Egyptian Armor

[QueensThief]

What kind of armor did ancient Egyptians wear? I found a site that said they didn't wear any, only the pharoah wore a little. Does anybody know anything about this? thanks
Alison

[Padrig]

They dont know what they are talking about. Everybody knows about the cool retracting armour they wore as demonstrated by the historical documentary STARGATE .

Pat

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L'Armurerie du Roi
plemee@armurerieduroi.com

[Firemonkey]

hmm ill look into it they must have had some armor id think that chariots would have had some kind of shoulder/arm protection

[Firemonkey]

From what I can find leather armor for the chest was used sometimes for the chariot riders and helemts but it was too hot for any kind of armor to be worn for long periods of time

[Effingham]

You have to remember the environment (hot) and the technology (bronze age). According to icongraphic evidence, which is really all we have to go on, all the foot soldiers had shields, which seem to have either been rawhide over wooden frames, or wicker work.

They only wore, apparently, a heavier apron than their normal daily one. Daily wear was linen, and we suspect the "Fighting apron" was leather for a little added protection. They also wore, probably, leather-wrap forearm protection.

Some may have worn leather caps shaped roughly like "bald-headed wigs."

The only one who wore anything akin to armour was indeed the Pharaoh, but as to its defensive quality, we don't know. If you've ever seen "The Ten Commandments" one thing they did rather well was a representation of Pharaoh's armour, but we don't know if it was metal, open work jewels (like the famous Egyptian "collars" were), scales on leather, or even just tooled and decorated leather. At different periods and for different reasons, any of these and possibly all of them were used. The same with the khepresh (the famous "blue crown" or "war crown."). We don't know if it was solid, if it was basketwork, if it was metal, leather, stiffened linen, or what. There is a bust of Ramesses II wearing a khepresh studded with small discs or rings, which some think indicates it was actually a softer material with applied defensive studs. We just don't know, as to my knowledge, no one's ever excavated a khepresh.

From all I have seen, Pharaoh's armour was more ostentation (impress and scare people) and it was considered more magical protection than armour. Indeed, that was the primary defense of every soldier, who had magical protecting amulets when they went to fight.

Effingham
who once majored in archaeology, and studied Middle Egyptian at UC Berkeley

[David Blackmane]

I have a book, I look it up later, that suggests that bronze or copper scale was in use by the early New Kingdom. Whether this was for the elite or was worn by the more common soldiery I don't know. Prolly for the rich generals and nobility.


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Fragen Sie nicht um wem lautet die Glocke, es lautet fur Sie.

[Fearghus Macildubh]

Everything I've read points to the Egyptian soldier wearing little or no armour. They did carry large cowhide shields. Some of thier allied mercenary tribes wore helmets, the Sherdan (sp) in particular wore helmets with small horns. At least that's what depictions of the battle with the Sea Peoples shows.

slainte,
Fearghus

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How long will we fight? We will fight until Hell freezes over. Then we fight on the ice.
Fearghus' Homepage

[Will Knight]

Interesting.
Quite a contrast to their contemporaries in Mycenae (granted the average foot soldier probably didn't have armour).
-Will Knight

[Firemonkey]

Effingham, what about later periods. I think i had seen something about armor becoming more and more common place when stronger enemies came in.