Sogdian murals from Panjakent (Panjīkant), 6th-8th Centuries

3rd Register, Blue Room (Sector VI, room 41).

2nd Register, Rustam Cycle, Blue Room.

On a high valley terrace on the Zeravshan River, 6km from the modern town of Penjikent, are the ruins of ancient Penjikent, a major Sogdian town founded in the 5th century and abandoned in the 8th century with the arrival of the Arabs. The ancient city has not been built upon since. The foundations of houses, a citadel with a couple of Zoroastrian temples, and the city bazaar are visible in the excavated ruins, but the best of the frescoes (some of them 15m long), sculptures, pottery and manuscripts have been carted off to Tashkent and St Petersburg. There is also a small museum chronicling the excavations; copies of frescoes are also there.

Cavalrymen with long maille coats, banded vambraces and greaves, spheroconical helmets with nasals, ear pieces, worn on top of face-covering coifs. They wear a coat over their armour with some decoration. Some Sogdians are shown wearing long coats of lamellar, with three-way or two-way split skirts, and upper-arm defences. The lamellae are B-shaped and a few have been found in Eastern Europe which match the Sogdian depictions. They would likely be alternating brass and iron (or gilded and silvered). The shield cover from Mount Mogh shows early bazubands, although it's not clear whether the elbows were cupped. This type of armour was probably used by the Samanid cavalry as well, except there, you might expect them to carry primitive sabres (from the 8th or 9th Century), and possibly strung bowcases towards the very end rather than C-shaped unstrung bowcases. And the crupper straps for the horse would be different as well.

Source: Retlaw Snellac

Reconstruction of the Rustam frieze, made at the time of excavation by artists Gremyachinskaya and Nikitin, now in the Museum of History of Culture of Panjikent, Tajikistan.
Rustam Cycle, Blue Room. Sogdian mural from Panjakent, 6th-8th Centuries, State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg.

Wall-painting (reconstruction): ritual scene, probably depicting the Nu Ruz sacrifice, with traces of Soghdian inscription. Piandjikent, Sector X, north wall, seventh-eighth century.
Wall-painting: men playing chess. Sector VI, room 13, Piandjikent, seventh century. State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg.
Wall-painting (reconstruction): Sector VI, room 13, Sogdians playing a board game.
Wall-painting (reconstruction): Horsemen. Sector III, room 17, Piandjikent, seventh century. State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg.
Wall-painting: Riders, Sector III, Room 17. Sogdian Piandjikent (Penjikent). State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg.
Wall-painting (reconstruction): Sogdian Ritual Banquet Scene. Sector VI, room 1, Sogdian Piandjikent.
Wall-painting: Rings and Dragons Cycle, The Two Kings Feasting, Sector VI, Room 1, Sogdian Piandjikent. Tajikistan National Museum of Antiquities, Dushanbe.
Wall-painting: A Mounted Warrior, Sector VI, Room 1, Sogdian Piandjikent. Tajikistan National Museum of Antiquities, Dushanbe.
Wall-painting (reconstruction): Harpist with a nimbus. Piandjikent, seventh century. Tajikistan National Museum of Antiquities.
Wall-painting: A Harpist and a Battle. Sector VI, room 1, Piandjikent, seventh century. Tajikistan National Museum of Antiquities.
Wall-painting (reconstruction): The Victors at the Gate. Reception Hall VI/1, 7th-8th centuries AD. Tajikistan National Museum of Antiquities, Dushanbe.
Wall-painting: Armoured Warrior, Sector VI, room 55, Sogdian Piandjikent (Penjikent).
Wall-painting: Sogdian Artist's Feast. Piandjikent, Sector XXIV. State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg.
Wall-painting: A King of the Demons. Sector XXVI, Room 19, Piandjikent, eigth century. National Museum of Antiquities, Dushanbe, Tajikistan.
Wall-painting: Warrior in full mail armour assisting a prostrate man. Sector XXII, Room 1, Piandjikent, early 8th century AD. State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg.
Wall-painting: Banquet. Sector XVI, Room 10. Amazon Hall. Piandjikent. State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg.
Wall-painting: A Battle, Sogdian Piandjikent. Tajikistan National Museum of Antiquities, Dushanbe.
Epic Mural, East Wall, Amazon Hall, Sector XXI, Room 1. Sogdian Piandjikent (Penjikent). State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg.
Epic & Fables Mural, West Wall, Amazon Hall, Sector XXI, Room 1. Sogdian Piandjikent (Penjikent). State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg.
Wall-painting: Victorious Army, Rustam Cycle, Sector XXIII, room 50. Sogdian Piandjikent (Penjikent).
Wall-painting: Throne Scene, Rustam Cycle, Sector XXIII, room 50. Sogdian Piandjikent (Penjikent).
Wall-painting : Personification of the Moon, Sector XXIV Iwan. Sogdian Penjikent. State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg.

Referenced in Attila and the Nomad Hordes by David Nicolle (Author), Angus McBride (Illustrator), p.53:
The wall-paintings uncovered in the pre-Islamic palace of Piandjikent, not far from Samarkand, illustrate battles, hunting, feasting and religious celebration. Helmets are almost always very pointed with cheek-pieces and mail aventails, some pulled over the wearer's face. Warriors wear long or short-sleeved mail hauberks, some alone, others under tunics or lamellar cuirasses. Bows are carried unstrung in long cases, swords are straight and round shields are small while a distinctive form of horse-bit curves around the front of the animal's mouth. Many such features were adopted by the Muslim armies which conquered Transoxania shortly after these pictures were painted. (Hermitage Mus., Leningrad)

Referenced by Saljuq Clothing by Elsie H. Peck

Referenced as figures 428 to 440 in The military technology of classical Islam by D Nicolle

For a detailed article about Pandjikant see Encyclopaedia Iranica