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Tyre 332 BC

Posted by Cryns on 02 Apr 2016, 10:44

Alexanders siege of the Phoenician city of Tyre in 333-332 BC is part of our DBMM campaign.

Wikipage:Siege_of_Tyre_(332_BC)

Melqart temple

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Melqart was the tutelary god of the Phoenician city of Tyre.

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I based my reconstruction on the excavations of the temples in 'Ain Dara (Syria) and Tell Tayinat (Turkey) since there is nothing left of the temples in Tyre itself.

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Both architecture and ornamenting show Egyptian and Hittite influence.

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Cryns  Netherlands

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Posted by Kekso on 02 Apr 2016, 11:08

WOW, that temple is stunning :shock: Thank you also for wip photos because I wondered how did you do it.
I must ask how did you cut styrofoam so perfectly round (pillars)?
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Kekso  Croatia

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Posted by Peter on 02 Apr 2016, 11:30

Looks fantastic! :thumbup:

Yes, tell us about the pillars!
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Posted by Wiking on 02 Apr 2016, 12:00

Impressive! Mr. Cryns.

I have done several Dio. No one get so much scratch like your fantastic Melqart temple.
And all the wall`s are in an angle. Nice painting. I think it was a little bit boring to paint all these red triangle around the wall and all these nice Ornaments.
One question, do you put a paste on the blue foam bevore painting to fill the small holes?
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Posted by Bramble15 on 02 Apr 2016, 12:33

So many skills on display here! This is one just stunning. The end result, the WIP all show tremendous skill and attention to detail.
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Posted by Wolfgang Meyer on 02 Apr 2016, 12:54

Fantastic work!

Best regards, Wolfgang
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Posted by Arekmaximus on 02 Apr 2016, 14:07

Wow! Beautiful. :thumbup:
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Posted by Bluefalchion on 02 Apr 2016, 16:52

What are the real-life objects that stand in the the sculpted decorations along the top of the wall?

Flat-out stunning temple. "Wargame Quality" is a massive understatement if used to describe this work.
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Bluefalchion  United States of America
 
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Posted by Cryns on 02 Apr 2016, 17:36

Thanks for the lovely replies from all of you.

Kekso wrote: I must ask how did you cut styrofoam so perfectly round (pillars)?

Filing or grinding.

Wiking wrote:do you put a paste on the blue foam bevore painting to fill the small holes

Many ways to do this: press against the foam surface with a hard, smooth tool like a spoon, wooden handgrip or the side of a screwdriver. Add many layers of acrylic paint. Or right as you say it: a paste like white glue or acrylic paste.

Technical information about using this blue foam can be found here:
https://davidneat.wordpress.com/styrofoam/

Wiking wrote:I think it was a little bit boring to paint all these red triangle around the wall and all these nice Ornaments.

It hase some therapeutical value to me.

Bluefalchion wrote:What are the real-life objects that stand in the the sculpted decorations along the top of the wall?

I tried to recreate 60 cobra heads with sun balls on top of their heads. But I might not have succeeded completely in doing this.:oops:
Phoenicians copied these ornaments, including color schemes, from the Egyptians.
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Cryns  Netherlands

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Posted by Kekso on 02 Apr 2016, 18:23

Mr. Cryns wrote:
Filing or grinding.


Well, you did a perfect job there :thumbup:
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Posted by Ben90 on 03 Apr 2016, 02:42

great-looking temple!
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Posted by Cryns on 03 Apr 2016, 12:17

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What did Tyres citywalls look like in the 4th C. BC?

In Assyrian times it was often depicted with tri-angular mudbrick crenelations, so typical for the 10th to 7th C. BC.

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But many centuries had gone by when Alexander arrived and in between an intensive trade with Greece and all other Mediterranean cultures must have had its influence on the architecture of Tyres fortifications.

Osprey takes this to a limit where it is depicting Tyre with very sophisticated, superb looking walls of the latest Greek design.

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Other reconstructions based on Lebanese research show more primitive constructions.

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In the Tyrian colony city Motya (modern day Mozia, Sicily) massive stone crenels were found, probably from the 5th century BC.

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Did mothertown Tyre use the same design for her fortifications in the 4th century BC?

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And what did the Tyrians look like in Alexanders time?

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And how big was the Greek influence on Tyrian fashion by 333 BC?

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The crenelation type of Motya reminds us of Classical Greek mudbrick citywalls like the ones displayed in the British Museum from the 5th C. BC.

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These also show similarity to the Hittite style of building mud-brick fortifications.

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How credible is it to build mudbrick walls on an island in the sea? It must suffer a lot from rain, wind and salt.

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These Tyrians are modeled more like the Cartagenian fashion. Cartago was once a Phoenician colony of Tyre too.

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Cryns  Netherlands

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Posted by despertaferro on 03 Apr 2016, 12:34

I’m speechless... :drool: :drool: :drool: :drool: :drool:

(and jealous... very, very jealous :mrgreen: :-D :-D )
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Posted by Chariobaude on 03 Apr 2016, 13:24

I've no words. Your amazing talent is unbelievable, and what a great care of historical accuracy !
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Posted by Beano Boy on 03 Apr 2016, 16:49

As nothing is left of Tyre the Fortress City or Old Tyre, Artistic Licence does apply. Splendidly done the work looks Great. :thumbup:
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Posted by Beano Boy on 03 Apr 2016, 17:01

I thought i`d add some meat onto the bones of history.

