| # | Polity | Coded Value | Tags | Year(s) | Edit | Desc |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
"With greaves, too, the earliest examples date to the early Urnfield period, as with the hoards from Cannes-Ecluse (Seine-et-Marne) and Rinyaszentkiraly (Somogy), as well as a number in the Sava valley of Croatia."
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In the New Kingdom: "Body armour, in the form of small bronze plates riveted to linen or leather jerkins, with a a tapered lower half, began to be used."
[1]
Jerkins do not have sleeves.
[1]: (Shaw 1991: 42) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/7J8H86XF. |
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|
"The soldiers of the Old and Middle Kingdom wore no armour. In the Old Kingdom they are usually depicted wearing only a belt and a small triangular loincloth, and by the Middle Kingdom their costume was invariably the same short linen kilt as that worn by civilian workmen. [...] From the late Predynastic Period to the Middle Kingdom, Egyptian soldiers’ only bodily protection (apart from the occasional use of a band of webbing across the shoulders and chest) was supplied by long, roughly rectangular shields made of cowhide stretched over a wooden frame."
[1]
[1]: (Shaw 1991: 32) Shaw, Ian. 1991. Egyptian Warfare and Weapons. Princes Risborough: Shire. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/7J8H86XF. |
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|
"The soldiers of the Old and Middle Kingdom wore no armour. In the Old Kingdom they are usually depicted wearing only a belt and a small triangular loincloth, and by the Middle Kingdom their costume was invariably the same short linen kilt as that worn by civilian workmen. [...] From the late Predynastic Period to the Middle Kingdom, Egyptian soldiers’ only bodily protection (apart from the occasional use of a band of webbing across the shoulders and chest) was supplied by long, roughly rectangular shields made of cowhide stretched over a wooden frame."
[1]
Armour not worn during 3rd millennium BCE.
[2]
[1]: (Shaw 1991: 32) Shaw, Ian. 1991. Egyptian Warfare and Weapons. Princes Risborough: Shire. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/7J8H86XF. [2]: (Spalinger 2013, 472) |
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|
"The soldiers of the Old and Middle Kingdom wore no armour. In the Old Kingdom they are usually depicted wearing only a belt and a small triangular loincloth, and by the Middle Kingdom their costume was invariably the same short linen kilt as that worn by civilian workmen. [...] From the late Predynastic Period to the Middle Kingdom, Egyptian soldiers’ only bodily protection (apart from the occasional use of a band of webbing across the shoulders and chest) was supplied by long, roughly rectangular shields made of cowhide stretched over a wooden frame."
[1]
Armour not worn during 3rd millennium BCE.
[2]
[1]: (Shaw 1991: 32) Shaw, Ian. 1991. Egyptian Warfare and Weapons. Princes Risborough: Shire. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/7J8H86XF. [2]: (Spalinger 2013, 472) |
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|
"Body armour, in the form of small bronze plates riveted to linen or leather jerkins, with a a tapered lower half, began to be used."
[1]
Jerkins do not have sleeves. Infantrymen wore padded fabric armour.
[2]
[1]: (Shaw 1991: 42) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/7J8H86XF. [2]: (Brewer and Teeter 1999, 74) |
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|
"the Egyptians had been using bronze armor since the Eighteenth dynasty, "but it consisted of nothing more elaborate than metal scales sewn onto a leather base."
[1]
Bronze scale armor on short-sleeved, knee length shirt made out of linen or leather.
[2]
"Body armour, in the form of small bronze plates riveted to linen or leather jerkins, was introduced by the early New Kingdom".
[3]
Note: jerkins lack sleeves.
[1]: (Fischer-Bovet 2014, 135-138) Fischer-Bovet (2014) Army and Society in Ptolemaic Egypt. Cambridge University Press [2]: (Gnirs 2001) [3]: (Shaw 1991: 42) Shaw, Ian. 1991. Egyptian Warfare and Weapons. Princes Risborough: Shire. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/7J8H86XF. |
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|
"From the late Predynastic Period to the Middle Kingdom, Egyptian soldiers’ only bodily protection (apart from the occasional use of a band of webbing across the shoulders and chest) was supplied by long, roughly rectangular shields made of cowhide stretched over a wooden frame."
[1]
[1]
[1]: (Shaw 1991: 32) Shaw, Ian. 1991. Egyptian Warfare and Weapons. Princes Risborough: Shire. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/7J8H86XF. |
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|
In Egyptian warfare 3000-1700 BCE the "only personal protection was the shield".
[1]
"From the late Predynastic Period to the Middle Kingdom, Egyptian soldiers’ only bodily protection (apart from the occasional use of a band of webbing across the shoulders and chest) was supplied by long, roughly rectangular shields made of cowhide stretched over a wooden frame."
[2]
[2]
[1]: (Gabriel 2002, 27) Richard A Gabriel. 2002. The Great Armies of Antiquity. Praeger. Westport. [2]: (Shaw 1991: 32) Shaw, Ian. 1991. Egyptian Warfare and Weapons. Princes Risborough: Shire. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/7J8H86XF. |
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|
"The soldiers of the Old and Middle Kingdom wore no armour. In the Old Kingdom they are usually depicted wearing only a belt and a small triangular loincloth, and by the Middle Kingdom their costume was invariably the same short linen kilt as that worn by civilian workmen. [...] From the late Predynastic Period to the Middle Kingdom, Egyptian soldiers’ only bodily protection (apart from the occasional use of a band of webbing across the shoulders and chest) was supplied by long, roughly rectangular shields made of cowhide stretched over a wooden frame."
[1]
[1]: (Shaw 1991: 32) Shaw, Ian. 1991. Egyptian Warfare and Weapons. Princes Risborough: Shire. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/7J8H86XF. |
||||||
|
"The soldiers of the Old and Middle Kingdom wore no armour. In the Old Kingdom they are usually depicted wearing only a belt and a small triangular loincloth, and by the Middle Kingdom their costume was invariably the same short linen kilt as that worn by civilian workmen. [...] From the late Predynastic Period to the Middle Kingdom, Egyptian soldiers’ only bodily protection (apart from the occasional use of a band of webbing across the shoulders and chest) was supplied by long, roughly rectangular shields made of cowhide stretched over a wooden frame."
[1]
[1]: (Shaw 1991: 32) Shaw, Ian. 1991. Egyptian Warfare and Weapons. Princes Risborough: Shire. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/7J8H86XF. |
||||||
|
"The soldiers of the Old and Middle Kingdom wore no armour. In the Old Kingdom they are usually depicted wearing only a belt and a small triangular loincloth, and by the Middle Kingdom their costume was invariably the same short linen kilt as that worn by civilian workmen. [...] From the late Predynastic Period to the Middle Kingdom, Egyptian soldiers’ only bodily protection (apart from the occasional use of a band of webbing across the shoulders and chest) was supplied by long, roughly rectangular shields made of cowhide stretched over a wooden frame."
[1]
[1]: (Shaw 1991: 32) Shaw, Ian. 1991. Egyptian Warfare and Weapons. Princes Risborough: Shire. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/7J8H86XF. |
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|
When the Jibaro warrior prepares for an attack against an enemy he puts on his head a sort of cap made of monkey’s skin, which he prefers to the ordinary head ornament made of parrot or tucan feathers (tawása). The ear-tubes ought to be as large as possible so that their ends nearly reach the shoulders. Around the neck the warrior wears a necklace of jaguar’s teeth and round the waist the usual cincture of human hair (akáchu). Old warriors, however, for an attack prefer to cincture themselves with a broad belt of the skin of the great boa. The uncovered part of the body, the face, the breast, the back, the arms, and legs, are finally painted black with genipa (sua).
