a kidney-shaped cloak with the obligatory belt to hold it all in. If you return to the Foundry figure you can see he is wearing one of the rounded hats on his head, similar to the elder male individual. It is clear that the male burials at Borum Eshøj inspired Michael Perry with this model. In fact, there is an elderly man with a walking stick in the set which I suspect is based on the older individual - I just haven't painted him yet!

It is tempting to state that these burials must represent a family group, with two elderly parents being interred with their son. The dendrochronology certainly suggests this, with the initial burial being dated at 1351 BC while the latest is dated at 1345 BC. I couldn't find any record of a DNA analysis having been carried out on the bodies, but I suspect that such an investigation would be hazardous, considering the amount of contamination the bodies have suffered since burial, but I would love to be corrected. 

Though the female burial at Borum Eshøj shared some of the clothing items with our Foundry figure, she doesn't closely match her in the same way as the male figure matches the younger burial. In fact, I couldn't find a really close match for her at all. The female at Borum Eshøj was buried with a hairnet of singular type, though today she doesn't have any hair left on her skull, thanks to the rummaging hands of local farmers during her discovery, and beyond a simple illustration made during the excavation we have no idea what her hair style was like. Thankfully, we know more about ladies' hairstyles and their hairnets thanks to a more recent discovery (1935) in a burial mound not far from Skrydstrup, in Southern Jutland. 

This reconstruction of the Skrydstrup Woman is very similar to Michale Perry's figure, note the embroidary on the sleeves and the pleated top to the dress. 

The so-called Skrydstrup woman was around 18 when she died and was laid in a oak coffin wearing a short sleeved blouse of woven wool with embroideries on the sleeves. Dated to around 1300 BC, she too was laid in a oak coffin wearing a large piece of textile fashioned into a long skirt. Her hair was finished in an unusual style in which all of her hair was combed forwards over a hair pad. A woollen cord was afterwards bound around her hair, which was plaited across the forehead, temple to temple like a wreath of flowers might be incorporrated into the hair. Finally, a hairnet was used to cover the elaborate style, crafted from horse hair, though a woollen 'cap' constructed using the 'sprang' technique was also placed alongside her in the grave. Large, golden earrings lay by both ears and a horn comb was attached to her belt. 

Sprang technique hairnets or caps

There seems to be a nod to both the hairnet and the sprang constructed caps on the female figure. Looking at the sculpting I was unsure how to procreed as the band around her forehead seemed to suggest a textile. In the end I compromised, giving the top of her had the plaited hair look and the band a woven, woollen tone.

A modern reconstruction of the Skrydstrup's woman elaborate hairstyle. 

Looking at the modern reconstruction, hair was clearly just as big thing for women then as it is today. I could imagine my wife spending and hour or two plaiting such a design into my own daughter's hair and there must have been quite a few tears, not to mention a harsh word to two if such a design was intended to be worn by a child. The fact that both razor blades and tweezers have been found in Bronze Age burials just goes to show that these ancient people took personal grooming just as seriously as we moderns, and that fashion and 'looking right' was clearly part of death, so it must have been part of everyday life. 

Before I depart I would like to talk about the colours I chose for the models. On the whole I took Nigel Stillman's advice (published on the Foundry website) and kept the colours very natural and subdued. Browns, greys, greens and dark reds seem to be very much the order of the day when talking about Bronze Age clothing. But as I said in my last post, the very special enivronment that ensured these garments survival also affected them over the years, often tanning them a rather turgid brown in tone. Recent investigations into the fabric of another preserved individual, Huldremose Woman, has revealed a start difference between what her clothing looks like now and how it might have appeared when she lived during the Iron Age. Of course, there is a thousand years between this individual and our Bronze Age people, but who's to say that the same vivid colour counldn't have been possible three and a half thousand years ago?

                               

It certainly gets the miniature painter considering the possibilities, doesn't it? In the end, I opted for a much muted colour pallette for my figures and though I am deeply satisfied with their appearence, I think I might well pick up a second set one day and attempt something more imaginative with their paint schemes, perhaps something patterened as can be seen in these images. 

Right, before I go I really must point out a blog post by a fellow enthusiast, Red Orc, who wrote a wonderful opinion piece entitled 'In Defence of Ritual' after I gently mocked this most controversial of archaeological habits. It is well worth and read, so please go visit. 

