The Armour Archive

Matthew Amt

I still can't quite grasp the concept of "It doesn't matter since the public doesn't know any better." In my book, the ignorance of the public is WHY we try to do things RIGHT, not an excuse for misleading them further. Even if an event such as the parade shown above is not meant to be edu...

Matthew Amt

Avete! Yeah, it sure would be cool to get in on that! In all fairness, it's mostly the first 2 photos that are full of farbiness, most of the others look a lot better. But here's what I can spot in the first picture: 1. Drum--No evidence for use by Roman army. And it's modern, anyway... 2. Bad armor...

Matthew Amt

Right, "Swords of Chivalry" is definitely NOT there. Shoot, I wish I'd been brave enough to pay more attention to them, since I clearly missed a lot of good stories! Were they REALLY criticizing stuff in your camp??? Too funny... I'd'a killed them, myself. We had a good day there, today! S...

Matthew Amt

Actually it opens to the public at 11 AM both days. I'll be there will all my Bronze Age gear, and Legio XX will be 2 camps away (since they're so modern, hee hee!). For directions, see Marietta's website:

http://www.pghistory.org/MariettaMansion.html

Hope to see everyone there!

Matthew

Matthew Amt

Oh, yeah, I've seen that one, just love it. Rome, Mordor--what's the difference? For that price, I darn near made it standard equipment for Legio XX!! Order Yours Today.

Caveat Emptor!

Matthew

Matthew Amt

I read "Roman Infantry Equipment" a few years ago, and even though that's not my strong era, I remember being very unimpressed. Many of the line drawings were cadged directly from Bishop and Coulston's "Roman Military Equipment", and Stephenson even copied typographical ERRORS fr...

Matthew Amt

In my Legio XX, the rules boil down to, "If you can document it, you can use it." Mind you, this means documenting the item in question for your particular impression, not just that such an item did exist somewhere on the planet at that time. So an alabaster canteen would be right out! Bu...

Matthew Amt

I have to say that when someone throws that line at me, I answer with "Yawn!", or something ruder. It seems to be an "intellectual" version of "If they'd'a had it, they'd'a used it". And it usually is a good indicator that someone is going about things all backwards, tr...

Matthew Amt

I've never been in the SCA, so I can only speak from the more "living history" end of things. (Not to re-open THAT argument! I just mean that the groups I play with tend to focus on public education.) But why not just stick with what you DO have evidence for, even if it isn't hard proof? T...

Matthew Amt

Ave! m As far as can be determined, the rows of rings should run horizontally, the same as in the body of the shirt. They are clearly shown this way on a couple carved reliefs. There could have been some variation, but I don't recall any indication of vertical rows. It's generally safe to assume tha...

Matthew Amt

Interestingly, weaving of linen and plant fibers dates back to an era before sheep even had wool that could be woven! There are impressions of woven materials on Stone Age pots, from a time when sheep only had unweavable hair. But once woven wool caught on, it became VERY common, from the Early Bron...

Matthew Amt

You could try m for ideas. Oh, no, not THAT guy, he's so full of----wait a sec, that's MY site! Hee hee... Thanks for the plug! Yeah, I was going to suggest the same thing: m Two of the rivets or nails that hold the boss are used to attach a couple of loops and rings for the strap. I put a buckle o...

Matthew Amt

Planning ahead, eh, amice? m Admission is "not cheap", but of course I've only ever been there as a participant! (Well, at least since I was a kid.) There is no "site fee" for participating groups, but if you aren't already signed up with a group it's presumably too late. Even as...

Matthew Amt

Yeah, I've generally had good success with RIT on linen but less on wool. I think the wool just soaks it up so that you need a LOT more dye than you thought... I had a screaming magenta linen tablecloth that I wanted to dye red. Used the dye remover and it really only toned it down some. The red tur...

Matthew Amt

Might be a minor point, but my linen greaves are for the Bronze Age, and there is no evidence that they continued in use into the Classical era. Even though the linothorax definitely did! Other than that, yeah, mine are not dished out over the knees, so they don't really work very well. Not sure how...

Matthew Amt

Oh, we'll be correcting misconceptions from "Rome" for years to come! Heck, we're still doing damage control from "Gladiator". Sure, it sparks a little interest, and there might be a very few people who get into reenacting because of it, but I'm not sure it's worth the bad inform...

Matthew Amt

Avete! In short, there is indeed NO evidence that the lorica segmentata was ever made out of leather. Bits and pieces of iron plate with brass fittings are common finds all over the Empire, often with fossilized traces of leather, but never are fittings found directly attached to leather. And as has...

