To start their series of figure sets on the Neo-Assyrian Empire, Linear-A have chosen infantry archers as their first focus, and that makes a lot of sense. It is thought that the bow was the most widely used weapon of the infantry, and there are plenty of reliefs showing archers in action. Their role, as with most missile troops in history, was usually to weaken and disorganise an enemy prior to a final attack by the heavy warriors, and this was nowhere more true than in the many sieges undertaken by the Assyrians. In attacking the walls of a city or fortress, it was important to keep the heads of the defenders down, particularly if large machines needed to be wheeled up to them, and this was the role of the archers and also the slingers, when this latter weapon was first employed in war around the beginning of the 7th century BCE. So these key troops form the bulk of this collection of figures.

Seven of the 10 poses are of archers, and as can be seen we find them in a good variety of poses. All the basic actions of using the bow are here, including the rarely-modelled one of taking a new arrow prior to drawing. We also have a man on the march with his bow on his shoulder, so we really liked all of these poses. One, however, requires special attention, and that is the first figure in the second row, who is drawing his bow left-handed. There is no evidence for the attitude of Assyrian society to left-handers, but we can find no pictorial evidence of use of the bow left-handed. What evidence there is from ancient societies is generally linguistic, and for the most part this tells us that left-handedness was seen as ‘wrong’, bad-luck or even evil (as in the English word ‘sinister’). Children favouring their left side would be taught to use the right, and punished if they persisted (this was still true even in the 20th century in many places), and indeed if an archer was in a fairly tight formation then it would be important that every man used the same arms for the same actions, so on the face of it a left-handed archer would seem unlikely. The important aspect here is which is the dominant eye, and generally those forced to use the non-dominant eye learn to be almost as effective with it as with the other, so this may well have been the case in ancient Assyria as elsewhere. However, ancient texts do speak of some mounted archers being able to release from either side, and indeed praise this as a most useful skill, so it is possible that this man is actually a chariot rider (of which, more below) and so might make good use of using the bow in either hand.

Figures eight and nine are the slingers, and both are again perfectly good poses. We liked the man who has just released his shot, because he looks very convincing as having just thrust forward with the effort, but the second man is more static. The last figure is of a man holding an axe, and is perhaps the weakest of the poses here. Axes are certainly depicted in Assyrian battle art, but not often, so a representative figure like this is reasonable for a less-important weapon. His stance is not particularly energetic, but perfectly adequate nonetheless.

The manufacturer labels most of these figures for the 7th to 6th centuries BCE, which was the late period for the Neo-Assyrian Empire, but also one of its most active. Most of the figures wear typical costume for this period, starting with a pointed helmet and a waist-length lamellar corselet over a knee-length, short-sleeved tunic, and finishing with long laced boots over leggings. However there are several exceptions to this ‘uniform’, the most obvious of which is the full-length armour, or sariam, of two of the archers. This type of armour pre-dated the later, waist-length corselet, and indeed the box does date these two to the 8th or even the 9th century BCE, but it also notes that they could be chariot crew, and it does seem like chariot archers wore the longer armour well after their foot cousins had switched to the shorter style. These two, also labelled as ‘heavy’ on the box, both have a full curtain covering their neck and face, and both are barefoot, again suggesting they predate the widespread adoption of the laced boots (although as always there would have been very long periods when both old and new styles would have been seen together on a battlefield). Other variations include the first figure in the top row, who has only a simple pectoral plate (called an irtu), a helmet with the characteristic Neo-Hittite crest, and is barefoot. He is labelled as an auxiliary, which makes sense, although he also has a similar plate on his back, which we find very hard to believe is accurate because it seems illogical.

The weapons these men hold all look reasonable. Certainly the bowstrings and arrows are much thicker than they should be, which we assume is down to the limitations of the 3D printing process and the material used, but at least the customer can replace these with something finer if they have the inclination and patience to do so. The axe looks fine, as do the short swords the men carry, and the quivers, of several designs, all seem authentic, though some are remarkably thin and would have taken very few arrows.

The detail on these figures is just exquisite – particularly the facial hair and the fine patterns on the tunics. The poses are all utterly natural, thanks to the freedom given by 3D printing, which means every pose comes as seen above, with no assembly required. No flash or excess plastic of course, nor even a sprue to remove, just perfectly proportioned and beautifully detailed figures ready to go straight out of the box. One curious aspect we noticed is with the second slinger, who has tucked his sword under his waist belt, even though it already hangs from a baldric – to keep it from flapping about perhaps?

The words ‘Kisir sharruti’ on the box simply means standing army, and refers to the professional soldiers of the Assyrian Empire rather than conscript soldiers raised for a campaign as required, although as we have said, one man is labelled as an auxiliary. The two men with full-length armours are not entirely comfortable bed-fellows for the rest of the poses as such armour disappeared around the mid-8th century BCE, so while they might work as chariot crew, they probably do not have the long date range claimed by the box. We tend to prefer sets where all the figures are of the same timeframe, but other customers might appreciate the broader target range. An obvious missing element here is any form of shield (and the men to hold them) as is commonly depicted on reliefs of archers, particularly in sieges, but perhaps such figures and equipment are to appear in a later set in the series. Certainly as infantry of the Neo-Assyrian Empire all these figures are quite accurate, beautifully made and great to look at. Our reservations are small and probably personal, so this set bodes very well for those sets yet to come.