Orlygg                     

Oldhammer Weekend 2017: Overview

Hello and welcome to my annual overview of this year's premium Oldhammer Event held (as always) at the excellent facilites of the Ansell family's Wargames Foundry! I was damn well lucky to attend at all after recent events but thanks to my wonderful wife, Lisa "I've never been so glad to see you painting miniatures again" Taylor, transport was well and truly sorted as she drove me to the venue for much of the Saturday. 

She decided to book us into a hostel in the centre of Nottingham City for the Friday night so we wouldn't have to endure a long journey on the day, and we spent much of the previous afternoon exploring Nottingham Castle with our children - who were very pleased to learn all about Robin Hood! It also gave them the opportunity to visit their first Oldhammer Event, which captivated my son in particular (thanks to Mr. Curtis Fell, who graciously included him in the enormous Hellsreach game) and fascinated my daughter. They were both very excited to meet the famous Kevin Adams as he had sculpted small models of them several years ago, and anyone named Goblinmaster will be a person of considerable interest if you are under seven !

As with previous years there was a wonderful event figure, exclusive to the weekend, thanks to the endeavours of Jon Boyce and sculpted by John Pickford. She is based on a well known illustration originally appearing in Rogue Trader in 1987 and answers to Olivia when she isn't busting chops and decapitating perps. Thanks to James Holloway (who's photograph I shamelessly stole) you can have a closer look at the finished product below. There have been a number of Oldhammer event models over the years, and this one has to be my personal favourite (so far...) so a big thumbs up from old Orlygg to all involved. 

As in previous years I will now present a selection of the photographs I took of the event to help give you a flavour of the Saturday. Even though I was only there for the day, I must say that the atmosphere was absolutely fantastic and was easily the most relaxed and friendly it has ever been, and as you'll know if you have attended in the past, that really is saying something! It was also very pleasing to see such a range of games on show, from small Rogue Trader skirmishes to full scale fantasy battles! 

Kevin Adams set to work early with his now annual charity-sculpt-a-face drive and we were able to locate those Oldhammerers who hadn't managed to get their models completed last year. Here you can see Kev and Nick Harding just before work commenced on Nick's Dwarf Flame cannon figure. I managed to get the lowdown from Kev about his most recent work too. 

Kev had some challenging missions to complete during the day (he is there on Sunday too, if you are reading this in time and fancy popping down) with a highlight being this chaotic face on an old renegade body. 

There was a wonderful Dark Future gaming being played in the stableyard organised by Kilgore-Trout from the Oldhammer Forum. There were some wonderfully painted models on the table (more from them in a subsequent post) and the boys involved in the game were very enthusiastic about this classic car racing game. We talked about how adaptable many of the kits are and what a pain getting hold of the original figures is online. The need to remove the packet of crisps was deemed un-necessary as this was an Oldhammer Event and such items are now mandatory. 

A wonderfully run and presented game. Thank you to all involved in this! 

The majestically bearded and photographically well-endowed Richard Legg and co were running a lovely Rogue Trader skirmish during the Saturday morning, including some wonderful old Imperial Squat models that are not often spied at Oldhammer events, complete with bikes and a ramshakle flyer. Old school plastic genestealers were fielded in suitable quantities to delight and terrify the Oldhammerer in equal measure. 

My old gentleman compatriots of yore, Steve, Ash and Warlord Paul were running a 40k second edition skirmish also involving genestealers, including many of the more recent plastic releases. Ash had fielded an interesting assortment of human figs from practically everywhere while Steve was already listing his models on eBay (such is their fate when they fail him in battle) while the rather dapper looking Warlord Paul (think Sean Connery as Bond, only with a beard) unleashed his license to kill over their forces. 

As in years gone by, Wargames Foundry delighted the old school Citadel fans in attendence with another series of re-releases from the glory days of the 1980s. This year saw the return of many of the ninja figures, including the super hard to find (or used to be) ninja casualty, as well as the 1987 siege/cannon crew models seen in the WFB3 rulebook. Hobbs, from the old F4 Men-at-Arms range, the the Teutonic Knight from the old Blandford Warriors range also being returned to us. 

Here, have a closer look! 

These ninja make the perfect accompliment to Aly Morrison's Samurai figures from the same era already available from the Foundry. Sadly, rushed for time and harried by excited children I failed to pick any of these up so will have to wait until I return to the Foundry in October to sate my Japanese martial needs. 