[1]
[1]: Karsten, Rafael. 1935. “Head-Hunters Of Western Amazonas: The Life And Culture Of The Jibaro Indians Of Eastern Ecuador And Peru.”, 287-288 |
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|
The ethnographic record contains descriptions of caps and ornamentation rather than physical armor in the conventional sense of the term: ’When the Jibaro warrior prepares for an attack against an enemy he puts on his head a sort of cap made of monkey’s skin, which he prefers to the ordinary head ornament made of parrot or tucan feathers (tawása). The ear-tubes ought to be as large as possible so that their ends nearly reach the shoulders. Around the neck the warrior wears a necklace of jaguar’s teeth and round the waist the usual cincture of human hair (akáchu). Old warriors, however, for an attack prefer to cincture themselves with a broad belt of the skin of the great boa. The uncovered part of the body, the face, the breast, the back, the arms, and legs, are finally painted black with genipa (sua).’
[1]
[1]: Karsten, Rafael. 1935. “Head-Hunters Of Western Amazonas: The Life And Culture Of The Jibaro Indians Of Eastern Ecuador And Peru.”, 287-288 |
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|
Widespread use of armor seems to have developed alongside rise of large infantry forces only in Warring States period, 5th c. BCE.
[1]
[2]
[1]: (Dien 1981) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/F82EE9ZF. [2]: (Tin-bor Hui 2005) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/CSPZPNV5?. |
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"Besides not producing many socketed weapons, the Indus is also lacking in narrow-bladed axes and square-sectioned spears. These axe designs have been connected with the appearance of body-armour, and the ensuing need for piercing weapons (Yadin 1963: 40), and the square-sectioned spears may arguably have been a response to the same stimulus. The absence of these designs in the Indus, or at least of weapons that seem to have an emphasis on piercing through something, implies that armour (presumably made of organic materials, as no metal helmets or scales of armour have been found) was not commonly used."
[1]
[1]: (Cork 2006: 174) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/IQQCEMPC/q/cork. |
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|
No archaeological evidence for this. Moreover, the scholarly consensus is that the Jomon were relatively peaceful.
|
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|
No archaeological evidence for this. Moreover, the scholarly consensus is that the Jomon were relatively peaceful.
|
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|
No archaeological evidence for this. Moreover, the scholarly consensus is that the Jomon were relatively peaceful.
|
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|
Inferred from absence of limb protection in previous and subsequent polities.
|
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|
Inferred from absence of limb protection in previous and subsequent polities.
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Inferred from absence of limb protection in previous and subsequent polities.
|
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|
These do not appear to be included in depictions of"warriors" in North Yemeni rock-art from the Late Neolithic and Bronze Age, as reproduced in Jung (1991).
[1]
However, Jung himself does not state these were not in use, nor does he remark on their absence in said depictions.
[1]: (Jung 1991) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/JP9KX5BK. |
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|
The following implies that shields were the only form of armor: "In reaction to slings, shields were widely adopted in the Late Formative, especially rectangular ones that protected most of the body [...] The protection afforded the trunk and the limbs".
[1]
[1]: (Hassig 1992: 31) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/E9VHCKDG. |
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|
Inferred from lack of limb protection in previous and later polities.
|
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|
"Because archery placed continued stress on mobility, the limbs remained unarmored".
[1]
[1]: (Hassig 1992: 139) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/E9VHCKDG. |
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|
"Little is known about warfare in Mesoamerica before the Middle Formative [...] warfare was relatively unorganized, conducted by small groups armed with unspecialized tool-weapons".
[1]
[1]: (Hassig 1992: 12-13) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/E9VHCKDG. |
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|
This time is earlier than the earliest reference in Greece c1600 BCE: "Early Mycenaean and Minoan charioteers wore an arrangement of bronze armor that almost fully enclosed the soldier, the famous Dendra panoply."
[1]
It is also earlier than the earliest reference in Anatolia, the Hittite period.
[2]
[1]: (Gabriel and Metz 1991, 51) Richard A Gabriel. Karen S Metz. 1991. The Military Capabilities of Ancient Armies. Greenwood Press. Westport. [2]: Bryce T. (2007) Hittite Warrior, Oxford: Osprey Publishing, pp. 15 |
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|
"Hard armor of wood was found throughout the Northeast area in early times, although soft armor— rawhide corselets, long tunics, war shirts— is rarely mentioned. Lafitau offered this description of Iroquois armor: ’Their breastplates were also a fabric of wood or little reed wands, cut in proportional lengths, clasped against each other, twined and woven very neatly with little cords made of antelope or deerskin. They had thigh and arm guards of the same material. These breast-plates were made to resist arrows with bone or stone heads but would have been no protection against iron arrowheads. (1977, 115- 116)’"
[1]
"[T]he introduction of firearms and metal tipped weapons into native warfare forced the Iroquois to reconsider the way they approached combat. They discarded their wooden body armor and shields, which were only marginally effective against metal weapons and afforded no protection whatsoever against French guns. Moreover, continued use of wooden armor became impractical as Iroquois warriors learned to adapt their fighting style to the new weaponry. Shortly after the stunning debut of French firearms in the 1609 revolt of the Mohawks, Champlain recorded that the Iroquois had already learned to ’throw themselves on the ground when they hear the report’ of guns being fired. Wooden armor was too cumbersome for use in evolving Iroquois tactics, which also included hiding behind trees for protection until after the guns had fired. Armor and shields remained present in Iroquois society as teaching and protectice tools in the education of young warriors, but they no longer found a place in Iroquois wars."
[2]
[1]: (Jones 2004, 58-59) Jones, David. 2004. Native North American Armor, Shields, and Fortifications. Austin: University of Texas Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/collectionKey/943RGM7A/itemKey/HABDQG2T [2]: (Barr 2006, 28) Barr, Daniel P. 2006. Unconquered: The Iroquois League at War in Colonial America. Westport, Conn.: Praeger. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/collectionKey/943RGM7A/itemKey/KA4QX6HF |
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|
"Little is known about warfare in Mesoamerica before the Middle Formative [...] warfare was relatively unorganized, conducted by small groups armed with unspecialized tool-weapons".
[1]
known form artwork, but they may have been purely decorative (i.e. for status) and related to shamanistic rituals or the Mesoamerican ball game.
[2]
[3]
[1]: (Hassig 1992: 12-13) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/E9VHCKDG. [2]: Niederberger, Christine. (1996). "The Basin of Mexico: Multimillenial Development toward Cultural Complexity." In Olmec Art of Ancient Mexico, edited by Emily P. Benson and Beatriz de la Fuente. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, pp. 83-93. [3]: Niederberger, Christine. (2000) "Ranked Societies, Iconographic Complexity, and Economic Wealth in the Basin of Mexico Toward 1200 BC." In Olmec Art and Archaeology in Mesoamerica, edited by John E. Clark and Mary E. Pye. New Haven: Yale University Press, pp. 169-192. |
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|
"Little is known about warfare in Mesoamerica before the Middle Formative [...] warfare was relatively unorganized, conducted by small groups armed with unspecialized tool-weapons".
[1]
known form artwork, but they may have been purely decorative (i.e. for status) and related to shamanistic rituals or the Mesoamerican ball game.
[2]
[3]
[1]: (Hassig 1992: 12-13) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/E9VHCKDG. [2]: Niederberger, Christine. (1996). "The Basin of Mexico: Multimillenial Development toward Cultural Complexity." In Olmec Art of Ancient Mexico, edited by Emily P. Benson and Beatriz de la Fuente. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, pp. 83-93. [3]: Niederberger, Christine. (2000) "Ranked Societies, Iconographic Complexity, and Economic Wealth in the Basin of Mexico Toward 1200 BC." In Olmec Art and Archaeology in Mesoamerica, edited by John E. Clark and Mary E. Pye. New Haven: Yale University Press, pp. 169-192. |
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|
"There was little armor during the Early Classic, with the primary Teotihuacan innovation being the use of protective helmets of quilted cotton."
