The Armour Archive

Dan Howard

Chariots are two-wheeled. This is a cart or wagon.

Dan Howard

So make a reconstruction based on a possible interpretation of the illustration and see whether it functions as a practical armour. If not, then the interpretation is wrong. Rinse and repeat until a practical interpretation is found. My first thought is that making this from metal with the overlaps ...

Dan Howard

Herodotus, Book IX ..........Immediately the Athenians rushed upon Masistius as he lay, caught his horse, and when he himself made resistance, slew him. At first, however, they were not able to take his life; for his armour hindered them. He had on a breastplate formed of golden scales, with a scar...

Dan Howard

Gregory J. Liebau wrote:Dan Howard saying hardened leather and used in the same sentence?*

Leather scale was common during this time period in many cultures. I have a problem with leather segmentata and leather breastplates.

Dan Howard

Yeah there is more than enough evidence to suggest that classical Greeks wore scale armour. Most people assume bronze scales but I'm thinking that hardened leather or iron may have been used too.

Dan Howard

If you don't want pear-shaped armour then don't have a pear-shaped body

Dan Howard

The whole point of running strips through mail collars was to make them rigid. In Europe this was usually done by using a denser weave of mail. Making mail rigid for the rest of the body is counterproductive (though some parts of the body might benefit from this construction, such as forearms, shins...

Dan Howard

Hollywood vikings wear horns on their helmets. It is no different to Hollywood Roman soldiers wearing leather armour and wrist bracers. When has the movie industry tried to be hstorically accurate?

Dan Howard

There is a thread about this on RAT. The armour was very unlikely to have been glued. It was quilted just like every other layered textile armour ever worn. It was probably constructed exactly like a European padded jack.

Dan Howard

http://forums.armourarchive.org/phpBB2/ ... hp?t=89155

Dan Howard

The word is probably derived from the Aztec ichcahuipilli, a quilted cotton corselet. It is likely that they are the same armour. Just look for contemporary illustrations of this armour.

Dan Howard

coating the lamella in lacquer will eliminate the need for deburring.

Dan Howard

Unless the mail was purchased from someone like Erik Schmid then removing the zinc won't make it any more historically accurate. May as well leave it galvanised and save yourself the trouble of keeping it clean. If you really want historical accuracy then you'd have a slave/servant/squire to keep it...

Dan Howard

Halvgrimr wrote:I was gifted on of Raymonds once and everytime my bicep flexed the damned thing fell off:)

Weren't they intended to be worn by women as a sign of their husband's wealth? Or is that neck rings?

Dan Howard

Glen K wrote:For the record, it was most emphatically NOT due to his activity on this thread (no matter how silly or immature his behavior) that led to his bannination...

I was thinking of the quilted textile thread that has been deleted that contained some of the images that the OP thought were relevant.

Dan Howard

He raised some interesting points about quilted defenses. He didn't go about it the right way but his ideas deserved further discussion.

Dan Howard

Yep. Blair is still the best. Needs to be updated one day.

Dan Howard

Bodkin typologies have been around since the bronze age. They are just as useful on a flight arrow. They don't have to be a sign of armour piercing intent.

Dan Howard

Stupid vikings. The ninjas are just going to get it back when they are not looking.

Dan Howard

Why is viking information worthy of a sticky and not other cultures?

Dan Howard

The best test by far is the one conducted by the Defense Academy a few years ago. It is published in the Royal Armouries' Arms and Armour Journal vol 4 no 1. "A report of the findings of the Defence Academy warbow trials Part 1 Summer 2005." By Paul Bourke and David Whetham. pp.53-82. Even...

Dan Howard

Lamellar plates were found at Birka, but not in the graves that have been excavated. These plates, of varying shapes, were found in the hill that once acted as a base for fortress--called "The Borg." The date of the plates is probably 10th Century; there is an article about them in the 20...

Dan Howard

The problem with extant armour thicknesses is that these are the *minimum* that the item ever was. If it has come down to us in decent condition then it is a result of centuries of polishing. If not then it has had considerable amounts of oxidation removed during its restoration. In virtually all ca...

Dan Howard

I suspect that archaeologically there is little chance of finding much in the way of leather armor (if it existed) unless it is deposited in a water-logged or otherwise rare depositionary environment. The problem with this is that there are tons of extant Roman leather artefacts: tents, shoes, belt...

Dan Howard

I went through the 500 thumbnails and randomly selected pics. I couldn't find any armour-related photos.

Dan Howard

Maya warriors are not usually depicted wearing helmets of any kind, but coiffured hair and feathers (as was true of the bulk of Aztec warriors - those not specifically in the jaguar or eqagle societies). I think what is depicted in the statue is more likely some form of ceremonial mask. In addition...

Dan Howard

Wooden helmets were common in South America. I'm guessing that we are looking at an example of one.

Dan Howard

Alexander's linen armour came from Persian loot. It was not Greek/Macedonian.

Yes leather armour burns.

None of this has any relevance to whether glue was used in the manufacture of linen armour, which was the whole point of the paper.

Dan Howard

Something that folks may not be considering when they think about the protective quality of quilted or layered (non-glued) linen: the wars Homer wrote of were on the cusp of the bronze/iron ages. Many of the weapons the linothorax was meant to defend against were likely bronze, not iron. Thus, less...

Dan Howard

Matthew Amt wrote:http://www.romanarmytalk.com/rat/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=25938

In that last thread, page 5 is about where I converted.

Heh! me too.

Dan Howard

It isn't Roman. It was found in an Egyptian temple of Sobek (the crocodile god). The obvious conclusion is that it was either a ceremonial costume worn by an Egyptian priest or a practical armour worn by an Egyptian temple guard.

Dan Howard

That site contained the only physical remains of Roman leather armour in the entire length and breadth of the Roman empire. It isn't segmentata, it isn't musculata, it is scale/lamellar. This is dispite the tons and tons of Roman leather artefacts that have been uncovered at other sites - including ...

Dan Howard

You should also be able to find this information (it has the same author ) in: The Armourer and His Craft: From the XIth to the XVIth Century [FACSIMILE] (Paperback) ~ Charles ffoulkes (Author) It's a good read, but he needs to be taken with the appropriate Victorian salt quotient, imo. I believe h...

Dan Howard

Robinson also seriously confused the difference between scale and lamellar. Though in his Roman book he clarified things.

Dan Howard

At what point do the plates become small enough to be classed as scale armour?

bodkins