ancient sporran?

[ShaneRollins]

From kilt, to tuck up, from Middle English kilten, of Scandinavian origin.

[ShaneRollins]

Piper is right though, the difference back in those days is that they had simple wraps and skirts. Remember what we know today as kilts weren't always built that way, they definitely didn't have stitch pleating back in the day. The traditional seven yard kilt (or great kilt or belted plaid) was multi-functional in ways those skirts were not.

[cavscout]

Perhaps I missed it in the OP but why would shield be interpreted as a ancient sporran?

A sporran is a pouch or bag, so I don't follow the concept of an aegis being an ancient form of it I see the bit about the hunting bag but many cultures wore un-bifurcated garments and carried bags, so still not a very strong case for tying it to a sporran.

And following BP's post, basing a link between Greek and Scot because they both used an 'X' is not sound. Scots didn't give a hoot about the 'X' until about 832 AD.

No offense, but I don't understand what you're hoping to hear.

[Kiltman]

Welcome from Eastern Washington. I take it you are a classical philologist? So is my wife pm me and let's get acquainted.

[Sean_the_Kilted]

Welcome from Heidelberg, Germany. Thanks for the tidbits

[chimera]

Scattered details can give a general picture of background. At 1500-500 BC some horse-tribes of Russian steppes were linked to Brahmins, who had Sanskrit "camara" meaning royal tassel, a yak-tail. This has the volume of 6 horse-tails and was used later by Genghiz Khan who hung 9 on a pole. The sporran's 3 is more manageable..The Brahmin king of Thailand uses 1 yak-tail as regalia today.
The ancient "good god" of Ireland was Eochaid "The Stallion", and Eochaid was father of Angus when the clans sailed to the Isles. Just a guess that they used tassels..

[chimera]

"Scotch plaid" and tassels for royal troops were used in Assyria. It was attaked by Scythians, who are noted as ancestors in the Declaration of Arbroath.
Discoveries Among the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon: With Travels ... - Google Books Resultby Sir Austen Henry Layard, Austin Henry Layard - 1853 - Nineveh (Extinct city) - 586 pages
Under the head of the horse was hung a bell or a tassel. ... The parasol was embroidered with rosettes, and ornamented with tassels, and to it was hung the ...
books.google.com/books?id=378HAAAAIAAJ...

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

Correct me if I am mis-remembering things but about forty years ago, in one of the small highland museums (Fort William?), I seem to recall seeing a 16th century sporran that had been dug out of a bog. This particular sporran was a "bag-within-a-bag"; inside was a smaller "coin purse (?)" which was attached to the sporran bag by leather laces that went through the front of the sporran. When pulled, these laces closed the inner purse so the contents wouldn't fall out. To prevent the laces from pulling through the small holes in the front of the sporran they had been tied into honking great knots, which were, in effect, tassels.

Without ascribing any sort of pre-Bibical associations to my sporran tassels, I have always assumed that they were merely a stylling cue left over from the days when the sporran actually contained a smaller, second pouch, within the bag.

[chimera]

It's possible that tassels used to be reserved for chiefs, as with beret feathers. Bavaria used to be Celtic, and Hallstatt Celts in Austria had plaid in the Bronze Age, and used by Tocharian people of Russian steppes who had berets. The "gamsbart" tassel on national costume in Bavaria is made of "gamse/ gemse" chamois hair from a freshly-killed goat, which suggests ancient ritual. Zamaronnes in Galicia Spain wear zamara "fleece jacket" and a goat-head on their head, which would be pre-Christian.
As the military form of plaid was permitted by English, possibly the "royal service" type of sporran was the one which survived with kilts?

[McClef]

from South Wales UK!

In the days before pockets many societies had some kind of external money carrier...