[1]
[1]: (Hassig 1992: 48) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/E9VHCKDG. |
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-
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-
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|
not mentioned in any of the sources that deal with weapons and armor
|
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|
not mentioned in any of the sources that deal with weapons and armor
|
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|
"Little is known about warfare in Mesoamerica before the Middle Formative [...] warfare was relatively unorganized, conducted by small groups armed with unspecialized tool-weapons".
[1]
[1]: (Hassig 1992: 12-13) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/E9VHCKDG. |
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|
Checked by Peter Peregrine.
|
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Checked by Peter Peregrine.
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|
There is little evidence for armor other than cotton armor and shields, as recorded by the Spanish at the end of this period.
[1]
[1]: Flannery and Marcus (1983) The Cloud People: divergent evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec civilizations. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Academic Press, New York. |
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Knights: "The princes of Black Africa who could afford to outfitted themselves in complete or partial armor like that of the knights of the Western Middle Ages."
[1]
"coat of mail and iron breastplate, helmet, boots, javelin ... all of it."
[2]
However, due to climate complete knightly armour not as common as in Europe and in fact Songhai Askia Bano died of suffocation.
[2]
[1]: (Diop 1987, 116) Diop, Cheikh Anta. Salemson, Harold trans. 1987. Precolonial Black Africa. Lawrence Hill Books. Chicago. [2]: (Diop 1987, 117) Diop, Cheikh Anta. Salemson, Harold trans. 1987. Precolonial Black Africa. Lawrence Hill Books. Chicago. |
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|
Knights: "The princes of Black Africa who could afford to outfitted themselves in complete or partial armor like that of the knights of the Western Middle Ages."
[1]
"coat of mail and iron breastplate, helmet, boots, javelin ... all of it."
[2]
However, due to climate complete knightly armour not as common as in Europe and in fact Songhai Askia Bano died of suffocation.
[2]
[1]: (Diop 1987, 116) Diop, Cheikh Anta. Salemson, Harold trans. 1987. Precolonial Black Africa. Lawrence Hill Books. Chicago. [2]: (Diop 1987, 117) Diop, Cheikh Anta. Salemson, Harold trans. 1987. Precolonial Black Africa. Lawrence Hill Books. Chicago. |
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|
According to a military historian (this data needs to be checked by a polity specialist)the earliest reference in Greece c1600 BCE: "Early Mycenaean and Minoan charioteers wore an arrangement of bronze armor that almost fully enclosed the soldier, the famous Dendra panoply."
[1]
It is also earlier than the earliest reference in Anatolia, the Hittite period.
[2]
[1]: (Gabriel and Metz 1991, 51) Richard A Gabriel. Karen S Metz. 1991. The Military Capabilities of Ancient Armies. Greenwood Press. Westport. [2]: Bryce T. (2007) Hittite Warrior, Oxford: Osprey Publishing, pp. 15 |
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|
No evidence for weapons or armor, apart from arrowheads, spearheads, daggers and axes, have been found at Pirak. This may in part be due to preservation conditions at the site.
[1]
However, Harappan weapons are "characterised by the absence of shields, helmets and armour".
[2]
[1]: Jarrige, J-F. (1979) Fouilles de Pirak. Paris : Diffusion de Boccard. [2]: Sharma, R. S., ‘Material Background of Vedic Warfare’, Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, 9 (1966):305. |
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-
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E.g., greaves.
|
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|
Checked by Peter Peregrine.
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|
Checked by Peter Peregrine.
|
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|
This is possible, but I have found no references to it.
|
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|
Checked by Peter Peregrine.
|
||||||
|
Checked by Peter Peregrine.
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
Sources only mention shields
[1]
. It should be noted that sources that specifically describe the way the Illinois Confederation waged war are relatively rare.
[1]: Illinois State Museum, The Illinois, Technology: Weapons (2000), http://www.museum.state.il.us/muslink/nat_amer/post/htmls/te_houses.html |
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|
The following implies that shields were the only form of armor: "In reaction to slings, shields were widely adopted in the Late Formative, especially rectangular ones that protected most of the body [...] The protection afforded the trunk and the limbs".
[1]
[1]: (Hassig 1992: 31) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/E9VHCKDG. |
||||||
|
According to a military historian (this data needs to be checked by a polity specialist) the earliest reference in Greece c1600 BCE: "Early Mycenaean and Minoan charioteers wore an arrangement of bronze armor that almost fully enclosed the soldier, the famous Dendra panoply."
[1]
It is also earlier than the earliest reference in Anatolia, the Hittite period.
[2]
[1]: (Gabriel and Metz 1991, 51) Richard A Gabriel. Karen S Metz. 1991. The Military Capabilities of Ancient Armies. Greenwood Press. Westport. [2]: Bryce T. (2007) Hittite Warrior, Oxford: Osprey Publishing, pp. 15 |
||||||
|
Checked by Peter Peregrine.
|
||||||
|
No archaeological evidence for this. Moreover, the scholarly consensus is that the Jomon were relatively peaceful.
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
No archaeological evidence for this. Moreover, the scholarly consensus is that the Jomon were relatively peaceful.
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
No finds interpreted as armor or protection in fight. Worth noting that Egypt was relatively slow to develop defensive military technology.
|
||||||
|
No archaeological evidence for this. Moreover, the scholarly consensus is that the Jomon were relatively peaceful.
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
Reference to the use of shields, helmets, greaves, breastplates dates to the Bronze Age.
[1]
[1]: (Guilaine 2008: 204-05) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/LZB53FDH. |
||||||
|
According to a military historian (a polity specialist needs to check this data): the earliest reference, for Greece c1600 BCE: "Early Mycenaean and Minoan charioteers wore an arrangement of bronze armor that almost fully enclosed the soldier, the famous Dendra panoply."
[1]
[1]: (Gabriel 2007, 78) Richard A Gabriel. 2007. Soldiers’ Lives Through History: The Ancient World. Greenwood Press. Westport. |
||||||
|
According to a military historian (a polity specialist needs to check this data): the earliest reference, for Greece c1600 BCE: "Early Mycenaean and Minoan charioteers wore an arrangement of bronze armor that almost fully enclosed the soldier, the famous Dendra panoply."
[1]
Closest reference is Mesopotamia (the Assyrians) c800 BCE?: iron plates used for shin protection.
[2]
[1]: (Gabriel 2007, 78) Richard A Gabriel. 2007. Soldiers’ Lives Through History: The Ancient World. Greenwood Press. Westport. [2]: (Gabriel and Metz 1991, 51) Richard A Gabriel. Karen S Metz. 1991. The Military Capabilities of Ancient Armies. Greenwood Press. Westport. |
||||||
|
This time is earlier than the earliest reference, for Greece c1600 BCE: "Early Mycenaean and Minoan charioteers wore an arrangement of bronze armor that almost fully enclosed the soldier, the famous Dendra panoply."
[1]
Closest reference is Mesopotamia (the Assyrians) c800 BCE?: iron plates used for shin protection.
[2]
[1]: (Gabriel 2007, 78) Richard A Gabriel. 2007. Soldiers’ Lives Through History: The Ancient World. Greenwood Press. Westport. [2]: (Gabriel and Metz 1991, 51) Richard A Gabriel. Karen S Metz. 1991. The Military Capabilities of Ancient Armies. Greenwood Press. Westport. |
||||||
|
"We have no evidence for warfare. In contrast with later periods, ’Ubaid seals show no depictions of weapons, prisoners, or combat scenes".
