Felt Armour

[Sean M]

I have a reasonable number of sources from the 5th century BCE to the 12th century CE which seem to mention felt armour. I am going to fill in this post with a list, but this Boxing Day I just found David Nicolle's second source for the Arabic word libd "felt, felt garment" (see pages 180 and 199 of volume 1 of his PhD thesis http://hdl.handle.net/1842/7432 and Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon under lbd "to compress; felt, fulled cloth")

Abū ʿUthmān ʿAmr ibn Baḥr al-Jāḥiẓ (died 868/869 CE at Basra),"Exploits of the Turks" p. 646 The Case for Khorasān:

And we have drums that strike terror into the foe and large banners; and we possess coats of mail and bells and epaulettes and long hair and twisted sheaths and curled moustaches and muslin caps and Shihry steeds. And the axe and the battle-axe is on our pack saddles, and the daggers are at our waists. And we know how to hang up our swords and to sit elegantly on our horses' backs. And we have shouts that make pregnant women deliver prematurely. And there is not [12] in the world any wonderful craft of culture and wisdom and science and engineering and music and workmanship and law and tradition, in which Khorasān has been concerned, but she has beaten the experts and surpassed the savants. And we make armour of felt (libd), and have stirrups and breastplates. And we possess among our institutions for training and practice and preparation for war and training and practice in driving back the foe and attacking him with the spear, and in turning back our horses after flight, such games as 'Dābbūq' and leaping on our steeds, when young; and polo, when grown up. Then we practise throwing at the bird at rest and at targets and at the bird of prey on the wing. So we deserve better to be preferred and have the better right to the first place."

Translation from C. T. Harley Walker, "Jahiz of Basra to Al-Fath Ibn Khaqan on the 'Exploits of the Turks and the Army of the Khalifate in General,'" The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland (October 1915), pp. 631-697 https://www.jstor.org/stable/25189369 or https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dl ... 5/mode/2up

• Thucydides 4.34.3 τό τε ἔργον ἐνταῦθα χαλεπὸν τοῖς Λακεδαιμονίοις καθίστατο: οὔτε γὰρ οἱ πῖλοι ἔστεγον τὰ τοξεύματα, δοράτιά τε ἐναπεκέκλαστο βαλλομένων "And now the Lacedaemonians began to be sorely distressed, for their felts (piloi) did not protect them against the arrows, and the points of the javelins broke off where they struck them."
• Agatharchides of Knidos (Nubia, 3rd century BCE) "For the war against the Aithiopians Ptolemy (II of Egypt) recruited 500 cavalrymen from Greece. To those who were to fight in the front ranks and to be the vanguard - they were a hundred in number - he assigned the following form of equipment. For he distributed to them and their horses garments of felt (stolas piletas), which those of that country (hoi kata ten choran; "the natives of the country" in Burstein) call kasas, that conceal the whole body except for the eyes."
• Caesar, Civil Wars 3.44.6 (1st century BCE): from Armour in Texts

  Pompey sent archers and slingers, of which he had a great number, into his own positions, and they wounded many of our men, and a great fear of arrows came upon them, until almost all of the soldiers had made tunics or coverings out of felts (ex coactis) or patchworks or leathers, with which they were protected from missiles.

• Pliny, Historia Naturalis 8.73 / 8.192 (1st century CE summarizing everything a Roman senator with no life could read in Greek or Latin) lanae et per se coactae vestem faciunt et, si addatur acetum, etiam ferro resistunt "And from wool rubbed against itself they make a garment and, if vinegar is added, it can even resist iron" Lacus Curtius
• De Rebus Bellicis (Western Roman Empire, 4th or 5th century CE): This list of clever military devices describes a felt garment which is either worn under iron armour (section 1-3) or on its own (section 4 and the Carolingian illustration).

  XV. Exposition of the Thoracomachus
  
  [1] Among all the things which antiquity saw fit to provide to posterity for the use of war, the thoracomachus is marvelously useful for lightening the burden of arms on the body and placing under rough things. [2] For this is a kind of garment, which is made from felt (coactilis) to the measure and for the protection of the human breast, from soft wools. Worry of fear, that most clever mistress, made it, so that having first put it on the coat of mail (lorica) or lamellar armour (clivanus) or similar things to these would not pain the vulnerable body with the roughness of weight. [3] To be sure, lest the same thoracomachus, struck by rain, should begin to weigh burdensomely, it is wise to put on top a garment, preferably made of Libycian skins, in the same shape as that particular thoracomachus. [4] And so, as we say, this thoracomachus having been put on (which takes for a name this Greek term for the protection of the body), socci as well, that is shoes / hose, and iron greaves having been put on, a helmet (galea) having been put on top and a shield or sword fitted to the side, having grasped lances, the soldier shall be armed in full to undergo a fight on foot.

