Scale- and Lamellar Armor

The idea is to perform an analysis of the relief on the Door of the Msho Arakelots monastery, where four equestrians and one infantryman are depicted, and to compare it with other Armenian, Byzantine and Muslim sources. In this relief, a spherical mace head and a sword with sleeve cross-guard are represented, suggesting many parallels with East-Roman archaeological and figurative sources.

No less important is the depiction of the military trumpet because it is the first image of this object in Armenian art, which can be compared with pictures from the Madrid Skylitzes (12th c.). In addition, the only defensive weapon which is presented in this relief is a round shield with a floral ornament. There are many depictions of round shields in Armenian miniatures and reliefs from 10th–11th c. Moreover, this relief is one of the few where stirrups and the chape of a scabbard are shown. These elements represent an important piece of information because these pictures can be compared with actual archaeological East-Roman artefacts to reconstruct their real look.

The conclusions are that the majority of Armenian weapons bear similarities to Byzantine ones but no less important are the Muslim influences, which have been found in some cases. Located between two civilizations (Byzantium and the Muslim Potentates), Armenians adopted the best solutions of their military technologies, creating their own culture. Moreover, thanks to this comparative analysis, further support will be given to the idea that medieval figurative sources are more or less accurate material for studying medieval military history.

Keywords: Armenia, Bagratids, Msho Arakelots, relief, military history, sleeve cross-guard, Byzantine Empire, Muslim world, weapon, armour.

https://czasopisma.uni.lodz.pl/sceranea/article/view/6653

This article analyses the lamellae discovered in the Tajik village of Kuktoš in the territory of the mediaeval part of the city of Penjikent, published by F.Š. Aminov in Petersburg in 2017 and currently held in archives of the Historical Museum of Ancient Penjikent. This item, which dates to the pre-Mongol, most likely Karakhanid, period, provides an opportunity to look again on some already published finds of lamellar plates from Central Asia. It gives a chance to look again on the problem of the armour used by Mongols during their conquest of Asia and Eastern Europe.

A considerable number of small iron scales were found among the remains of the disturbed funeral pure of the primary grave in Tumulus № 2 near Simeonovgrad: over 200 intact metal scales and fragments of another 60 or 70. They are of several shapes; the greatest part are rectangular with one corner cut in a curve, slightly convex, and pierced by four small holes along the straight sides (figs. 1-5). There are "left" and "right" scales of this type, and few others of pentagonal or trapezoidal shape. The dimensions vary between 1.2 and 1,4 cm and are thus rather small in comparison with similar scales supposedly from cuirasses. However they are most probable the remains of some protective armour; after examining different possibilities and adducing numerous parallels (figs. 6-17) and opinions, the author suggests tentatively that they might be remains of over-sleeves protecting the arm from the wrist to the elbow.

In the current paper the author discusses headgear represented on Kušān medallions showing
the bust of King Huviška. Most likely those medallions are depicting pre-Islamic lamellar helmets, well known from for example on the Sasanian, Bīsetūn capital currently held in Ṭāq-e Bostān Museum, Iran.
The author will try to compare the presented lamellar constructions with known finds of such helmets of the pre-Islamic era.

The discovery of a piece of late Assyrian scale armour at the site of Ziyaret Tepe (SE-Turkey) has incited some new considerations on the distribution and use of scale armour in the Ancient Near East. This paper provides a brief summary on the evidence from the 2nd millennium to the late Assyrian time.

The paper discusses iron finds recently discovered in the vicinity of the village of Alaguj, Russian Federation, which were handed over to the collection of the Novosibirsk State University Archaeological Museum. Among them, a knife blade, two stirrups, two bridle bits, two bridle cheek pieces, 11 arrowheads of six different types and one piece of lamellar armour were discovered. the find from the village of This study takes the lamellar cheek piece as a point of departure. The analysis of find and of the Kursk Oblast cheek piece find allows to state that some of well known finds of lamellar armour plates Alagujwere misinterpreted. Based on the findings of arrowheads and horse tack,  propose to date the finds from  to the authorsAlagujthththe second half of the 7or early 8century, that is, to the Second Turkic Kaganate period (682-744) or to a very turbulent period just before the reunification of the Second Turkic Kaganate.

In: L. Nagy Márta - L. Szőlősi Katalin (szerk.): " Vadrózsából tündérsípot csináltam." Tanulmányok Istvánovits Eszter 60. születésnapjára. A Jósa András Múzeum Kiadványai 73. Nyíregyháza, 2018. 575-594.

Tiszavasvári—Koldusdomb. Re-evaluation of an Early Medieval lamellar armour find.

In 1956, in the Koldusdomb part of Tiszavasvári, during road construction works a significant Early Medieval lamellar armour was found. Unfortunately, its most part was demolished or lost during the works. Despite of its significance, up to now, only the main characteristics of the find material have been known. The present study aims to fulfil this deficit. New investigations and complete restoration of the find material made recently provide an outstandingly good basis for this. Analysis started with formal grouping of lamellae because of which I was able to separate four different types (II/A, II/B, II/C, III). Lacking the records, I could depend upon already known finds (Castel Trosino, Kerch, Niederstotzingen, etc.) in questions regarding the structure of the armour. Despite of uncertainties caused by our poor knowledge of the finding circumstances, the objects from Koldusdomb show several similarities with analogous finds.