[1]
[1]: (Stein 1994: 39) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/V94SXJRJ. |
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
According to a military historian (this data needs to be checked by a polity specialist) the earliest reference in Greece c1600 BCE: "Early Mycenaean and Minoan charioteers wore an arrangement of bronze armor that almost fully enclosed the soldier, the famous Dendra panoply."
[1]
It is also earlier than the earliest reference in Anatolia, the Hittite period.
[2]
[1]: (Gabriel and Metz 1991, 51) Richard A Gabriel. Karen S Metz. 1991. The Military Capabilities of Ancient Armies. Greenwood Press. Westport. [2]: Bryce T. (2007) Hittite Warrior, Oxford: Osprey Publishing, pp. 15 |
||||||
|
These do not appear to be included in depictions of"warriors" in North Yemeni rock-art from the Late Neolithic and Bronze Age, as reproduced in Jung (1991).
[1]
However, Jung himself does not state these were not in use, nor does he remark on their absence in said depictions.
[1]: (Jung 1991) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/JP9KX5BK. |
||||||
|
"As with the rest of the Near East, there is little evidence for warfare in Neolithic Mesopotamia."
[1]
[1]: (Hamblin 2006: 33) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/4WM3RBTD. |
||||||
|
According to a military historian (a polity specialist needs to check this data): the earliest reference, for Greece c1600 BCE: "Early Mycenaean and Minoan charioteers wore an arrangement of bronze armor that almost fully enclosed the soldier, the famous Dendra panoply."
[1]
[1]: (Gabriel 2007, 78) Richard A Gabriel. 2007. Soldiers’ Lives Through History: The Ancient World. Greenwood Press. Westport. |
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|
Though it’s not clear whether the Iroquois ever used limb protection, by this time they had stopped using body armour altogether. "[T]he introduction of firearms and metal tipped weapons into native warfare forced the Iroquois to reconsider the way they approached combat. They discarded their wooden body armor and shields, which were only marginally effective against metal weapons and afforded no protection whatsoever against French guns. Moreover, continued use of wooden armor became impractical as Iroquois warriors learned to adapt their fighting style to the new weaponry. Shortly after the stunning debut of French firearms in the 1609 revolt of the Mohawks, Champlain recorded that the Iroquois had already learned to ’throw themselves on the ground when they hear the report’ of guns being fired. Wooden armor was too cumbersome for use in evolving Iroquois tactics, which also included hiding behind trees for protection until after the guns had fired. Armor and shields remained present in Iroquois society as teaching and protectice tools in the education of young warriors, but they no longer found a place in Iroquois wars."
[1]
[1]: (Barr 2006, 28) Barr, Daniel P. 2006. Unconquered: The Iroquois League at War in Colonial America. Westport, Conn.: Praeger. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/collectionKey/943RGM7A/itemKey/KA4QX6HF |
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Inferred from absence of breastplates in previous and subsequent (quasi)polities in Paris Basin.
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-
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"Besides not producing many socketed weapons, the Indus is also lacking in narrow-bladed axes and square-sectioned spears. These axe designs have been connected with the appearance of body-armour, and the ensuing need for piercing weapons (Yadin 1963: 40), and the square-sectioned spears may arguably have been a response to the same stimulus. The absence of these designs in the Indus, or at least of weapons that seem to have an emphasis on piercing through something, implies that armour (presumably made of organic materials, as no metal helmets or scales of armour have been found) was not commonly used."
[1]
[1]: (Cork 2006: 174) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/IQQCEMPC/q/cork. |
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In the Stele of the Vultures, soldiers are "dressed in sheepskin kilts, with some type of sash (leather or colored cloth?) over their left shoulders. ’King Eannatum himself’ leads the army wearing a thick sheepskin kilt and long sheepskin robe".
[1]
[1]: (Hamblin 2006: 56-57) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/4WM3RBTD. |
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Code inferred from Abbasid Caliphate
[1]
which occupied Yemen between 751-868 CE.
[1]: Hugh N Kennedy. 2001. The Armies of the Caliphs: Military and Society in the Early Islamic State. Routledge. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/SGPPFNAZ/q/kennedy |
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Would have been needed as defence against projectile weapons.
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skirt with copper or brass studs.
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present in previous polities
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Mamluk ’askari: "The thigh defences are based upon pictorial sources because there is not yet archaeological evidence for this form of armour."
[1]
Arm protection for heavy cavalryman.
[2]
[1]: (Nicolle 2014) Nicolle, D. 2014 Mamluk Askar 1250-1517. Osprey Publishing Ltd. [2]: (Nicolle 1986, Plate H) Nicolle, D. 1986. Saladin and the Saracens. Osprey Publishing Ltd. Oxford. |
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Present in previous and subsequent periods.
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Inferred from previous and subsequenct (quasi)polities.
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Present in preceding polities.
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Greaves were known to the Israelites from the example of the Philistines, for example I Samuel 17:5.
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Present in previous and subsequent polities.
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Greek mercenaries under Cyrus had "helmets, greaves and shields of bronze"
[1]
According to one military historian (data needs to be checked by an expert for this polity) Archaemenid cavalry wore leather greaves to protect the legs.
[2]
[1]: (Sekunda 1992, 10) Sekunda, N. 1992. The Persian Army 560-330 BC. Osprey Publishing. [2]: (Gabriel 2002, 162) Richard A Gabriel. 2002. The Great Armies of Antiquity. Praeger. Westport. |
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Certainly present for the Parthians and the Elymaens may also have had a small amount of cavalry.
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Present for Safavids and the Qajar still used cavalry.
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Shaneband, saqband, payband, Bazuband protected the shoulders, shins, feet, and arms respectively. Ranin thigh protector, bala bazuband upperarm protector.
[1]
[1]: (Khorasani 2014) Moshtagh Khorasani, Manouchehr. 2014. Reproduction of an Early Safavid Armor. https://www.academia.edu/8815598/Moshtagh_Khorasani_Manouchehr_2014_._Reproduction_of_an_Early_Safavid_Armor |
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Arm protection worn by cavalrymen/cataphract.
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’the last pieces of armour were for the forearms and shins. very few have survived unscathed, but enough have to give us some ideas as to their construction. there were generally two types: those formed like tubes, of one or two semi-circular plates and those made of splints. usually attached to the forearm guards were flat metal plates or a lamellar deffence fo rthe back of the hand.
[1]
"The earliest armor used in Japan, as elsewhere, was padded or made of scales or rings sewn on cloth. The armor found in the grove mounds of prior to 400 B.C. is made by riveting together small pieces of iron to make helmets and cuirasses. Some of the latter give quite the effect of plate armor but are built up of small pieces. By the 10th century, the earliest time of which we have definite knowledge, it had assumed a characteristic form which it retained until armor was abandoned in the middle of the 19th century. A Japanese suit, fig. 78, consists of a helmet, kabuto, usually made of a large number of narrow plates riveted together with raised edges at the joints. It has a small peak, maizashi, in front and a wide neck guard, shikoro, made of strips of steel or of scales of leather or steel laced together with heavy silk or leather cords. One or more of these pieces is turned back in front to form ear guards, fukigayeshi. The front is usually decorated with two horn-like pieces, kuwagata, representing the leaves of a water plant; between them is an ornament, maidate, corresponding to the European crest. The face is covered by a steel mask, menpo, to which a laminated neck guard, yodare-kake, is attached. There are five varieties of menpo - covering the entire face - all of the face below the eyes - the forehead and cheeks only - and two for the cheeks and chin only. Of these, the second is much most used. A gorget, nodowa, was sometimes worn but was not considered as a regular part of the suit. The body was enclosed in a corselet, do, made of plates or strips laced together with silk or leather cords. It either opened at the side, do-maru, or at the back haramaki-do. Attached to it were shoulder pieces, watagami, from which it hung. The taces, kusazuri, made of strips laced together, hung from the do. Under these was worn an apron, hai-date, of brocade covered with mail or mixed plate and mail. The legs below the knee were protected by close fitting greaves, sune-ate, of plate; and the feet were covered with bearskin shoes, tsurumaki, or with mail or plate tabi. The arm guards, kote, were brocade sleeves covered with mixed plate and mail. They usually ended in guantlets which covered only the backs of the hands and thumbs. Mail guantlets were rare but were sometimes used. Large guards, sode, were hung on the shoulders. They were either single plates, two hinged together or made up of strops or rows of scales laced together."