  You can find the Latin text in E. A. Thompson, A Roman reformer and inventor, being a new text of the treatise De rebus bellicis (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1952)
• Chapter 16.9 of the anonymous on generalship (East Roman, 9th century?) in Hermann Köchly and Wilhelm Rüstow, ed. and tr., Griechische Kriegsschriftsteller. Vol. 2, Pt. 5: Des Bzyantiner Anonymus Kriegswissenschaft (Leipzig: Wilhelm Engelmann Verlag, 1855) pp. 104, 105 https://archive.org/details/griechischekrieg01kc/ There is supposed to be a complete English translation in George T. Dennis, Three Byzantine Military Treatises (Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 2009), Timothy Dawson has his own take on these passages.
  
  In addition to offensive weapons and shields, the heavy infantry should have helmets (perikephaleiai) and body armour (thorakes) and greaves (periknemides). If, however, sufficient equipment is not available, then at least the first two ranks should have these, and the rest should have kaftans (zabai) and body armour and helmets of felt (pilos) and hide (βυρσίς). By the 10th century, East Roman or Byzantine texts say "cotton or rough silk" instead of felt.
• Ekkehard IV, Casus Sancti Galli ("Events at St. Gall": the author died in the middle of the 11th century) MGH SS 2 p. 104 from our MyArmoury chat last year
  

  Nam Ungri, auditis tempestatibus regni, Noricos rabidi invadunt et vastant, Augustaque diu obsessa, precibus Uodalirici episcopi, sanctissimi quidem inter omnes tunc temporis viri, repulsi, Alemanniam nemine vetante turmatim pervadunt. At Engilbertus, quam idoneus ad mala toleranda quidem fuerit, impiger ostendit. Nam malis his immenentibus militum suorum unoquoque pro semetipso sillicito, validores fratrum arma sumere iubet, familiam roborat, ipse velut Domini gigans lorica indutus, cucullam superinduens et stolam, ipsos eadem facere iubet: 'Contra diabolum,' ait, 'fratres mei, quam hactenus animis in Deo confisi pugnaverimus, ut nunc manibus ostendere valeamus, ab ipso petamus.' Fabricantur spicula, piltris loricae fiunt, fundibula plectuntur, tabulis compactis et wannis scuta simulantur, sparrones (= modern German Sperr) et fustes acute focis praedurantur.
  
  Sed primo fratrum quidam et familiae, famae increduli, fugere nolunt. Eligitur tamen locus velud a Deo in promptu oblatus, ad arcem parandam circa fluvium Sint-tria-unum; quem sanctus Gallus quondam sanctae Trinitatis amore de tribus fluviis in unum confluentibus sic equivocasse fertur. Praemunitur in artissimo collo vallo, et silva excisis locus, fitque castellum, ut sanctae Trinitati decuit, fortissimum. Convehuntur raptim, quaeque essent necessaria. Haec in vita Wiboradae per scriptorem eius minus dicta, a fratribus qui haec noverant docti perstrinximus. ...
  
  "For the Huns (ie. Magyars), having heard the disorders of the realm, savagely invaded and ravaged Noricum (in 926), and besieged Augusta (ie. Augsburg) for a long time; driven off by the prayers of bishop Woldaliric, certainly the most holy man of that time, they penetrated the forbidden Alemannian forest in squadrons." Abbot Engilbert of St. Gall prepared the "stronger of the brothers" and the hangers-on to defend themselves, so "darts are made, body armour created from felts (piltris loricae fiunt), slings woven, with joined tablets and twigs shields are imitated, bolts and cudgels are hardened to a sharp point in the hearth" but a few lines later they are retreating to a high place called Siteruna (Sint-tria-unum "Three shall be one" explains the chronicler, "that is folk etymology for an honest German word!" says the editor) with all the most necessary things before the scouts of the Huns arrive.