Matthew Amt

You mean "Is that fire real?" isn't a stupid question? I call that a "culture shock" question. As others have said, the poor kid (or not-kid!) who asks something like that is just completely out of his experience, and doesn't know how to assimilate it. Yet! Smile, and give some ...

Matthew Amt

One of my more recent encounters was with a overly religious family at a local demo. We had a display set up of helmets from Roman to modern. The young boy with the family picked up my Coolus C (Roman helmet) and asked what it was. I responded that it was a Roman helmet from the 1st century AD. He ...

Matthew Amt

Jovian, did I already mention that the edge of the bowl needs to be much thinner than the diagrams on my site show? Mine is a full inch thick, and it's way too heavy. Plus, there's a discussion on Roman Army Talk which presents a new analysis of the original bits that remain, and it turns out they a...

Matthew Amt

You may already have found them, but for 122 AD, Legio VI Victrix in California is closer than Legio XX, and very authentic as well:

http://www.legionsix.org/

Of course, legionaries built the Wall, but it was manned by auxiliaries. So you have some options.

Have fun!

Matthew, Leg.XX

Matthew Amt

Khaire! I have to agree, 16 gauge is going to be WAY too heavy. My Bronze Age scale armor is half 18-ga and half rawhide, and weighs over 30 pounds: m With all 16-ga, plus the arms and such, you're looking at over 60 pounds. Ouch. Probably bullet proof, at that point, but no fun to wear all day! You...

Matthew Amt

Here's another!

http://www.archaeologica.org/NewsPage.htm

Enjoy,

Matthew

Matthew Amt

Well, in the Roman era there were other cultures using large rectangular or oblong shields, including Gauls and Greeks. And if you go back a ways into the Bronze Age, you'll find the Mycenaean and Minoan "tower" shield, contemporary with the large "figure-8" shield: m Even earlie...

Matthew Amt

She may mean we cannot reproduce the metal and thus not really reproduce a true copy; same is true with arms and armor of the Middle Ages. Could be that's what she meant, but the alloy is actually the easy part. Analyze the metal and copy the proportions of copper and tin. Casting long thin swords ...

Matthew Amt

What exactly is worng with the shield? Since I have no idea what constitutes a proper figure 8 shield construction. Well, it had a nice wicker base, but even that is not firmly documented. And even if the real ones HAD a wicker base, it might have been done from strips of ash or something, rather t...

Matthew Amt

He may have mixed up his pounds and kilograms since he used different measurements. It's possible, but the math doesn't seem to work. Two and a half kilograms should be 5-1/2 pounds. But 2mm thick bronze should be closer to 10 pounds! And of the original helmets I've seen weights for, most were 2 t...

Matthew Amt

Oh, yeah, I've seen that before. It has some VERY cool information, but also some not-so-good. The X-raying of the helmet at the beginning is fascinating. He says that the helmet is 2-1/2 pounds, about the average for that style as far as I've seen. But he also says it's generally 2mm thick, which c...

Matthew Amt

Try this! m Here's the story of mine, not actually Egyptian but with some Egyptian evidence helping out: m 600 BC is a little later than us, but may very well still be similar. But you're just into the Iron Age, so you could get away with iron scales. Alternating with bronze and/or rawhide, perhaps?...

Matthew Amt

Wondering why the Romans did anything will just keep you awake at night! There's no real way to "nest" different pieces together--you just have to cut away leather and try not to screw up. It does make a nice flexible and airy upper, strong but doesn't soak up water. Better than a modern c...

Matthew Amt

If you can find a good method for making these bad boys, we'd all love to hear about it! I really have no idea how the real ones were done, aside from dies being used. Some have radial raised lines on the underside of the head, instead of or along with the little bumps. Why, why, WHY??? No clue. The...

Matthew Amt

Hey, that's terrific! VERY nice work. If you feel like making those to sell, I'll be happy to point a few Romans in your direction. Keep at it!

Vale,

Matthew

Matthew Amt

You guys look great as always, really sorry I never dropped by to visit! WE looked better, of course, as Nate points out, hee hee hee.... Definitely a good event!

Matthew

Matthew Amt

Then why are there so MANY depictions of integral mittens, in paint and stone, including artwork which shows many perfectly good hands along with the mail mittens? Really, if some little bit of artwork is "just too hard" for artists, we'd have a lot less artwork... In fact, I've seen any n...

Matthew Amt

Sorry, Paul, there's nothing you can do with a piece of bronze that size. Send it to me and I'll dispose of it properly. Bwa ha ha!! All seriousness aside, try this thread on the Bronze Age Center: m With the dimensions of your piece, some of Jeroen's knives seem more likely than anything I've done ...