[2]
"The Japanese made more varieties of mail than all the rest of the world put together."
[2]
[1]: Bryant, Anthony J. 1991. Early Samurai: 200-1500 AD. Vol. 35. Osprey Publishing.p.45. [2]: (Stone 1999, 60-61) George Cameron Stone. 1999. Glossary of the Construction, Decoration and Use of Arms and Armor in All Countries and in All Times. Dover Publications, Inc. Mineola. |
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’the last pieces of armour were for the forearms and shins. very few have survived unscathed, but enough have to give us some ideas as to their construction. there were generally two types: those formed like tubes, of one or two semi-circular plates and those made of splints. usually attached to the forearm guards were flat metal plates or a lamellar deffence fo rthe back of the hand.
[1]
"The earliest armor used in Japan, as elsewhere, was padded or made of scales or rings sewn on cloth. The armor found in the grove mounds of prior to 400 B.C. is made by riveting together small pieces of iron to make helmets and cuirasses. Some of the latter give quite the effect of plate armor but are built up of small pieces. By the 10th century, the earliest time of which we have definite knowledge, it had assumed a characteristic form which it retained until armor was abandoned in the middle of the 19th century. A Japanese suit, fig. 78, consists of a helmet, kabuto, usually made of a large number of narrow plates riveted together with raised edges at the joints. It has a small peak, maizashi, in front and a wide neck guard, shikoro, made of strips of steel or of scales of leather or steel laced together with heavy silk or leather cords. One or more of these pieces is turned back in front to form ear guards, fukigayeshi. The front is usually decorated with two horn-like pieces, kuwagata, representing the leaves of a water plant; between them is an ornament, maidate, corresponding to the European crest. The face is covered by a steel mask, menpo, to which a laminated neck guard, yodare-kake, is attached. There are five varieties of menpo - covering the entire face - all of the face below the eyes - the forehead and cheeks only - and two for the cheeks and chin only. Of these, the second is much most used. A gorget, nodowa, was sometimes worn but was not considered as a regular part of the suit. The body was enclosed in a corselet, do, made of plates or strips laced together with silk or leather cords. It either opened at the side, do-maru, or at the back haramaki-do. Attached to it were shoulder pieces, watagami, from which it hung. The taces, kusazuri, made of strips laced together, hung from the do. Under these was worn an apron, hai-date, of brocade covered with mail or mixed plate and mail. The legs below the knee were protected by close fitting greaves, sune-ate, of plate; and the feet were covered with bearskin shoes, tsurumaki, or with mail or plate tabi. The arm guards, kote, were brocade sleeves covered with mixed plate and mail. They usually ended in guantlets which covered only the backs of the hands and thumbs. Mail guantlets were rare but were sometimes used. Large guards, sode, were hung on the shoulders. They were either single plates, two hinged together or made up of strops or rows of scales laced together."
[2]
"The Japanese made more varieties of mail than all the rest of the world put together."
[2]
[1]: Bryant, Anthony J. 1991. Early Samurai: 200-1500 AD. Vol. 35. Osprey Publishing.p.45. [2]: (Stone 1999, 60-61) George Cameron Stone. 1999. Glossary of the Construction, Decoration and Use of Arms and Armor in All Countries and in All Times. Dover Publications, Inc. Mineola. |
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|
Present in preceding and succeeding polities.
|
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"Protection against enemy darts was provided by a heavy padding of quilted cotton on the left arm".
[1]
[1]: (Coe 1994: 140) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/5DJ2S5IF. |
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"According to Togan, the entire mountain region from Ghur and Kabul to the land of the Karluk was metal-working. It exported armour, weapons and war equipment to neighbouring areas."
[1]
The armour of the heavy cavalry presumably included limb protection.
[1]: (Nizami 1999, 178) K A Nizami. The Ghurids. M S Asimov. C E Bosworth. eds. 1999. History of Civilizations of Central Asia. Volume IV. Part One. Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Private Limited. Delhi. |
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|
The coins from the period show muscled cuirass, scaled corsets, metal grieves and thigh protectors made of leather.
[1]
For a wider view of equipment of the period, see the Osprey works on typical equipage.
[2]
[1]: Sidky, H., The Greek Kingdom of Bactria, pp. 168-169 [2]: Sekunda, Nick, and Nicholas Sekunda. The Ancient Greeks. Vol. 7. Osprey Publishing Company, 1986. |
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"In the infantry of the later fifth and sixth centuries ... breastplate, helmet, leg-armour (splinted greaves of either iron or leather or felt), and wide round or oval shields."
[1]
[1]: (Haldon 2008, 473-474) Jeffreys E, Haldon J and Cormack R eds. 2008. The Oxford Handbook of Byzantine Studies. Oxford University Press. Oxford. |
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|
The Iroquois often used arm and thigh armor, made from wood, cords, or deerskin. This is considered unique in this region.
[1]
[1]: (Jones 2004: 59) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/IPU9UA8I. |
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|
Arm and leg protectors depicted in visual sources.
[1]
"cap-like helmets and metal suits that cover their legs and sleeves with concentric armoured bands."
[2]
[1]: The armies of Bactria 70 BC-450 AD p. 59 [2]: (McLaughlin 2016, 77) Raoul McLaughlin. 2016. The Roman Empire and the Silk Routes: The Ancient World Economy and the Empires of Parthia, Central Asia and Han China. Pen and Sword History. Barnsley. |
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|
Sui heavy cavalry equipped with "lances, swords and often full armour for both men and horses."
[1]
From the tomb of Lin Ho in 582: "Epaulieres extending almost to the elbows"
[2]
[1]: (Peers 2002, 16) [2]: (Dien 1981, 24) Dien, Albert E. 1981. A Study of Early Chinese Armor. Artibus Asiae 43.1/2: 5-66. |
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|
Inferred from the presence of limb protection in previous and subsequent polities in Middle Yellow River Valley. Armor and helmets were an important defence against crossbows.
[1]
NB: It is unclear which "Wei" polity the next quote references--it might be a much later one. "The elite troops in the state of Wei had to wear heavy armor and helmets"
[1]
[1]: (Ebrey and Walthall 2013, 23) Ebrey, Patricia. Walthall, Anne. 2013. Pre-Modern East Asia: A Cultural, Social, and Political History, Volume I: To 1800. Cengage Learning. |
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|
refers to Greek mercenaries, who were likely used similar to Saite period and contemporary Greeks.
[1]
. Greek armor used by Cairan and Ionians "covered much more of the body"
[2]
Under Persian rule Egyptian naval forces described by Herodotus had breastplates.
[3]
[1]: (Fischer-Bovet 2014, 17) Christelle Fischer-Bovet. 2014. Army and Society in Ptolemaic Egypt. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [2]: (Fischer-Bovet 2014, 20) [3]: (Fischer-Bovet 2014, 39) |
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|
"The widespread use of firearms and waning popularity of jousting tournaments caused a steep decline in the production of armor in the seventeenth century. Because the symbolic value of armor outlived its effectiveness in battle, sumptuous examples were still made as diplomatic gifts and appeared in portraits of members of the royal family."