I did manage to pick up Hobbs and the Teutonic knight though, and will no doubt one day get some more of the more modern castings of the Feudal artillery crew (I have the originals in my collection already, many of which are painted.)  The affable Tony Yates' Blademaster and Blade Wife and his Chaos Lord had also been cast up, for fans of his unique models - my daughter took an instant delight to the Chaos Lord and insisted I bought it for her to paint. 

The near mythical Nigel Stillman was in attendence and brought in his incredible Bretonnian army, which turned out to include parts of the 'original' forces he used to create the famous armybook of years past. Here he can be seen chatting with Oldhammer original, airbornegrove, who made the trip from the US and was a pleasure to meet after so many years. Whiskey Priest and co were indulging in a skirmish game here with some beautifully painted miniatures - more of which in a later post!

Curtis Fell, of Ramshackle Games, was involved in the gigantic Hellsreach game inside the pavillion and was kind enough to hand out free resin models of the Mayor of this desolate place. Closer inspection of the model just goes to show how far his sculpting skills have come on since last year's Oldhammer Cleric. A big thank you to him for his generosity once again.  

The Hellsreach game was gigantic and very highly detailed. You could have easily spent the entire day attempting to capture the intricacies of the game as there was ust so much going on. Expect to see a great deal of coverage about this mammoth game across Oldhammer media in the future. 

This beautifully crafted table was, and I am guessing here so please correct me if I am wrong, used for the Snorcling Space Hopper game. Like Hellsreach is was an extremely imaginative piece of modelling with a great number of comdeic touches. The spiders (and their webs) were the highlight for me here. 

An excellent effort! 

Oldhammer heavyweights Erny and Geoff Sims can bee seen here looming large over the gigantic Heldenhofen game, complete with Bloodbowl Stadium! There were a great number of excellent scenery pieces on this table, including many inspired by the seminal Warhammer Townscape - can you spot the windmill in this shot?

With such a large table to play on, and in their traditional spot, the boys from GROG did sterling work putting on this sandbox game. 

A shot from the otherside of the Heldenhofen table, with BOYL impresario Garth James looking on.  

This game was enthusatically run and well resourced, complete with this Gazette display and a tonne of dice scattered across the gaming table. I believe that the famous 'Harry' from Warseer fame (and beyond) was behind much of the scenery here! 

Great fun!

Thantsants and Paul Golgfag rip the solar systems of the far future to shreds with Space Fleet, the precursor to what later became known as Battlefleet Gothic. 

Matthew Street, Steve Casey (who always seems to wear this blue fleece at Oldhammer events for reasons mysterious and arcane) and Chris High King of the Elves - you should see his collection of old school third edition faerie-folk! In fact, it is so an impressive assemblage that we hope to construct a game around his collection later on this year. And yes, there are three dragon riders on the table there!! 

Nigel Stillman brought in his vast Bretonnian army, packed full of classic models from the 1990s Stillmania era, with many of them of his own creation. The 'Laydees of ye olde baggayge trayne' need to be seen to be believed. But again, more from them in a later post. 

Tony Ackland broods in a wizardly manner behind them. He had brought his sketch book again and we made some further discoveries amongst his recently unearthed (he had forgotten he had them) work. I'll do an art post later on to cover the highlights in more detail. 

Nigel Stillman's Bretonnians ride forth- though he told us they were never allowed to appear in White Dwarf properly because they weren't painted to a high enough standard! They look mighty fine here though, I am sure you will agree!!

Inside the Foundry Shop there were plenty of games in the offing, including this lovely skirmish involving Erny and Snickit. 

Erny's skirmishing wood elves caused considerable problems for his opponents.

As in previous years, the painting competition was held and the standard of entries was higher than ever. As a two-time winner myself (blowing my own trumpet there!) I was honoured to judge the entries along with Tony Yates, Garth James and Maria Ansell. In the end we whittled the entries down to those you can see before you. Scalene's Nurgle Plague Doctor and Harlequins won the single figure, and unit prize while JB (the Asslessman) picked up a the 'Big Monster' gong, thanks to his magnificant elf dragon rider that caught my eye instantly when studying the entries. Honourable mention went to the big walker conversion -though I cannot recall who made this, so please can someone inform me so I can update this post! As did the Minotaur on the toilet, a play on the inconvenienced dwarf of limited edition fame, which reminded me of the humourous entries in the old Golden Demon books of the 1980s. Wonderfully, it turned out that the painter behind this little gem was none other than Steve Casey himself, a collector turned painter, who I am sure won't mind me pointing out to readers had been feeling a little anxious about his painting recently. 