• Anonymus de Gestis Herwardi Saxonis (written in England c. 1107-1131): Some footsoldiers from Scaldemariland are armed "with felt togas soaked with pitch and resin and thus"(cum feltreis togis pice et resina atque in thure intinctis)
• Bahāʾ al-Dīn, Life of Saladin (describes events in 1191, written slightly later): in one manuscript, frankish infantry are said to wear a libd "felt garment" and a long coat of mail, in another manuscript they wear an "iron cuirass" and a long coat of mail

Not all of these are great sources or easy to interpret, but so far there are ten of them!

Edit 2023-08-13: Added the anonymous on generalship. The Old French verb affeutrer "to felt; to prepare for combat" could derive from a felt underarmour garment but the only evidence is the etymology (David Nicolle, Crusader Warfare, 2 vols. (London: Hambledon Cntinuum, 2007) vol. 1 p. 98

[Dan Howard]

Thucydides 4.34.3 τό τε ἔργον ἐνταῦθα χαλεπὸν τοῖς Λακεδαιμονίοις καθίστατο: οὔτε γὰρ οἱ πῖλοι ἔστεγον τὰ τοξεύματα, δοράτιά τε ἐναπεκέκλαστο βαλλομένων "And now the Lacedaemonians began to be sorely distressed, for their felts (piloi) did not protect them against the arrows, and the points of the javelins broke off where they struck them."

Originally the term "pilos" referred to a felt cap but by Thucydides time, the word was used to describe bronze helmets of the same shape that many hoplites wore. In regards to that text, they failed to keep out arrows because there was no neck or face protection (unlike other types such as the Corinthian or Chalcidic), not because the arrows punched through bronze plate. In any case, it isn't a reference to felt armour.

Pliny, Historia Naturalis 8.73 / 8.192 (1st century CE summarizing everything a Roman senator with no life could read in Greek or Latin) lanae et per se coactae vestem faciunt et, si addatur acetum, etiam ferro resistunt "And from wool rubbed against itself they make a garment and, if vinegar is added, it can even resist iron" Lacus Curtius

This is bizarre. Vinegar has been used as a fabric softener for woollen textiles and felt for centuries. How would softening the felt make it better armour?

[Matthew Amt]

Pliny, Historia Naturalis 8.73 / 8.192 (1st century CE summarizing everything a Roman senator with no life could read in Greek or Latin) lanae et per se coactae vestem faciunt et, si addatur acetum, etiam ferro resistunt "And from wool rubbed against itself they make a garment and, if vinegar is added, it can even resist iron" Lacus Curtius

This is bizarre. Vinegar has been used as a fabric softener for woollen textiles and felt for centuries. How would softening the felt make it better armour?

Pliny could just be wrong. I mean, compared to a race of people who hopped around on one foot, this is a pretty forgivable error!

Matthew

[Len Parker]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantine_navy

"Marines and the upper-bank oarsmen were heavily armoured in preparation for battle (Leo referred to them as "cataphracts") and armed with close-combat arms such as lances and swords, while the other sailors wore padded felt jackets (neurika) for protection and fought with bows and crossbows."

[Len Parker]

https://books.google.com/books?id=d3_8D ... &q&f=false
[Edit] I should mention for horse amour. Also, I don't know if they're sure neurika means felt or this is just modern guesswork.

[Sean M]

I have been talking over the Byzantine manuals with Evan Schultheis. I am not an expert and would have to read through them, but it looks like until c. 965 CE the key term for soft armour and thick underarmour is derived from Latin cento and Greek κέντρων which seem to describe something to do with stitching or patchwork and go back to Cato the Elder. Aside from the felt thoracomachus worn under armour in de rebus bellicis, there is no explanation of how these are made until c. 965 when they start to mention thick clothes quilted with cotton.

Etymologically, Greek neurikos / e / on seems to have something to do with sinew or tendons (but words can change meaning over time!) I think only one military writer uses the term.

Pliny, Historia Naturalis 8.73 / 8.192 (1st century CE summarizing everything a Roman senator with no life could read in Greek or Latin) lanae et per se coactae vestem faciunt et, si addatur acetum, etiam ferro resistunt "And from wool rubbed against itself they make a garment and, if vinegar is added, it can even resist iron" Lacus Curtius

This is bizarre. Vinegar has been used as a fabric softener for woollen textiles and felt for centuries. How would softening the felt make it better armour?

Pliny could just be wrong. I mean, compared to a race of people who hopped around on one foot, this is a pretty forgivable error!