[1]
“Captains and wealthier nobles might have three-quarter armour, consisting of a closed helmet, curiass (breastplate), arm defences, and leg defences that ended at the knees. Those of lesser means made do with a helmet and some form of leather or cotton armour. In time, however, the Spanish began to favour the native-style quilted cotton armour, which was far more comfortable to wear in the humid climate of the New World.”
[2]
“The armour used by soldiers of the Tercio diminished over the years. The 16th century heavy coslete who fought exposed in the front several ranks of the squadron wore a full cuirass, a gorget tasset hanging down the thights, armour covering the upper and lower arms, and metal plated gauntlets.”
[3]
[1]: “The Art of Power: Royal Armor and Portraits from Imperial Spain. National Gallery of Art. Web. Accessed May 5, 2017. https://www.zotero.org/groups/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/WHH6KD3N) [2]: (Pemberton 2011, preview) Pemberton, John. 2011. Conquistadors: Searching for El Dorado: The Terrifying Spanish Conquest of the Aztec and Inca Empires. Canary Press eBooks Limited. https://www.zotero.org/groups/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/3SI549GS [3]: (López 2012, 91-2) López, Ignacio J.N. 2012. The Spanish Tercios 1536-1704. Osprey Publishing. https://www.zotero.org/groups/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/4EWFWHCQ |
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|
"By the mid-17th century even cavalry units, which were still predominantly aristocratic in origin, discarded most armor other than the helm and breastplate. Leg armor went first, replaced by three-quarter leather skirts. ... By the end of the 17th century only bits and pieces of burnished metal survived here and there, and then mostly as polished ceremonial accouterments for officers-on-parade."
[1]
Infantry armor became heavier as cavalry armor was discarded. e.g. pikeman who faced lancers. Breastplates and steel leggings were available but most wore stiff leather coats.
[1]
[1]: (Nolan 2006, 26) Cathal J Nolan. 2006. The Age of Wars of Religion, 1000-1650: An Encyclopedia of Global Warfare and Civilization. Volume 1 A - K. Greenwood Press. Westport. |
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9th CE neck guard (halsbergen). Late 12th CE elbow and wrist protection, then mittens, and mail leggings (chausses) now became very widely used.
[1]
[1]: (Boulton 1995 67-68) Jonathan D Boulton. Armor And Weapons. William W Kibler. Grover A Zinn. Lawrence Earp. John Bell Henneman Jr. 1995. Routledge Revivals: Medieval France (1995): An Encyclopedia. Routledge. Abingdon. |
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|
9th CE neck guard (halsbergen). Late 12th CE elbow and wrist protection, then mittens, and mail leggings (chausses) now became very widely used.
[1]
Miles of 12th century wore leg armour.
[2]
[3]
[1]: (Boulton 1995 67-68) Jonathan D Boulton. Armor And Weapons. William W Kibler. Grover A Zinn. Lawrence Earp. John Bell Henneman Jr. 1995. Routledge Revivals: Medieval France (1995): An Encyclopedia. Routledge. Abingdon. [2]: (Nicolle 1991, 6) [3]: 13th and 14th centuries. (Nicolle 2000, 15-17) |
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|
In 13th and 14th centuries.
[1]
Mail leggings worn to about 1350 CE.
[2]
Hundred Years’ War (1337-1453 CE) reference: typical French knight wore "plate armor for shoulders and limbs topped by a bascinet, a metal helmet with projecting hinged visors and air holes. Instead of the surcoat, they wore a shorter leather jupon, and their warhorses were also armored, with plate covering their heads and mail or leather their flanks."
[3]
Hundred Years’ War (1337-1453 CE) reference: plate shotes, greaves, cuisses (leg coverings), knee piece, vambraces (lower arm), rebraces (upper arm), cowters and pauldrons (elbows and shoulders), gauntlets (hands and wrists), bevor (triangular metal plate to protect the neck).
[3]
[1]: (Nicolle 2000, 15-17) David Nicolle. 2000. French Armies Of The Hundred Years War. Osprey Publishing. Oxford. [2]: (Boulton 1995, 124-127) W W Kibler. G A Zinn. 1995. Medieval France: An Encyclopedia. Routledge. [3]: (Wagner 2006, 27-29) John A Wagner. 2006. Encyclopedia of the Hundred Years War. Greenwood Press. Westport. |
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|
Gauntlets and greaves.
[1]
Hundred Years’ War (1337-1453 CE) reference: plate shotes, greaves, cuisses (leg coverings), knee piece, vambraces (lower arm), rebraces (upper arm), cowters and pauldrons (elbows and shoulders), gauntlets (hands and wrists), bevor (triangular metal plate to protect the neck).
[2]
[1]: (Potter 2008, 79) [2]: (Wagner 2006, 27-29) John A Wagner. 2006. Encyclopedia of the Hundred Years War. Greenwood Press. Westport. |
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|
Greaves were made from a thin braze sheet and worn over a legging of linen, leather or felt.
[1]
It seems, however, that bronze greaves were not widely used and warriors preferred to wore linen or leather leggings.
[2]
Metal graves again made their appearance in the late 12th century BCE.
[1]: Everson, T. 2004. Warfare in Ancient Greece: Arms and Armour from the Heroes of Homer to Alexander the Great, Stroud, Gloucestershire, 22. [2]: Georganas,I. "Weapons and warfare," in Cline, E. (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean (ca. 3000-1000 BC), Oxford, 311. |
||||||
|
Greaves were made from a thin braze sheet and worn over a legging of linen, leather or felt.
[1]
It seems, however, that bronze greaves were not widely used and warriors preferred to wore linen or leather leggings.
[2]
[1]: Everson, T. 2004. Warfare in Ancient Greece: Arms and Armour from the Heroes of Homer to Alexander the Great, Stroud, Gloucestershire, 22. [2]: Georganas,I. "Weapons and warfare," in Cline, E. (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean (ca. 3000-1000 BC), Oxford, 311. |
||||||
|
Greaves were made from a thin braze sheet and worn over a legging of linen, leather or felt.
[1]
It seems, however, that bronze greaves were not widely used and warriors preferred to wore linen or leather leggings.
[2]
[1]: Everson, T. 2004. Warfare in Ancient Greece: Arms and Armour from the Heroes of Homer to Alexander the Great, Stroud, Gloucestershire, 22. [2]: Georganas,I. "Weapons and warfare," in Cline, E. (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean (ca. 3000-1000 BC), Oxford, 311. |
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|
Kautilya’s Arthashastra mentions coats extending to the knees, one which reached the floor, and another without arm covering (Book II, The Duties of Government Superintendents").
|
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|
"Several Chalukyan epigraphs refer to kavacha or armour. A good number of sculptures at Badami, Aihole and Pattadakal show not only armoured soldiers but also caparisoned horses. Metal armours served as shields against attack by enemies, protecting both men and animal forces."
[1]
Kautilya’s Arthasastra, written after 200 BCE, mentions a thigh guard.
[2]
[1]: (Dikshit 1980, 266) Durga Prasad Dikshit. 1980. Political History of the Chalukyas of Badami. Abhinav Publications. New Delhi. [2]: (Olivelle 2016, 142-143) Patrick Olivelle trans. 2016. King, Governance, and Law in Ancient India: Kautilya’s Arthasastra. Oxford University Press. Oxford. |
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|
"Iron stirrups and heavy armour, for both horses and horsemen also became common during this period."
[1]
According to Ibn Battuta in 1333 Delhi forces employed heavy-armoured cavalry.
[2]
[1]: (Ahmed 2011, 99) Ahmed, Farooqui Salma. 2011. A Comprehensive History of Medieval India: Twelfth to the Mid-Eighteenth Century. Pearson Education India. [2]: (Jackson 2003, 17) Peter Jackson. 2003. The Delhi Sultanate: A Political and Military History. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. |
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|
"The period between the post-Gupta era and the Islamic invasions is generally regarded as a sort of ’quasi Dark Age’ in India ... military historian U. P. Thapliyal asserts that after CE 500, there were no innovations in the theory and practice of warfare."
