Years ago, while studying the Byzantine wall-paintings of Hagios loannis Chrysostomos at Geraki in Laconia, we found certain symbols or Sinic ideograms on the helmets of the soldiers guarding Christ’s sepulchre, in the scene of the Guardians at the Tomb, which is depicted in the eighth panel of the church’s barrel vault.
Therefore, the question arises, where the unknown Byzantine painter might have taken this interesting iconographic feature from. We could assume that a certain Tatarian unit might had participated in the military force with which Umur attacked the Byzantine territories between Monemvasia and Mystras. Therefore, if we date these wall-paintings as belonging to a slightly earlier period, then we can propose that the native or visiting artist of these frescos had got acquainted with Tatarian soldiers in 1335. However, it is more plausible that the hagiographer was familiar with the Tatarian invaders who raided Thrace, from Adrianople to Ainos, during the late thirteenth and early fourteenth century.
