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Kalkus
Topic Started: Dec 12 2015, 02:51 PM (382 Views)
Todd Feinman
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I'm beginning to think that the "kalkus" mentioned in Nuzi texts were actually made of overlapping bands of bronze.
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Matthew Amt
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For a minute I thought you were posting about the Sumerian version of Santa Claus...
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Todd Feinman
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Matthew Amt,Dec 12 2015
05:34 PM
For a minute I thought you were posting about the Sumerian version of Santa Claus...

Hehe! I think he would be somewhere between Krampus and Cthulhu!:
http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/santa-claus-cthulhu
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Dan Howard
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Todd Feinman,Dec 12 2015
02:51 PM
I'm beginning to think that the "kalkus" mentioned in Nuzi texts were actually made of overlapping bands of bronze.

Nuzi armour was constructed from preassembled rows of scales. A preassembled band was called a kalkus. It is the elemental building unit of their armour.
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Todd Feinman
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I think kalkus are described as hanging from scale helmets --three in one instance; the cheekpieces and neck flap. The term is also used to describe parts of scale armours; there are corselets described as having four or seven kalkus as their girth, even though the suits are already described as composed of large and small leather and bronze scales, with all varieties of composite armours being listed, I would think it is describing something different and more particular, perhaps "plates" would be a good translation. Even scaled flaps could be seen as plates or sections, as the helmet mentioned wouldn't just have three rows of scales for the three flaps. I think it's possible that some scale helmets had plate cheekpieces. If the body armour described had a girth of only four or seven kalkus, those would be very large scales --yet different somehow from the "large scales" mentioned in the texts. And "girth makes me think right around the middle like a char-aina, or some large bands, the rest of the armour being scale. Anyway I'll have to look again at the text, so might change my tune.
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Sean Manning
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The editors of the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary were not interested in that word so their entry is very short. Lames joined by internal leathers or rivets or laces are a common feature of armour, but so are boards/lames/rows of scales which are assembled then combined with other elements. I really wish that they would reprint that English translation of one of the key Japanese handbooks ...
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Todd Feinman
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Thanks, Sean! Wow, that's a pretty ambiguous definition, but apparently scholars were/still are flummoxed by a number of terms in those texts. The "girpisu", or scale helmet, was not understood until pretty recently, "tegipu" is another word that is confusing; might mean gilt, but it can also be used to describe qualities of women! The "tarkumazi" is another confusing term; all parts of armour are described as part of a tarkumazi, yet there are also "tarkamazzu men", and in one instance a sleeve of the tarkumazi is being repaired --is it a surcoat of some type?? Nobody knows :ph43r:
Attached to this post:
Attachments: CAD_k_s_v_kalku.jpg (40.33 KB)
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Sean Manning
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Yes, I suspect that the book on armour at Nuzi will be more helpful in giving examples of these terms and organizing them. I do not have it and have not read it. If you gave some examples, people might have more comments.
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Todd Feinman
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Sean Manning,Dec 16 2015
09:05 PM
Yes, I suspect that the book on armour at Nuzi will be more helpful in giving examples of these terms and organizing them.  I do not have it and have not read it.  If you gave some examples, people might have more comments.

Here is a good source that I have not read through yet:
https://books.google.com/books?id=XwiUydtXZ...%20nuzi&f=false

There is also Hulit's thesis:
http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/1006/

Tamás Dezsö's work:
https://books.google.com/books/about/Near_E...id=-zJmAAAAMAAJ

And:
gurpisu sa awêli: The Helmets of the Warriors at Nuzi

All of these discuss the body armour; as far as the mentions of "kalku", I think that there aren't many. The references are only those that I posted before --with three kalku hanging from helmets, and then the armour with three or seven kalku as their "girth"; I am thinking that they are armour plates, and that the armour is a composite of plate and scale.
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Dan Howard
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IMO the kalku helmets are simply helmets with rows of scales hanging off the bottom to protect the neck.
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