The humbly controlled joy of winning was evident on his face as he stepped forth to recieve his well won prize, and seeing my friend win was the highlight of the day for me and example of what the Oldhammer Community is all about! 

Right, that is enough for now. Expect plenty more coverage over the coming days as I take you through some of the wonderful miniatures on show (including Bryan Ansell's extensively refurbished collection), Tony Ackland's sketch book (and other arty bits) and a wonderful discovery (at least to me, so don't raise your hopes too high) from the Ansell collection. 

More soon,

Orlygg

A Historical Interlude: Egtved Girl by Michael Perry

A Bronze Age girl - standing rather defiantly if you ask me! I tried to suggest that she was quite a fearsome character in her facial expression, trying to convey one of those 'looks' nearly all teenage girls seem to throw about.

Last time we spoke I promised something a little historical, but still vaguely in the Oldhammer vibe - and here it is! A lovely Bronze Age figure by Michael Perry and produced by the Wargames Foundry. This range has been a dirty little secret of mine for some years now and I have been slowly collecting the different packs, but like so many of us neglected to even pop open the blister pack and get cracking. 

Well, that has all changed with the addition of this sultry girl to my collection. For the last two weeks I have gone cold turkey (almost, I wasn't that brave) on all of the prescription medicine I was on and I am now thankfully off the stuff. One of the drugs I was given has recently cropped up in the media (in typical sensational and ill-reported fashion) though they only thing I murdered on the stuff were the weeds in my garden. It seems my seizures and illness were simply side effects of these powerful medicines rather than the urology problems that I was originally suffering from. 

Now that WHS (wobbly-hand-syndrome) has passed, I am back at work on my cluttered workstation and hope to be able to post more regularly. But enough of my woes... on to the model itself. Despite having a degree in archaeology I knew very little about clothing in the Bronze Age and was keen to get the look of the figure correct. Little did I know that Michael Perry hadn't simply conjured up a random prehsitoric person in this tiny figure but actually based her of a very significant find that has become known as the 'Egtved Girl'.

                          

She was a Nordic Bronze Age girl whose well preserved remains were discovered outside Egtved (archaeological custom often names finds after their modern location) in Denmark in 1921. Forensic examination of her remains suggested that she was around 18 years old when she died and was a slim, five foot three in height with short, blonde hair and well groomed nails. She was excavated (if such a verb can be applied to the techniques of the 1920s) alongside the cremated remains of a 5 year old child in a barrow thirty metres wide and about four metres in hight. Sadly, only her hair, brain, teeth, nails and a small sample of her skin has survived. 

The original 1921 photograph of the Egtved Girl's remains. Note the large, bronze disk at her waist.

Her inhumation was interred inside a east/west aligned treetrunk coffin and was discovererd fully dressed lying on a cowhide blanket. Dendrochronological investigation of the treetrunk coffin dated the burial to around 1370 BC - and that is almost certainly the year the tree was felled. She wore a loose bodice type garment, which exposed her midriff, with sleeves that reached to her elbows and a short, string skirt. On her arms were found bronze bracelets and around her waist (secured by a woollen belt) was a large disc ornament decorated with spiral designs and a protruding spike. Dangling within easy reach from this same belt, was a fine horn comb suggesting that preening and postering with a hairbrush was a vital part of a woman's life even then! I am of course being facetious here, as combs are a very common find archaeologically as they were essential for removing the insects that like to set up home in our hair, as well as maintaining the latest styles! 

A slender, subtle golden ring adorned one of her ears indicating that piercing was just in vogue then as it is now, even amongst the more extreme grognards I have met (such as Chico.) A small, birchwood box containing an awl, bronze pins and a hair net was found alongside of her head, presumably her personal possessions most suited to the next life, though intriguingly some smaller bones from the younger child were also found inside. Why? Interpreting the past is always a tricky business, and it is hard not to let your own social and national bias effect theory. It could be suggested that the younger child pre-deceased the Egtved girl (especially considering they bear the unmistakable signs of being burnt) if their bones were part of her possessions, though we cannot be sure if they were not indeed added by those who buried her for reasons lost to us. The more romatically inclined may seek to relate the two burials to close family, with the child perhaps being a sibling or child of the Egtved Girl, but such associations are always going to be risky and hard to prove without further analysis. The child may have been totally unrelated to her and could have been a slave, presumably killed to accompany her mistress into the afterlife. Evidence for human scarifice, that most 'Hollywood' of historical subjects, is prevalent in the region in which the Egtved girl lived and there is plenty of scope to suggest that both the child, and Egtved herself, could have befallen this fate. 

