I received a comment telling me that some unnamed experts had provided Andersen's with pictographical evidence of back quivers used in Medieval Europe. Andersen himself showed in his video some pictures of quivers hanging at the hip belt of archers, and he does not deny the existence of back quivers altogether.
But I have never seen a proof of medieval or modern period European archers using back quivers. In the manner of proper scientific method I am always open for corrections, so I ask you to provide me a medieval, or modern period (or whatever period), picture, drawing, painting, fresco, graffito, relief, statue, miniature, mosaic, glass painting, etc. pictographical evidence of European (or from anywhere) archer or crossbowman using a back quiver.
So...
WANTED: A historical illustration of archer wearing a quiver on his back.
In the meantime, I will provide my own evidence. I tried to find any image of back quivers, but mostly couldn't find any. Here are a collection of pictures I found of archers and crossbowmen, and almost all of them are using hip quivers. Some had tuck their arrows inside their belts, some carried them by hand and some didn't have spare arrows at all (artists mistake?), but not much back quivers.
There are one dubious example of a back quiver I could find. It's on the famous Bayeux tapestry, which tells the story of William the Conqueror conquering England roughly one thousand years ago. The picture is not of highest quality, because of it's age and the method of making. Anatomy, perspective and several other things are incorrect in this tapestry, so I don't know if this counts as firm proof. And the belt/baldric of that one quiver is depicted wrong, I am not sure if they have tried to depict a back quiver or a hip quiver, since the quiver is at shoulder level, but the belt looks like a hip belt and not like a shoulder baldric. Even if that would be a proper back quiver, it is only one picture, the only one I've seen so far. All the three other bowmen in that same scene of the Bayeux tapestry have ordinary hip quivers.
I will show the Bayeux tapestry example last. First, pictures of archers with hip quivers:
From medieval Roman 'Alexander manuscript'.
Death of Saint Edmund, the King of Essex.
Depiction of Burgundian archers in the battle of Grandson (1476) in Lucerne Chronicle.
Mythical man-animal creature.
Shooting of St. Sebastian.
Archer Drawing a Bow by Pietro Vannucci Perugino.
Looks like Leonardo DaVinci's style to me.
Asiatic horse archer.
Horse archer.
Shooting of St. Sebastian, once more.
Early modern period Hungarian.
Knight on horseback with a bow.
Polish king Jagiello, 1418.
Some pictures from Islamic books too.
And horse archers.
And now the Bayeux tapestry picture, which has three archers with hip quivers and one with something which looks like a hip quiver but not worn properly:
Since this post is quite long already, I will continue with pictures of bowmen without a quiver in the next post, later.
So far: 39 different pictures with hip quivers, only one which may be a back quiver.
The Romans used back quivers.
ReplyDeleteDid they? Do you have any sources to back that?
DeleteWe have insufficient evidence to prove that the Romans would have used back quivers. There are indeed some Roman sculptures that have back quivers, but they depict gods and goddesses, such as Apollo and Diana. They cannot be taken as evidence for the back quiver use of regular archers.
DeleteThere are actually Roman archers clearly depicted using back quivers in battle on Trajan's Column built to commemorate the Dacian Wars of the early 2nd century AD. This is generally considered an accurate depiction of the Roman army and certainly not mythological. However, they were probably auxiliary archers in the Roman army rather than ethnic Romans, probably from some place like Syria.
Deletehttps://arts.st-andrews.ac.uk/trajans-column/the-project/the-human-figure-types/tc-108-16-109-5-cpd-3/
Yes, I am aware of these. I have not mentioned Romans in my article, since it is about carriage of arrows mainly in the Middle Ages. As you said, those archers in the Trajan's Column are probably Syrian (based on their long dresses), not ethnic Romans. That doesn't matter much though. More important is that they are not actively engaged in a battle. They are just on the march, and quivers could have easily been switched to be carried on the back while marching, and attach them to the waist before a battle. I think this has been done all over history. Almost nowhere we find evidence of archers (humans, not gods) drawing arrows from a quiver on their backs. This is because the hip quiver is just much easier to use.
DeleteA sidenote could be made of the fact that Trajan's Column is not considered a reliable source by the vast majority of scholars of ancient Roman military, as well as art historians. There are some who wnat to take the pictures on it at their face value, but a great artistic licence has been used throughout that work of art. The most obvious things are the size of the shields and the helmet cheek pieces, both reduced from reality, to better show the human characters. Also the uniformity of the equipment is not considered an accurate detail anymore.