The first millennium BCE was pivotal for the environment and for human societies in Central and Eastern Eurasia because transformations accelerated and altered natural and cultural landscapes to hitherto unknown dimensions. Among the major driving forces was the increasing use of horse riding, which extended range of movement significantly and led to the development of cavalry units as a part of large armies. Empires with enormous outreach and gravitational pull formed and disintegrated in close dependence. The wide spread of military technologies demonstrates their bonds, though mostly in the form of metal objects due to the inherent survivability of their materials. Equipment and protective clothing of organic material, albeit produced in large numbers and thus an economic and environmental factor, are rarely preserved. In Yanghai cemetery site, Turfan, the remains of one leather scale armour were discovered. In this study, the results of the AMS radiocarbon dating as well as the construction details of the Yanghai find are presented and compared with a contemporary armour of unknown origin in the Metropolitan Museum of Art New York (MET) and with finds and depictions from the Near East, the adjacent northern steppe areas and the territory of China. The armour, datable to 786–543 cal BCE (95% probability), was originally made of about 5444 smaller scales and 140 larger scales, which, together with leather laces and lining, had a total weight of ca. 4–5 kg. Our reconstruction demonstrates that it can be donned quickly and without the help of another person by wrapping the left part around the back, tying it to the right part under the right arm and fastening with thongs crosswise over the back to laces at the opposite hip parts. Fitting different statures, it is a light and highly efficient defensive garment. In age, construction details and aesthetic appearance it resembles the MET armour. The stylistic similarities but constructional differences suggest that the two armours were intended as outfits for distinct units of the same army, i.e. light cavalry and heavy infantry, respectively. As such a high level of standardization of military equipment during the 7th century BCE is only known for the Neo-Assyrian military forces, we suggest that the place of manufacture of both armours was the Neo-Assyrian Empire. If this supposition is correct, then the Yanghai armour is one of the rare actual proofs of West-East technology transfer across the Eurasian continent during the first half of the first millennium BCE, when social and economic transformation enhanced.

Defensive equipments of the Avar period in the Carpathian Basin/Aварских доспехи из Карпатского бассейна. Unpublished BA Thesis, 2014. My primary aim was to collect the archaeological remains of defensive equipment dated to the Avar period (568-c. 804/811 A. D.) from the territory of the Carpathian Basin. Nearly all of them are grave goods, except some scattered finds without precise data. The material (most of them belong to the trunk defenses) is classified by the means of construction (lamellar, scale, mail, combined mail and lamellar, other) and by the means of use (body defenses, helmets, greaves, armguards, shields). I put the greatest emphasis on the lamellar type, investigating it's spread and usage in Europe. Besides building an adequate and up-to-date catalogue,  I've also collected some of the many illustrations from Europe and Central-Asia. Still, many questions have left open due to the lack of archaeological data, e. g. armour made of leather and other organic raw material, the use of metal greaves and armguards (written and pictoral sources are available, though), the process of production and their origin (made in local or foreign workshops).

New Synthesis on the Origin of Oyoroi Armor in terms of Lamellae.
Kajiwara Hiroshi
The Oyoroi armor is highly regarded as the full bloom (florescence) of artisanship in Japanese art history. The armor is considered to have appeared in at least 11th century, i.e. during the middle Heian period. However, because intact specimens of the Oyoroi of that date have rarely been preserved, the origin still remains ambiguous. The explanation for the evolution of lamellae has a possibility to shed a light on this question. As parts of the Oyoroi, 3 types of lamellae, Yotsume-zane, Mitsume-zane and Nami-zane were exploited. The lacing methods of these are divided into 2 types, one is Tatedori-odoshi (vertical lacing with lamellae above) and the other is Nawamedori-odoshi (oblique lacing with lamellae above) (fig6,7,10).
The similar arrangement for lacing and binding holes between the type ll lamellas from Akitajo (8th century) (fig3) and those discovered in the Maritime region of Russia (fig4), should have been a result of some form of trading or diplomatic relationships as historical records (for example Shoku-Nihongi) have referred to. This type ll lamellae is a dominant candidate of the Oyoroi lamellae, because the earliest examples of it (Yotsume-zane for Tatedori-odoshi) show almost the same arrangement of lacing and binding holes with those of type ll lamellae. Each has 2 vertical rows of 16 or 14 lacing and binding holes on both sides of the lamellas (fig9). 
With regard to the methods of the lacing, the Nawamedori-odoshi is duly supposed to have been developed from Tatedori-odoshi. Consequently, the Nami-zane lamellae for Oyoroi, with 13 holes arrayed in double vertical rows, is hypothesized to have evolved from the type ll lamellae at Akitajo with 16 holes in double rows through the Yotsume-zane lamellae with 14 holes in double rows during the Heian period associated with the rise of Samurai worriers (fig10).

Annotation: the article analyzes the armor plates of the turn of the 14th – 15th centuries found on the territory of the Grodno Old Castle and stored in the funds of the Grodno State Historical and Archaeological Museum. A description is given indicating the dimensions of all structural elements, their shape and features. In the course of the study, the author came to the conclusion that the analyzed plate complex testifies to the use by soldiers of the Grodno castle of protective weapons of Western European production, as well as the influence of Western European technological traditions on local methods of manufacturing plate armor of a scaly type of fastening.

by Fabrice DE BACKER, in Res Antiquae 18, 2021.

The artefacts discovered in excavations, with the textual and visual evidence, provide the support for a series of deductions on the manufacture of a scale-armour. Field experimentation gave an opportunity to the present author to understand how the craftsmen realized several different types of scale – armour, and the tools and resources that were employed to serve that purpose. This paper will provide some elements on the organisation and the equipment of a scale-armour manufacturer workshop during the Neo-Assyrian period.

Keywords: neo-assyrian, scale-armour, workshop, armourer, Tell Ahmar (Syria)
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