We will never know. 

Modern, colour photograph of her clothing after preservation showing the position of her gravegoods in relation to her body. Note the footwraps alongside the bark bowl, these are missing from Michael Perry's intrepretation but appear on other figures in the range. 

Analysis of the grave goods yielded further information. Before the coffin was originally sealed, she was covered with a blanket and the cowhide and wrapped carefully in them. Flowering yarrow (a plant which to this day can symbolise protection) was then placed above her body, strongly suggesting a summer burial. Much like 16 year old European girls of today, booze (in this case a beer brewed from wheat, honey, bog-myrtle and cowberries) was clearly part of her life and was deposited on top of her in a bark bucket - which can be clearly seen on the modern miniature, nestled protectively under her arm. Whether or not drinking the stuff in the copious quanities teenagers do today was part of her life, or if indeed the alcoholic drink was some part of the funeral custom of the time, is impossible to say. Though, some modern imbiber has produced a modern version of the beverage for the curious, based on analysis of the recipe and can be purchased here. 

Museum snap showing the treetrunk coffin.

Her clothing caused a sensation in the press when unearthed in the 1920s and was seen as incredibly daring in the days of the flapper girl. The outfit, which remains the best preserved example of a fashion style now understood to be common across Northern Europe during the Bronze Age. If you are wondering why the preservation of the textiles was so remarkable, yet the physical, fleshy remains were so poor then let me explain. The highly acidic bog like conditions in which she was buried are often highly anaerobic and the resulting lack of oxygen prevents bacteria from surviving, and therefore decomposing the body. The preservational qualities of bogs are myriad, complex and varied and are far beyond the scope and remit of this blog, but the science is really rather interesting and well worth further pursuit.  

The Victorian myth that prehsitoric people's lives were 'nasty, brutish and short' is very unfair but still very much part of the public's perception of the past. Pretty much like the modern powergamer's misconception that any other form of miniature wargaming that doesn't involve army lists and rules loopholes is somehow an affront to the hobby. The isotopes extracted from the Egtved Girl's remains indicate that it is likely she was born and brought up in what we now call the Black Forest region, in southwestern Germany but later moved to Denmark (presumably, but not definitely, due to the marraige customs of the time) with the evidence suggesting that she travelled back and forth between these two locations during her lifetime. How can we know this, you may ask? Well, the answer is actually quite simple: strontium-87 and 86 are isotopes found in the water we drink and can be matched to locations to this day. These isotopes can be stored in our teeth as we grow and can be read much like a tree-ring under extensive analysis in the modern laboratory. 

The conditions that help preserve textile remains also destroy their original colours. Long centuries of immersion in bogs can tan flesh and clothing a chestnut brown and it is important to remember that what we see now may not have been the garment's original colour. 

If we can return to her clothing once again and discuss the significance of her outfit a little closer. Were these everyday clothes for people living in the European Bronze Age? Or should we interpret them to be religious vestments worn to celebrate some type of religious observations. Many archaeologists certainly debate this, suggesting that the bronze disk represents some kind of sun worship and the Egtved Girl's outfit could have been worn as part of a religious dance with the shining, reflective bronze surface mimicking the sun's light. There are a number of bronze statues excavated from the Bronze Age that appear to show females dressed in similar clothes, but it is all interpretation.  Of course, anything that archaeologists do not understand is always pegged as having a 'ritual' purpose, so much so as it has become a bit of an in-joke to students of the subject, albeit a painful one for some. On the other hand, we could just be looking at the 'high-street' fashion of circa 1370 BC and if that is the case, things haven't really changed much have they? 

"My favourite range has to be the Tzeentch horrors, their blue shades match my new skirt wonderfully."

As I have already said, we cannot always be sure what colour textiles from the European Bronze Age actually were, though we can have a jolly good guess. After studying numerous replica outfits from Denmark I stuck the the brown look you can see on the figure, though to create a bit of variation between the string skirt and the bodice I opted for a paler tone for her upper half. Unusually for me, I undercoated this figure in dark brown and washed her over with a dark brown ink before beginning work. Each colour was then worked up using my usual method of adding increasing amounts of Boneyard to the base until I was happy with the final highlight. As with the blue horror I painted recently, colour harmony played a part in all the tones save the bronze of her waist disc and her eyes. 