Alexander destroyed old Tyre and built the great causeway in the sea with the rubble. After 7 months two 50m Towers were constructed probably as they lay on their sides,but when raised they were far to short.

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Tyre had massive 60m high walls and i would suggest made of stone and concrete.
Incendiary ships and barges were launched against the wooden towers and one caught fire with a great loss of life.Alexander was in a fix ,and he realised he needed ships to take Tyre. So he called in all his favours and was able to obtain over three hundred ships from Sidan,his Greek allies and the King of Cyprus and they blockaded Tyre.

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Eventually the causeway was near enough for artillery support to be brought up, and the bombardment began. Navel engineers consructed battering rams and part of the walls breached. It was slaughter and over 6000 were killed in Tyre,2000 young men were crucified on the beach and over 30.000 sold into slavery. Tyre paid a heavy price for saying No to Alexander. BB
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Posted by entrauner on 03 Apr 2016, 17:34

great modelling and great research!
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entrauner  Austria
 
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Posted by Cryns on 04 Apr 2016, 10:20

Dear Beano Boy,

I just thought about asking you to add some research material to this topic, since that is one of your specialities at the moment. Surprising to see you had the same thoughts. :-D

Beano Boy wrote:I thought i`d add some meat onto the bones of history.


So thanks for your meat.

Beano Boy wrote:Tyre had massive 60m high walls


I would call this Hellenistic propaganda since that would be as high as an 20 floor appartmentbuilding! Greek and Macedonians liked to exaggerate the numbers of Persian armies (Thermopylai, Gaugamela) and seizes of fortifications to show their own heroism and superiority: 'these walls were the highest in the whole world but we took them anyway.' Roman historians copied such Hellenistic information since they worshipped everything that was Greek.

I think a wall with a height like this is the most we can expect:

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Its a reconstruction of Motya.

Beano Boy wrote:two 50m Towers were constructed


Personally I think It would be impossible to erect or move a wooden construction with this height.

Now let us have a look at the two pictures you added. The first one only recently appeared on the internet, it was not there when I started this project. The hoplites or hypaspists look correct for this era. And the approximately 15 meters high (!) tower looks fair to me.

The second image is the first one I saw in my life during the 70's depicting the siege of Tyre. It was in my fathers book 'Greece and Rome' by National Geographic. Fascinating to see the artist had very limited knowledge of military fashion and equipment about the 4th C. BC. He shows both Macedonian and Tyrian hoplites dressed and equipped like the ones depicted at Attic vases from the 5th and 6th C. BC. Probably the collection of the British Museum was his main reference. Even the typical archaic dipylon shield can be seen on the gangway. The dipylon shield was out of use already at the battle of Marathon 160 years earlier.

And look at the Syrian/Tyrian bowmen. I love it to see at least somebody tried to reconstruct the dress of these men, since there is almost no information available still today of Tyrian light troops. I like this depiction pretty much since it seems to be a combination of the Syrian/Tyrian costume of the Assyrian and King Cyrus the Great's period like depicted in a 6th C. relief in Persepolis:

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... showing long dresses and caps, and that in combination with the Macedonian period with Greek style short dress like Cretan archers.
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Posted by Beano Boy on 04 Apr 2016, 14:19

As a Poor Widows Son.
What i do,or am able to do upon this Forum is to support it and its members.
In commenting on this topic i was also supporting you.
On the question of what things actually looked like,one can only see what has been written before hand or has been drawn or chiseled into stone or indeed cast in concrete in the past streams of time.

To Raise Up: means to make higher.
Prefabricated pieces made on their sides and then assembled: coming together piece by piece makes it possible to raise gradually anything including 50 m walls and wooden towers.
Placing one brick upon a wall one at a time is raising the wall,not lifting the entire thing.

In Oman Persian Gulf ,i`ve seen mud brick walls built up on rock far higher than 50m.
One has to agree Tyre was built up upon an island of rock?
As to the actual stonework from this place,it`s removal was most probable during the period when Alexandria was being built._____________My opinion.

As to the Rock it was built upon.
It might have had if broken in half Gt YARMOUTH through its middle. :-D
Life is way to short to be a critic all the time. :-D BB
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Posted by Frankzett on 04 Apr 2016, 16:30

The temple and the towers are great and I think they fix well, with the exception of the tower with the visible timbers - it looks some kind of Bronze Age fashioned - not suitable for a important citystate like Tyre in this time.
The crenels are o.k. too for the 4th. cent. BC We have this feature with the reliefs of the Heroon of Trysa or the tomb of Pericles at Limyra. There we see many military too with this monuments.
Well the high of these walls are not very reliable in the sources of course I agree, in special with Tyre we have walls around an island, so I think not the wall was the best protection, it was the sea...

The point with the Persepolis costumes, I think there are much ceremonial costumes of suddueded nations of the 6th cent. Then we have a great influence of greek military style within the western persian empire
Especially with the headgear have a look at Herodot he describes the palestine Troops with hellenic fashioned helmets and linen cuirass (may be in a special palestine style) for body armor, even in the early 5th cent.
I think simple tunics for tribal troops of the near east, persian dresses for satrapal/guard troops.
So in my opinion the men on the towers with the cataput are o.k. for this period.

Greetings
Frank
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