Matthew

And the same could be true for Niketas Choniates, who seems to think you can full linen. But I am trying to compile sources before I decide what I think of them, because its so easy to start special pleading why inconvenient sources should be thrown out!

[Sean M]

Thucydides 4.34.3 τό τε ἔργον ἐνταῦθα χαλεπὸν τοῖς Λακεδαιμονίοις καθίστατο: οὔτε γὰρ οἱ πῖλοι ἔστεγον τὰ τοξεύματα, δοράτιά τε ἐναπεκέκλαστο βαλλομένων "And now the Lacedaemonians began to be sorely distressed, for their felts (piloi) did not protect them against the arrows, and the points of the javelins broke off where they struck them."

Originally the term "pilos" referred to a felt cap but by Thucydides time, the word was used to describe bronze helmets of the same shape that many hoplites wore.

Sure, that is a common gloss, but how do we know? Aristophanes, Lysistrata 562 mentions a bronze pilos but if a medieval writer mentions a chapel (brimmed felt hat) we don't assume it means an iron chapel (brimmed headpiece). The basic meaning is "brimmed hat," the iron kind are a specific subset.

"A phylarch I lately saw, mounted on horse-back, dressed for the part with long ringlets and all,
Stow in his bronze cap (ἐς τὸν χαλκοῦν ἐμβαλλόμενον πῖλον) the omelet bought steaming from an old woman who kept a food-stall."

[Dan Howard]

Thucydides is describing an attack on Spartan hoplites. There is nothing to suggest that Spartan hoplites ever wore felt caps in battle and we know that bronze pilos-style helmets were worn by hoplites during this time. So the context makes "bronze pilos" the most likely interpretation.

[Dan Howard]

Etymologically, Greek neurikos / e / on seems to have something to do with sinew or tendons (but words can change meaning over time!) I think only one military writer uses the term.

Yep. It is derived from neuron, which can refer to tendons, sinew, or plant fibre. It also refers to cords or string made from sinew or plant fibre (occasionally it was used to denote bowstrings). It has nothing to do with wool or felt. My best guess, based on the context, is that neurika is describing a garment made from hemp or linen. The suffix -ika is a diminutive form so it is probably a vest rather than a coat. Because it is recommended as a cheap substitute for an iron lorika, the implication is that it was thick enough (probably quilted just like all other textile armour) to provide protection from weapons.

A secondary meaning is "nerve" and is where we get brain "neuron" from.

[Dan Howard]

Lower class Mongol cavalry wore felt kaftans called degel in battle. Magyars and Avars wore similar garments. They served to stop some incidental weapon strikes but I'm not sure they can be classed as an example of felt armour because their primary purpose was as clothing.

[Sean M]

Thucydides is describing an attack on Spartan hoplites. There is nothing to suggest that Spartan hoplites ever wore felt caps in battle and we know that bronze pilos-style helmets were worn by hoplites during this time. So the context makes "bronze pilos" the most likely interpretation.

I am just trying to think what kind of evidence we have for ordinary Spartiates wearing anything on their heads in the classical period, other than literary sources like this one. By the classical period they were not making nice paintings or sculptures in Laconia. Many of the classical Greek terms for linen and leather armour are only attested in one source.

In ancient military history, there are all kinds of things which depend on one or two passages, and all kinds of things which we first realized when someone asked "what do the manuscripts actually say?"

[Len Parker]

Sean, you say the thoracomachus was worn under the armour in de rebus bellicis, but I don't think that's right. Here it only says the thoracomachus was worn: “So when…the soldier has donned this Thoracomachus (which has adopted this name from the Greek because it protects the body), and has put on socci too (that is, boots), and iron greaves, with a helmet on his head and a shield and a sword fitted to his side and has caught up his lances in his hand he will be fully armed to enter an infantry battle.” (trans. Thompson p. 118) The picture shows the same: https://roma-victrix.com/summa-divisio/ ... malis.html

[Ernst]

More on nerves, as I questioned how to translate this.

1322 Inventory of Roger de Mortimer, 1st Earl of March, at Wigmore Castle (Ordered by Edward II)

v. capell' de ferro
(5 iron kettle hats)
j. capell' de nervis
(1 kettle hat of sinew?)