I chose the classic pdf base for my historical models just as a change really, and they not being part of my 'Oldhammer-look' I also felt free to add some static grass. 

To conclude, this historical miniature experience has been a really enjoyable journey. What started out as just another figure from a blister pack turned into a fascinating research project and a challenging paint scheme. Thankfully, I have the remaining figures in the range to finish (including a dancing version of the Egtved Girl) and all are under various states of completion. If you are interested in learning more about the European Bronze Age there are loads of resources out there that a simple Google search will make available. In my researches I did stumble across a rather atmospheric and illuminating video on Youtube that is well worth a watch to help better understand the world of the Egtved Girl and our European ancestors. 

The Problem with Platemail

Sir Stefan was determined to win this year's game of statues.

Morning all, if indeed it is morning at all when you are reading this. Today is my birthday and I am 38 years old and so have a little extra leeway today to get some hobby in. So I have used this advantage to write up yesterday's painting which, for me at least, was incredible as I finished four figures in a single sitting, a feat I have never before achieved! 

When I was last at Foundry I bought a few of the ex-Citadel Perry medievals on a whim. I fancied a challenge and eagerly ripped them from their blister pack and set to work. What followed was a 'knightmare' - see what I did there!? 

Painting single figures encased entirely in steel results in, to my eye at least, pretty dull models, even if they can be completed in about thirty minutes. I wasn't happy with the results at all and popped over to see what the examples on the Foundry website looked like. 

Not any better really, as the same problem occurred despite the nice basing tying the models together. So what to do? I tried edge highlighting next but that just looked silly and I abandoned the attempt pretty quickly and realised why painters in the '80s quickly moved to different colours to paint armour. It is much more interesting. 

In the end, I opted for a second shade to contrast against the silver. Inspired by the Nilfgaardians in the Witcher games, I went for black and after a little fiddling around found that just painting the helmets in this shade and ensuring that the scabbards gave some bright contrast the results were much improved. About a week or so ago I had admired the blacks on Jean-Baptiste's Noise Marine and wanted to try something similar, so drybrushed over the jet black with various shades of grey before adding a few edge highlights. 

The assualt on Trumpton was going well.

To break up the black further, on a couple of the models I added a few white additions, either on the helm itself or on a knee. Gold was used for the hilts of the double handers and the sidearms just to contrast against the silver further. Finding the pure silver a little garish still, as a final touch I gave all of the steel (save the sword blades) a couple of blue ink glazes to get the 'cold' look I was after. 

Simon Cowell's 'next big thing' were unsure of their latest makeover.

Having managed to get couple of suitable shots of two of the models, my camera battery gave up the ghost and by the time it had charged the light quality had changed, hence why the group shot is a little bleached out but it gives you a general idea of work so far. I still have the four remaining figures in the set to finish and they are all in various states of completion. I hope to get the unit complete at some point over the Easter weekend. 

One thing I am interested in though is dealing with the 'problem of platemail' a little further. I still feel there is much improvement to make to this particular skill and would like to hear other enthusiasts' methods and colour recipes. I will share mine in detail below so you can understand how I achieved my results in turn. 

1) Base in black. 

2) Drybrush in medium silver.

3) Black ink wash. 

4) Paint plates carefully in medium silver, leaving thin black lines between each piece.

5) Highlight plates in the centre with a bright silver. 

6) Wash over with blue ink glaze. 

Hopefully, I will hear from some of you soon and can apply your advice to the next batch!! 

Orlygg

The City of Lead: A Tale of Four Oldhammer Gamers

Hello all! I have managed to paint up a figure, despite my looming return to work. Sometimes I think the long, sprawling days of summer don't help the painting mojo and work can slow to a painful crawl - but this figure seemed to just paint itself over the last few days.

He is the first model in Steve, Paul, Chico and my new ongoing project - The City of Lead: A year long mission to create a warband for Mordheim. Now, I am a complete stranger to the game and have yet to explore the published materials but I have picked a side.

Kislev.

And this Russian looking chap from the recent Foundry 'Time Warp Wizards' will do nicely for my warband.

There are a couple of other possible models in my collection already, but beyond buying up the original Kislev Warhammer models I am stumped as to where to find medieval looking Russian miniatures.

Can any of you readers suggest any ranges?