The Armour Archive

Dan Howard

Yes it is good.
The book is still in copyright so distributing a PDF would be illegal.

Dan Howard

What sort of bone were the lamellae made from?

Dan Howard

Koenigsberger's book was recommended reading for first year students when I was at Uni.

Dan Howard

This is high school, not college. I'd recommend a decent general work before any of those listed above.

Koenigsberger's Medieval Europe, 400-1500 is one of the better ones available. It covers all of the major topics and is easy to read.
http://www.amazon.com/Medieval-Europe-4 ... 0582494036

Dan Howard

Usamah's Memoirs probably have the most references to Frankish mail. Every time he mentions it the context is clear that it is superior to the local mail. I haven't had a chance to look for references but start with Nicolle. IIRC he specifically states that lamellar was usually found in regions to t...

Dan Howard

Marcus, thank you for the link. I had not been able to find it. It's been almost a military tradition throughout history for things to be adapted, and outright taken by other folks who just "saw it somewhere" In this case, it is safer to assume that somebody might have done so, rather tha...

Dan Howard

Dan Howard

I do not remember bronze being used at that time in China. I thought they'd gone to iron. But I could be wrong. I meant that the Chinese were still using bronze armour at the time, not weapons. They had long since changed to iron weapons. The Greeks did the same thing. They still had bronze armour ...

Dan Howard

I found a copy of the article but don't have a cite. It is in an issue of Chinese Studies in Archaeology pp 46-73. The article is titled: "Excavation and Restoration of Leather Armor and Helmets from Tomb 1, Leigudun, Sui Xian, Hubei." Author Albert E. Dien, Stanford University. The site y...

Dan Howard

No particular detail on if this had a backing or not, but from what I've seen, it's always appeared to me that you don't start seeing any backing to Chinese lamellar until around the 500's AD. The earliest example of Chinese lamellar predates the Qin period. There was a tomb with 9 examples of lacq...

Dan Howard

The stone armour was made for funereal purposes. It never saw actual use.

Dr Bishop wrote the best article on reconstructing the Qin armour. It is almost certainly lamellar in the conventional sense (no backing).

Dan Howard

Yeah the Terracotta warriors are definitely wearing lamellar. Those "dots" have been misinterpreted as rivets but they are small patches of lacing. Bronze was still fairly common at the time so the plates could have been made of lacquered leather, iron, or bronze. I think bronze is most li...

Dan Howard

How far back do you want to go? The couched lance has been in use since at least the kontos of the cataphract. Are you talking about jousting lances or field lances? During most of the history of jousting there was no difference between the two.

Dan Howard

Miles_H_J wrote:By the way a Yew woodÂ staves cost about $150+ and $30 shipping from westcoast to eastcoast USÂ

What sort of yew? Plantation yew is grown too fast to make a decent bow. IIRC Hardy reckons that Oregon produces staves that more accurately resemble medieval yew.

Dan Howard

If you want historical accuracy, I don't think there is any evidence that the Romans or Romano-Brits ever used hardened leather cuirasses either on the continent or in Britain.

Dan Howard

The design and use of Carolingian scale armour shirts 500-800, how they were constructed etc, particularly if how they overcome the upward thrust problem and also if there is any evidence of scale armour usage in any format in northern Europe after this until the 14th century. Secondly the use of s...

Dan Howard

Effingham wrote:"Historicalness" -- for things that are *kinda* historical, but ultimately bogus -- like "truthiness"

Instead of saying "that's not period", you can say "that has no historicalness"

Dan Howard

Yeah, unfortunately the only picture I've seen is this. m I've never read the book, so I'm not sure what evidence the author is using. Though the Opsery series usually backs everything up with evidence. Hardly. The only thing most of the Osprey books are good for are some photos of original artefac...

Dan Howard

I've seen non-period depictions of egyptians wearing cotton atmour, although I can't cite a source. The ancient assyrians were in a smiliarly hot climate, and they seem to have worn a fair ammount of armour and clothing. (In addition to hair and beards.) Climate is irrelevant. The issue is availabi...

Dan Howard

Certainly there are differences between langue d'oc and langue d'oeil , but the words hauberc and broigne might appear in the same chanson. For example in Aliscans (c. 1190), we find in laisse XX a broigne being penetrated where the mail is doubled -- Sa broigne route, dont la maille est dobliere ;...

Dan Howard

Late 12th century literature mentions both hauberc and broigne in use, with indications that both are mail armors. This would lead me to the conclusion that the difference may be one of coverage rather than construction, i.e. Or it may simply be a regional variation which happened a lot in France. ...

Dan Howard

Yeah it is Carolingan. It is a coloured artists interpretation of a contemporary drawing. Its more likely to be scale than lamellar.

Dan Howard

It doesn't help. All of these can be interpreted several ways. Groin armour wouldn't be near the top of the list. You would have more luck trying to find a precedent for the groin armour being worn in a later culture since there is too little evidence for body armour in general during the time in qu...

Dan Howard

I edtited while you were posting to say that it wasn't specifically targeted. Just like all parts of the body, the groin would be hit if the opportunity presented itself. No way can this be used as an argument for groin armour unless you come up with a way to discount all the other cultures at the t...

Dan Howard

Collecting penises was a method of tallying the dead. It wasn't specifically targeted during battle. In addition this was only done by the Egyptians. One would expect their enemies to be worried, not the Egyptians.

Dan Howard

The price of steel has been linked with Chinese demand for at least a decade. With the exception of a brief period during the GFC Chinese demand for steel has steadily increased over that period. Get used to it. The price of a lot of commodities will increase for the foreseeable future. It isn't rea...

Dan Howard

It could be lots of things. Whenever people start to wear armour the first place they invariably cover is the head, followed by the chest. The groin seems to be low on the priority list. If someone is illustrated with something on their groin then it is very unlikely to be intended as armour if the ...

Dan Howard

I read that the infantry soldiers wore a leather net over their kilts. It is just one of a dozen interpretations of illustrations. It is baseless speculation. I believe it offered more protection to the linen fabric as they sat around in camp, but it could have offered slight protection in combat. ...

Dan Howard

Greg's right. If you want to play an infantryman then get a large shield. If you are playing a charioteer then get a knee-length sariam made of bronze or hide scales. Some may have been made of a combination of both.

Dan Howard

Egyptians fielded armies for thousands of years. What time period are you interested in?

Dan Howard

Blair sorted this out fifty years ago. Jazerant is a term derived from the arabic kazaghand and gestron is derived from one of the many variant spellings of jazerant. They all appear to be the same type of armour tailored to local fashions. It is mail sandwiched between padding

Dan Howard

I can think of at least half a dozen definitions of "double mail" that can all be supported from available evidence. Until someone produces a solid argument that pins down this term there is little point trying to use it to define "triple mail".

Dan Howard

If you are looking for physical evidence to support the sources that write about "thrice linked mail" then I think you are looking in the wrong place. There are a lot of sources saying that something was done "three times" or "thrice" to give emphasis to how well the ta...

Dan Howard

A lot of iconographical evidence for ptyruges suggest that they were not heavy enough to offer much protection to the wearer. Most seem to be made of cloth or light, flexible leather. I doubt that SCA regulations would permit these without something more substantial hidden underneath. The Greeks did...

Dan Howard

Gregory J. Liebau wrote:Dan, that's not true...

According to Merriam-Webster's there are two types of chariots, one being "a light, four-wheeled pleasure carriage."

-Gregory

Nah. It is a wagon

Re: Scale armour, and all things scaly...