[Sean M]

Sean, you say the thoracomachus was worn under the armour in de rebus bellicis, but I don't think that's right. Here it only says the thoracomachus was worn: “So when…the soldier has donned this Thoracomachus (which has adopted this name from the Greek because it protects the body), and has put on socci too (that is, boots), and iron greaves, with a helmet on his head and a shield and a sword fitted to his side and has caught up his lances in his hand he will be fully armed to enter an infantry battle.” (trans. Thompson p. 118) The picture shows the same: https://roma-victrix.com/summa-divisio/ ... malis.html

Good question! Here is how I translate the text on an Italian website. For a long time I did not have access to this text, I should borrow a library copy.

XV. Exposition of the Thoracomachus

[1] Among all the things which antiquity saw fit to provide to posterity for the use of war, the thoracomachus is marvelously useful for lightening the burden of arms on the body and placing under rough things. [2] For this is a kind of garment, which is made from felt (coactilis) to the measure and for the protection of the human breast, from soft wools. Worry of fear, that most clever mistress, made it, so that having first put it on the coat of mail (lorica) or lamellar (clivanus) or similar things to these would not pain the vulnerable body with the roughness of weight. [3] To be sure, lest the same thoracomachus, struck by rain, should begin to weigh burdensomely, it is wise to put on top a garment, preferably made of Libycian skins, in the same shape as that particular thoracomachus. [4] And so, as we say, this thoracomachus having been put on (which takes for a name this Greek term for the protection of the body), socci as well, that is shoes / hose, and iron greaves having been put on, a helmet (galea) having been put on top and a shield or sword fitted to the side, having grasped lances, the soldier shall be armed in full to undergo a fight on foot.

So the layers seem to be ?tunic?, thoracomachus, Libycian skins, lorica or clivanus. Edit: in section 4 they don't mention the lorica or clivanus for sure!

The illumination is interesting because it shows a type of helmet which was very popular in the Roman army around the 3rd/4th century CE. It had sort of an 'armet' construction of the protection for the cheeks and chin. So the 9th century illuminator copied that bit in whatever he was using as a model accurately!

[Len Parker]

Sean, thanks for that. I took the incomplete quote from here: Notes [43] https://skookumpete.com/adrianople/ It's still not entirely clear.

[Sean M]

Sean, thanks for that. I took the incomplete quote from here: Notes [43] https://skookumpete.com/adrianople/ It's still not entirely clear.

I agree, the last clause and the picture seem to imagine the thoracomachus worn on its own, but the first three clauses see it as something worn under iron or brass armour. And then 200 years later Maurice does not talk about it.

[Len Parker]

Any thoughts on what this could be? https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vergilius_Vaticanus It's worn throughout the manuscript. Sometimes it almost looks like a musculata. It's a bit strange though.

[Jonathan Dean]

It's probably intended to be an Archaic type of armour, but probably one drawn after old drawings or descriptions rather than solid knowledge. If you look at the illuminations for f.66v, f.73v and f.74v the ordinary infantry are all in mail and fairly period correct helmets, whereas the "heroic" figures are all in the other style of armour.

[Sean M]

Any thoughts on what this could be? https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vergilius_Vaticanus It's worn throughout the manuscript. Sometimes it almost looks like a musculata. It's a bit strange though.

Do you mean the man with the shield in this picture? https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ ... omTroy.jpg I don't know how to interpret it.

Roman soft armour and arming clothes are one of those topics which produces more smoke than heat, because there is not much evidence and a lot of people have fixed ideas. I just feel like felt might be one possibility we should think of to explain that evidence, even though its not one of the better-known technologies from later medieval Europe.

[Len Parker]

I think I found what he was trying to show: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_mos ... Ma3457.jpg

[Sean M]

I added a note on a Byzantine text which says that in addition to offensive weapons and shields, the heavy infantry should have helmets (perikephaleiai) and body armour (thorakes) and greaves (periknemides). If, however, sufficient equipment is not available, then at least the first two ranks should have these, and the rest should have kaftans (zabai) and body armour and helmets of felt (pilos) and hide (βυρσίς). By the 10th century, East Roman or Byzantine texts say "cotton or rough silk" instead of felt.

Does anyone have experience wearing a thick felt garment under armour? It would be more resistant to tearing than woven wool, not sure if sweaty wool stinks and overheats worse than wet cotton. Roman reenactors often wear a woollen tunic reinforced on the shoulders with scraps of woollen cloth or offcuts of sheep's fleece.

An advantage of wool was that it was available everywhere before the Italians set themselves up as middlemen between cotton-growing regions and Catholic Europe.

