15mm Urnfield Culture

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Texus Maximus
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15mm Urnfield Culture

Post by Texus Maximus » Sat Jul 02, 2022 11:08 pm

15mm Urnfield Culture

1400 BC to 700 BC


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The Urnfield Culture was a Late Bronze Age European civilization in central Europe. The name “Urnfield” comes from their tradition of burying the cremated remains of their dead in urns; first in regular graves and later in barrows. The Urnfield Culture first appeared in eastern Europe and Italy, but gradually spread as far as Ukraine in the east, Germany in the north, and across France to the eastern Iberian peninsula.

The Urnfield Culture was ready and equipped for violence, with fortified settlements and large supplies of bronze weapons and armor. In Triumph! terms, this army consists of:

3 x Elite Foot
8 x Light Foot
1 x Bad Horse
2 x Skirmishers
1 x Horde
1 x Fortified Camp battle card

For a total of 15 elements and 48 points.

Clothing colors in this army are very plain, mostly dark reds, deep burnt orange, dusty mauve, camel, and seafoam green. The intent was to set them apart from the generally brighter colors, blues, and whites used for most of my other contemporary armies. The cloaks are wool and in darker natural colors. Likewise, the wool hats worn by many of the troops are “soft black” color. My source of inspiration for the colors was the excellent 28m Nordic Bronze Age figures on display at the Wargames Foundry website.

Elite Foot

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There are several examples of Urnfield Culture weapons, shields, and armor held in European museums. There is some debate that these might have been more for ritual purposes, especially the shields. I went on the assumption these were used in battle.

Spears and swords were the predominant weapons of the Urnfield Culture. Axes seem to have been used more for work than warfare. The warriors here have mostly spears but at least a few have sheathed swords at their sides. The swords seen here are mid-length, straight, and lack hand protection.

The shields are medium size and have a bronze face and are covered in geometric patterns. It is likely that most shields used in battle were made strictly of leather and wood, but these armored warriors are depicted with the most elaborate protection available. The light infantry have simpler styles.

The helmets range from simple bronze caps to more elaborate styles with tall fin-like crests and cheek guards. They represent a broad span of time and locations across Europe. A few have horsehair crests; the knobs found on top of Urnfield helmets have small holes in the top that were probably intended for feathers or plumes.

Surviving examples of Urnfield armor all seem to be a simple two-piece cuirass. They also have patterns worked into them using rivets or embossing.

Most have greaves made of bronze.

The horn player has a “lur”, an instrument more commonly associated with the Nordic Bronze Age, but is plausible for the Urnfield Culture due to their close geographic proximity.

A pair of greaves were found in Hungary decorated with water birds, one of many examples of this kind of imagery in the Late Bronze Age, so the standard bearer carries an image of a bird atop the staff.

The figures are converted Old Glory Campanians, Etruscans, and Myceneaens. The lur and water bird are scratch built.

Light Foot

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There is not much evidence for what Urnfield Culture clothing looked like, so the dress of these warriors is generally borrowed from two remarkable examples from Denmark dating to about 1300 B.C. One burial, known as “Trindhoj Man”, wore a knee-length tunic which left his shoulders and arms bare, along with a waist-length cape and a round brimless hat, like a tall stocking camp. Another burial, the “Borum Eshoj Family”, has two males wearing woolen kilts and another cloak and round woolen hat.

The hats are a soft black to match the finds in Denmark. The clothing ranges from simple kilts to long sleeveless tunics secured over one shoulder, to knee-length tunics with short sleeves. The Urnfield tradition covers a wide range of territory over 700 years so a variety of basic clothing styles is a reasonable guess.

Two of the stands have troops wearing long sleeves and leggings of animal hide. The animal hide leggings were inspired by those found on “Otzi the Iceman” from about 3200 BC.

The shields are mostly hide-covered versions of the round shields carried by the elite warriors. There are few other sizes and shapes mixed in. A few are painted, including one artistic warrior with a painted version of the Nebra Sun Disc on his shield.

The figures are converted Old Glory brand from their Canaanite, Berber, Lykian, Campanian, Armenian, and Apulian ranges.

Bad Horse.

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There is no direct evidence that the Urnfield Culture used horses in battle, but their burials included four-wheeled wagons and items for horse harnesses. The use of horses in battle during this time period is known, given that the bones of horses were found mixed in with the warriors at the Tollense battlefield (~1250 BC in northern Germany). Richard Osgood, in his 2010 work Bronze Age Warfare, believes horses were used (along with boats) to facilitate raiding. Therefore having a few mounted warriors seems like a plausible option for this army.

The mounted figures here have a mix of clothing and equipment that reflects their status; not quite elite but wealthy enough to afford a horse and some armor. These are converted Old Glory and Xyston figures.

Skirmishers.

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These slingers are dressed in simple clothing to reflect their youth and social status. They are Old Glory Maccabeans with no conversions.

Horde.

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This mixed unit has a wide variety of clothing and equipment but very few shields. They are mostly Old Glory, with a Forged in Battle “Spartacus Army” mounted figure on a droopy horse and a dog of unknown manufacture.

Primary References:

Bronze Age Warfare, Richard Osgood, 2010
Technological Studies on Bronze Age metal body armor:from the Agean to western Europe, Marianne Modlinger, 2016
Gregorius
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Posts: 165
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Location: Armidale, NSW, Australia

Re: 15mm Urnfield Culture

Post by Gregorius » Sat Jul 02, 2022 11:19 pm

Beautiful work again Paul. You've certainly got the best out of a disparate group of figures.

Cheers,
Greg in the antipodes.
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