"Warriors with shoulder tufts" Topic

Supposedly the only Byzantine illustration of shoulder tufts mentioned in Leo VI's Tactica is Digenis (Diogenes) Akritas fights the dragon, 12th century plate

Other depictions of Diogenes Akritas: Digenis Akritas slays the dragon with five arrows and Digenis Akritas saves a princess abandoned in the desert

Shoulder tufts are also worn by warriors on the Orlat Battle Plaque, early Sarmation (Kangju (K'ang-kiu) or Yuezhi)) or Hun (Tashtyk, 'White Huns' – the Hephthalites)
Sogdian ruler with shoulder tufts, on a Mortuary Couch, Northern Qi dynasty, A.D. 550-577

Are there other ancient depictions of warriors with shoulder tufts? I can't remember if I have seen them on Chinese soldiers.

MIRROR SITES
Orlat Battle Plaque, early Sarmation (Kangju (K'ang-kiu) or Yuezhi)) or Hun (Tashtyk, 'White Huns' – the Hephthalites)
Sogdian ruler with shoulder tufts, on a Mortuary Couch, Northern Qi dynasty, A.D. 550-577
Digenis (Diogenes) Akritas fights the dragon

Druzhina
Byzantine Illustrations of Costume and Soldiers

Sassanids perhaps? Shapur II.

Thanks BigRedBat.

Sasanian illustrations with possible shoulder tufts:
Shapur with shoulder tufts in the centre scene of Sassanid Rock Relief at Firuzabad in 224 AD
A Sassanid Cameo of Shapur I vanquishing Emperor Valerian, 260 AD
Cup of Khusrau I, Detail of King, Sassanid, 6th century
A Sassanid Oval Bowl with Enthronement Scene, 7th Century AD

Druzhina
Persian Illustrations of Costume & Soldiers

Some bronze sculptures of Dian Kingdom cavalry from what is now Yunnan Province, China, also depict something like shoulder tufts, although it is patterned more like shoulder armour or a very short cape. I think that the depicted material may be yak fur, yak tail, or horse mane or tail.

Skeptic,
Sounds interesting. Do you have a picture?

Druzhina
Ancient Illustrations of Costume & Soldiers

Coins of the Alchon Huns show kings with shoulder-tufts – see link and link

Coins of the Alchon Huns show kings with shoulder-tufts

The British Museum says:

The plumes issuing from the king's shoulders are probably intended to represent the flame motif used by earlier Kushan and Kushano-Sasanian kings as a divine sign of the right to rule.

This being for rulers seems to fit, only one figure on each side of the Orlat Battle Plaque has shoulder tufts, the Sogdian is identified as a ruler and the Sasanians are probably the Shah or heir. The spherical Sasanian versions aren't very flame-like though.

Druzhina
Illustrations of Costume & Soldiers

I wondered about the "flames" idea. For a Kushano-Sasanian king with flaming shoulders, see Hormizd I Kushanshah at link

I think, from the way that the Alchon coins show little tubular mounts for the shoulder-tufts, that the artist is actually representing a real physical plume on the shoulder, whereas the Kushan example looks like symbolic or spiritual fires. The two may well be connected, but the question of who influenced whom may depend on what dating of the Orlat plaques you favour.

Incidentally, is it only one warrior on each side of the Orlat plaque who has them? In the army coming from the viewer's right, the man at the top with the axe has shoulder-tufts; but is that also a shoulder-tuft we can see on the top-knotted archer below him, visible under his right armpit? Actually, I see the commentary says "three persons wear a pair of tassels on their shoulders".