[1]
This is a post-Gupta era polity so if the Guptas used limb protection and there was no major shift in weaponry until the Islamic invasion then limb protection was probably still in use at this time.
[1]: (Roy 2013, 27) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/X24V7ZAD. |
||||||
|
"The Guptas imitated the dress, equipment and the techniques of warfare as practised by the Central Asian nomads."
[1]
Contemporary Sassanid elite cavalry (Savaran) wore various types of limb armour.
[2]
Gupta coins show monarchs wearing "skin tight trousers or breeches and boots laced up to the knees."
[3]
[1]: (Roy 2016, 22) Kaushik Roy. 2016. Military Manpower, Armies and Warfare in South Asia. Routledge. Abingdon. [2]: (Roy 2016, 23) Kaushik Roy. 2016. Military Manpower, Armies and Warfare in South Asia. Routledge. Abingdon. [3]: (Roy 2016, 24) Kaushik Roy. 2016. Military Manpower, Armies and Warfare in South Asia. Routledge. Abingdon. |
||||||
|
"The period between the post-Gupta era and the Islamic invasions is generally regarded as a sort of ’quasi Dark Age’ in India ... military historian U. P. Thapliyal asserts that after CE 500, there were no innovations in the theory and practice of warfare."
[1]
This is a post-Gupta era polity so if the Guptas used limb protection and there was no major shift in weaponry until the Islamic invasion then limb protection was probably still in use at this time.
[1]: (Roy 2013, 27) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/X24V7ZAD. |
||||||
|
"The period between the post-Gupta era and the Islamic invasions is generally regarded as a sort of ’quasi Dark Age’ in India ... military historian U. P. Thapliyal asserts that after CE 500, there were no innovations in the theory and practice of warfare."
[1]
This is a post-Gupta era polity so if the Guptas used limb protection and there was no major shift in weaponry until the Islamic invasion then limb protection was probably still in use at this time.
[1]: (Roy 2013, 27) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/X24V7ZAD. |
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|
In a hymn to arms (in the Rigveda Samhita 6.75) the use of gauntlets is mentioned: "It wraps itself around the arm like a serpent with coils, warding off the snap of the bowstring. Let the gauntlet, knowing all the ways, protect on all sides, a man protecting a man..."
[1]
[1]: Upinder Singh, A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century (New Delhi: Pearson Education, 2008), p.188. |
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|
Ancient Indians used iron for armour cuirasses and breastplates but copper was also used.
[1]
Likely referring to time following the Macedonian invasion. Kautilya’s Arthasastra, written after 200 BCE, mentions a thigh guard.
[2]
[1]: (Singh 1997) Sarva Daman Singh. 1997. Ancient Indian Warfare: With Special Reference to the Vedic Period. Motilal Banarsidass Publishers. Delhi. [2]: (Olivelle 2016, 142-143) Patrick Olivelle trans. 2016. King, Governance, and Law in Ancient India: Kautilya’s Arthasastra. Oxford University Press. Oxford. |
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|
Inferred from use in Mauryan Empire. The Sunga Dynasty was in effect the continuation of the Mauryan Empire as it was established in a coup by the Mauryan general Pushyamitra Sunga (Roy 2015, 19).
[1]
[1]: (Roy 2015: 19) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/35K9MMUW. |
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|
Vakataka "soldiers were provided with armours and helmets."
[1]
Kautilya’s Arthasastra, written after 200 BCE, mentions a thigh guard.
[2]
[1]: (Majumdar and Altekar 1986, 277) Anant Sadashiv Altekar. The Administrative Organisation. Ramesh Chandra Majumdar. Anant Sadashiv Altekar. 1986. Vakataka - Gupta Age Circa 200-550 A.D. Motilal Banarsidass. Delhi. [2]: (Olivelle 2016, 142-143) Patrick Olivelle trans. 2016. King, Governance, and Law in Ancient India: Kautilya’s Arthasastra. Oxford University Press. Oxford. |
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|
"In the seventh century the Arab Caliphate overran the Sāssānian Empire and, as far as we can tell, no great changes took place in the Persian equipment then or for a long time afterwards."
[1]
Some evidence of lamellar leggings in the sources for soldiers in the armies of the earlier Abbasids.
[2]
[1]: (Robinson 1967) Robinson, H. Russell. 1967. Oriental Armour. Walker and Co. New York. [2]: Kennedy, the Armies of the Caliphs pp. 168-178 |
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|
"In the seventh century the Arab Caliphate overran the Sāssānian Empire and, as far as we can tell, no great changes took place in the Persian equipment then or for a long time afterwards."
[1]
Sassanids
[2]
and Abbasids used limb protection.
[3]
[1]: (Robinson 1967) Robinson, H. Russell. 1967. Oriental Armour. Walker and Co. New York. [2]: (Mitterauer 2010, 106) Mitterauer, M. 2010. Why Europe?: The Medieval Origins of Its Special Path. University of Chicago Press. [3]: Kennedy, the Armies of the Caliphs pp. 168-178 |
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|
Illustration of Ayyubid cavalryman shows mail limb protection.
[1]
Code inferred from Ayyubid Sultanate
[2]
which occupied Yemen between 1175-1128 CE.
[1]: (Nicolle 1986, Plate D) Nicolle, D. 1986. Saladin and the Saracens. Osprey Publishing Ltd. Oxford. [2]: D Nicolle. 1986. Saladin and the Saracens. Osprey Publishing Ltd. Oxford. |
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|
Early Parthian: "Amongst the many graffiti discovered [at Dura] was one of a Parthian cataphractus dating from the second century A.D. It is a crude drawing - probably the work of a child - but still remarkably detailed and informative. The horseman wears a tall conical helmet with little streamers tied at the point. This would appear to be of segments or lamellae with a hood of mail falling to the shoulders. ... a skirt of mail. His arms and legs are barred with horizontal lines, which represent laminated armour."
[1]
Late Parthian: Rock carvings of Firuzabad, third century CE, show Parthians "have rounded helmets with curtains of scale or lamellar attached, scale or lamellar body armour covered by sleeveless surcoats, and both their arms and their legs are completely encased in laminated plates. The sleeves extend over the wrists on to the back of the hands."
[1]
Greaves on terracotta statuette of Parthian warrior.
[2]
"Arm guards were also worn, and some wore guantlets too. The feet were often protected by armour over mail ’socks’, and mail was often used to bridge defences at limb joints."
[3]
[1]: (Robinson 1967) Robinson, H. Russell. 1967. Oriental Armour. Walker and Co. New York. [2]: (Rawlinson 2014, 213) Rawlinson, George. 2014. The Seven Great Monarchies of the Ancient Eastern World, Or: Parthia; Sassanian, or New Persian empire; Notes and index. Gorgias Press LLC. [3]: (Penrose 2008, 223) Penrose, Jane. 2008. Rome and Her Enemies: An Empire Created and Destroyed by War. Osprey Publishing. |
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|
Early Parthian: "Amongst the many graffiti discovered [at Dura] was one of a Parthian cataphractus dating from the second century A.D. It is a crude drawing - probably the work of a child - but still remarkably detailed and informative. The horseman wears a tall conical helmet with little streamers tied at the point. This would appear to be of segments or lamellae with a hood of mail falling to the shoulders. ... a skirt of mail. His arms and legs are barred with horizontal lines, which represent laminated armour."