[Len Parker]

Do we have a Roman cavalry man in padded armour? https://vici.org/vici/80594/

[Len Parker]

Here’s a direct link: https://vici.org/image.php?id=20121 This could be just exaggerated folds of a tunic, but I don’t think so. Look at the sleeve. It looks like separate segments (pteruges). Like these: https://historum.com/t/lorica-hamata-vs ... st-1833097

[Matthew Amt]

I'm doubtful. The image is just too small, and I would never expect realism from a depiction on an oil lamp. Considering there are other much more reliable suggestions of wearing a tunic *over* armor (such as mail), seeing actual pteruges sticking out at the shoulders of a tunic doesn't surprise me. I just can't see it as a significant claim for padded armor.

Matthew

[Sean M]

If I had to guess I would say the lamp shows pteryges (the 'flaps' below the waist), a belt (at waist level), and a shoulder-flap cuirass (above the level). Every type of armour that existed the ancient world was made as a piece that wrapped around the body and a piece that folded over the shoulders and was fastened to the chest, iron plate, iron mail, scales, mail-and-scales, and probably linen and leather, and most of then end at waist level or hip level and just have pteryges below.



There are some Roman paintings and sculptures which suggest that armoured Romans sometimes wore something flexible and armour-shaped under their armour but I never sorted through the evidence and decided which seems plausible and which seems like wishful thinking.

[Len Parker]

It could also be something like the sculpture of mars (not that we’re sure what that is either): https://x-legio.com/en/wiki/subarmalis
Scroll down to the bas-relief from Volterra showing a soft subarmalis. I think this is the guy on the left here: https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-abduc ... 89800.html - https://www.alamyimages.fr/photo-image- ... 68233.html - uarnacci-16689800.html https://www.flickr.com/photos/eliasroviello/32436550183 It looks like they’re just wearing coats tucked under belts.

[Len Parker]

Would these be felt caps? https://open.conted.ox.ac.uk/sites/open ... k=0FhJerip and https://open.conted.ox.ac.uk/sites/open ... k=hDh4nQct

[Matthew Amt]

Would these be felt caps? https://open.conted.ox.ac.uk/sites/open ... k=0FhJerip and https://open.conted.ox.ac.uk/sites/open ... k=hDh4nQct

I'm only seeing helmets and hair...

[Sean M]

The shield in that sculpture on the lower right is also clearly domed, even though that would be harder for the sculptor than carving flat shields. I wonder where and when it is from?

I try not to go into interpreting clothing and armour in Roman art because there is so much of it in coarse stones and missing the plaster or paint (and Late Roman art shows a lot of stuff that the artists never saw) but there are a few sculptures which show something armour-shaped but flexible.

[Len Parker]

This is from the Arch of Constantine, dated 315. I thought about the spikey hair but I didn't know they were still doing that in the 4th century.

[Len Parker]

The Low Ham mosaic from Somerset: https://www2.uned.es/geo-1-historia-ant ... RGILIO.htm Some info and a nice reconstruction: https://www.academia.edu/36422758/A_put ... tober_2017 He says the Vergillius Romanus doesn’t show a thoracomachus, but what is above his elbow on his right arm: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File ... io074v.jpg

[Len Parker]

Here’s two more that look similar to the cavalry man: https://www.livius.org/pictures/spain/m ... s-emperor/ This one has more detail: https://www.livius.org/pictures/germany ... a-soldier/ It looks like the upper chest is the same design as the lower part.

[Len Parker]

Could he be wearing one of these: https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/ ... /Zona.html Reminds me of the Stuttgart Psalter.

[Sean M]

Ralph Moffat thinks that the shield in Rohan v. Beaumanoir 1309 is of wood and leather and sinew (ners) rather than vers. I think on pavises from the 15th century, the sinew was shreaded and scattered onto a layer of glue like grated cheese on a pizza.

Moffat's sourcebook on arms and armour also has some hats of sinew eg. j chapel de Nerfs in document 12. In other documents the hats of sinew are said to be painted (eg. .j. chapel round de nerfs depeint des arm[…] in document 61). I think the ancient geographer Strabo says that Iberians wear helmets of sinew. Does anyone have an idea of how you would make a helmet from sinew?

[Len Parker]

This has probably been asked before, but what do you think these guys on the left are wearing? https://www.flickr.com/photos/111072739 ... 580817145/ and https://www.flickr.com/photos/111072739 ... 580817145/ I would normally think it was meant to be mail, but then what’s the stuff with the holes?