Interesting article
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting
Lots of pictures and statues of back quivers, just not as many. For instance, there's one in the Bayeux Tapestry you have just above.
ReplyDeleteSuch as?
DeleteAll the other archers in the Bayeux tapestry have hip quivers, it is just this one which seems to have a back quiver. Although it is fairly awkwardly held on his shoulder, so we cannot be absolutely sure is it a back quiver or not.
DeleteThe first of your Saint Sebastian pictures was actually not the failed martyrdom of that saint (he survived his arrows and was nursed back to health and would go on to preach around the Italian countryside for awhile until captured once more by the Romans and beaten to death with clubs, as according to church tradition), but of Saint Edmund, the King of Essex who was killed in a similar manner by the Vikings as punishment for colluding with King Aelle of Northumbria in the cowardly execution of their great leader Ragnar Sigurdsson, commonly called Lothbrok or "Hairy-breeks" of whom the BBC and History Channel have made a butchery and joke of his life. Still, this picture comes from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as an illustration of Edmund's death at the hands of the Great Heathen Army in 867 A.D and not of St. Sebastian.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the correction, I have changed the text.
DeleteI work as part of an archer's guild at a renaissance fair and we've done some in depth physical testing with different quivers. What we've found is that hip quivers are the best quiver for the battle field, but when hunting, it gets caught on low bushes and such and so in those cases it's easier to hold the arrows in your bow hand or in a back quiver where it gets caught a lot less often. I know it isn't picture evidence, but hope it helps and also potentially explains why there are so few picture of it.
ReplyDeleteThis is actually interesting, thanks for sharing your thought on this.
DeleteIt might be possible than when hunting the arrows were kept tucked in a belt as shown in many medieval illustrations, or held in the hand. In a battle an archer has to shoot much more arrows than when hunting, so they would need a quiver there, but not necessarily while hunting. Also in war they had to shoot at a much faster rate, so taking the arrows out of a quiver had to be as fast as possible, and hip quiver is faster and easier to work with than a back quiver. I have not yet seen pictures from the European middle ages where archers would use back quivers at all.
Assyrians:
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_history_of_the_Neo-Assyrian_Empire#/media/File:Exhibition_I_am_Ashurbanipal_king_of_the_world,_king_of_Assyria,_British_Museum_(31033563287).jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Assyrian_Archers.jpg
https://c7.alamy.com/comp/J9654J/attack-on-the-town-of-alammu-assyrian-700-692-bc-south-west-room-xiv-J9654J.jpg
Achaemenid Persians:
https://archaicwonder.tumblr.com/post/134424457479/achaemenid-relief-with-a-persian-archer-late
https://cdn.britannica.com/56/195556-050-E6A79C8A/Frieze-of-Archers-palace-Darius-I-Susa-c-510-bce.jpg
Thank you for the links to these pictures, although I have seen all of them by now, after seven years of writing this blog post.
DeleteI have done extensive reasearch on quivers in period art for all these years, and still my standing is firm: archers in Medieval or modern period Europe did not draw arrows out of quivers on their backs for themselves to shoot.
There is a peculiar period in early medieval history where some archers had assistants carrying the quiver (sometimes on their backs!), and giving the arrows the the archers who were without quivers. And very rarely a quiver could have been carried on the back, but not in a battle of hunting scenario when the bow is acively used, so it was only done for easier carrying. This is all the evidence I have found.
In the start of the blog post I said: "I have never seen a proof of medieval or modern period European archers using back quivers." Then I asked people to post evidence, but so far there has been none. I know I also asked if you would know pictures of back quivers from any culture or time period, outside Medieval and modern period, and outside Europe. The pictures you linked are certainly in this category.
Assyrians are an exception in world history, since their art (sometimes) show them using back quivers in action. The first picture you linked, however, shows an assistant to a king, both on horseback, and the assistant has the back quiver, not the king who actually shoots the bow.
The two other Assyrian pictures do show archers using back quivers themselves in a battle situation. I count this as evidence, although we cannot be fully certain if it's an artistic convention or not. Assyrian art is full of those, so it is not a like a photograph or historical documentary, unfortunately.
The evidence for ancient Persians using back quivers is very slight, almost nonexistent. The pictures you showed, do not depict this. Instead they depict soldiers on parade that have the quivers on their backs for easier carrying of arrows. This is certain, since the quivers are closed with lids tied down, so taking arrows out of them is impossible. They also carry their bows on their shoulders, so they are not actively shooting or going to shoot with them.
But thanks for the pictures, and have a nice day!