[1]
Late Parthian: Rock carvings of Firuzabad, third century CE, show Parthians "have rounded helmets with curtains of scale or lamellar attached, scale or lamellar body armour covered by sleeveless surcoats, and both their arms and their legs are completely encased in laminated plates. The sleeves extend over the wrists on to the back of the hands."
[1]
Greaves on terracotta statuette of Parthian warrior.
[2]
"Arm guards were also worn, and some wore guantlets too. The feet were often protected by armour over mail ’socks’, and mail was often used to bridge defences at limb joints."
[3]
[1]: (Robinson 1967) Robinson, H. Russell. 1967. Oriental Armour. Walker and Co. New York. [2]: (Rawlinson 2014, 213) Rawlinson, George. 2014. The Seven Great Monarchies of the Ancient Eastern World, Or: Parthia; Sassanian, or New Persian empire; Notes and index. Gorgias Press LLC. [3]: (Penrose 2008, 223) Penrose, Jane. 2008. Rome and Her Enemies: An Empire Created and Destroyed by War. Osprey Publishing. |
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|
[1]
Illustration of Shapur I shows "laminated thighguards which terminate above the knee".
[2]
"During the reign of the first King Khosrow, or Chosroes (531-79), a cavalryman’s equipment consisted of body armor, breastplate, helmet, greaves and arm shields".
[3]
[1]: (Farrokh 2005, 3-27) Farrokh, Kevah. 2005. Sassanian Elite Cavalry AD 224-642. Osprey Publishing. [2]: (Robinson 1967) Robinson, H. Russell. 1967. Oriental Armour. Walker and Co. New York. [3]: (Mitterauer 2010, 106) Mitterauer, M. 2010. Why Europe?: The Medieval Origins of Its Special Path. University of Chicago Press. |
||||||
|
[1]
"During the reign of the first King Khosrow, or Chosroes (531-79), a cavalryman’s equipment consisted of body armor, breastplate, helmet, greaves and arm shields".
[2]
Illustration of Shapur I shows "laminated thighguards which terminate above the knee".
[3]
at the muster parades of Khusrau I (second Sassanid period) cavalry units required to have "mail, breastplate, helmet, leg guards, arm guards, horse armour, lance, buckler, sword, mace, battle axe, quiver of thirty arrows, bow case with two bows, and two spare bow strings."
[4]
[1]: (Farrokh 2005, 3-27) Farrokh, Kevah. 2005. Sassanian Elite Cavalry AD 224-642. Osprey Publishing. [2]: (Mitterauer 2010, 106) Mitterauer, M. 2010. Why Europe?: The Medieval Origins of Its Special Path. University of Chicago Press. [3]: (Robinson 1967) Robinson, H. Russell. 1967. Oriental Armour. Walker and Co. New York. [4]: (Chegini 1996, 58) Chegini, N. N. Political History, Economy and Society. in Litvinsky, B. A. ed. and Iskender-Mochiri, I. ed. 1996. History of Civilizations of Central Asia. Volume III. The crossroads of civilizations: A.D. 250 to 750. pp.40-58. unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0010/001046/104612e.pdf |
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|
Three different types of greaves found in north, central, and southern Italy dating to the middle to late Bronze Age and beginning of the Iron Age.
[1]
Present in Greece c1600 BCE, according to a military historian: "Early Mycenaean and Minoan charioteers wore an arrangement of bronze armor that almost fully enclosed the soldier, the famous Dendra panoply."
[2]
We cannot code from this data, however a Roman expert might like to elaborate on it.
[1]: (Modlinger 2017: 217-20) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/SXF9N66L. [2]: (Gabriel 2007, 78) Richard A Gabriel. 2007. Soldiers’ Lives Through History: The Ancient World. Greenwood Press. Westport. |
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|
On the basis of armour worn by French soldiers of the 12th-13th centuries we would expect helmet and shield, leather and quilted armour as well as metal breastplate, limb protection and chainmail.
[1]
[2]
[1]: Boulton in Kilber, W W. 1995. Medieval France: An Encyclopedia. Psychology Press. [2]: Nicolle, D and McBride, A. 1991. French Medieval Armies 1000-1300. Osprey Publishing Ltd. London. |
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|
General reference for this time period in Europe: from the early 13th century CE poleyns and couters became commonly used to protect knees and elbows. There also were greaves and vambraces (forearms).
[1]
[1]: (Rogers 2007, 31) Clifford J Rogers. 2007. Soldiers’ Lives Through History: The Middle Ages. Greenwood Press. Westport. |
||||||
|
General reference for this time period in Europe: from the early 13th century CE poleyns and couters became commonly used to protect knees and elbows. There also were greaves and vambraces (forearms).
[1]
[1]: (Rogers 2007, 31) Clifford J Rogers. 2007. Soldiers’ Lives Through History: The Middle Ages. Greenwood Press. Westport. |
||||||
|
Greaves.
[1]
"Hoplite panoplies have been discovered in the so-called Tomb of the Warrior at Vulci, dating to c. 530 B.C., as well as in a tomb at Lanuvium in Latium dating to the early fifth century" (citing Torelli 1989 and Drummond).
[2]
[1]: (Fields 2007, 5) [2]: (Forsythe 2006, 114) Forsythe, Gary. 2006. A Critical History of Early Rome: From Prehistory to the First Punic War. University of California Press. |
||||||
|
"Two ancient sources confirm only one greave (leg armour) worn."
[1]
"Polybius (6.22-23; 25) describes how the legion in this period was divided into four types of infantry. There were three different groups of heavy infantry: 1,200 hastati (’spearmen’), 1,200 principes (’leading men’) and 600 triarii (’third line men’). They were equipped in broadly similar fashion, with bronze helmets and greaves and either a simple square bronze chest-guard, or more elaborate body armour such as a mail tunic, according to each individual’s wealth and ability to provide his own protection."
[2]
[1]: (Fields 2007, 19) [2]: (Pollard and Berry 2012, 14-15) |
||||||
|
Illustration of Ayyubid cavalryman shows mail limb protection.
[1]
Code inferred from Ayyubid Sultanate
[2]
which occupied Yemen between 1175-1128 CE. ♥
[1]: (Nicolle 1986, Plate D) Nicolle, D. 1986. Saladin and the Saracens. Osprey Publishing Ltd. Oxford. [2]: D Nicolle. 1986. Saladin and the Saracens. Osprey Publishing Ltd. Oxford. |
||||||
|
Greaves, worn by classes I-II.
[1]
"Hoplite panoplies have been discovered in the so-called Tomb of the Warrior at Vulci, dating to c. 530 B.C., as well as in a tomb at Lanuvium in Latium dating to the early fifth century" (citing Torelli 1989 and Drummond).
[2]
[1]: (Cornell 1995, 179) [2]: (Forsythe 2006, 114) Forsythe, Gary. 2006. A Critical History of Early Rome: From Prehistory to the First Punic War. University of California Press. |
||||||
|
General reference for medieval warfare: "Plate gauntlets and gorgets, plates protecting the neck and chin, appeared at the end of the thirteenth century. From about 1300 poleyns and greaves, the armor for the lower legs, became more common, and sabatons, armor for the foot often made in the shape of the shoe in fashion at the time, first emerged around 1320."
[1]
General reference for medieval warfare: c1320 CE "Full plate arm defenses appeared".
[1]
General reference for medieval warfare: "The increasing use of gunpowder weapons as well as changes in tactics and the increasing sizes of armies led to the demise of armor in the seventeeth century."
[2]
Illustration shows "Italian armoured infantryman, c.1320" with dagger, sword, helmet, guantlets.
[3]
Illustration shows "Knight, Collato family, c.1340" with a helmet, guantlets, sword, dagger, limb protection including plate armour for the feet, lower legs and knees.
[3]
Illustration shows "Knight, Collato family, c.1340" with a helmet, guantlets, sword, dagger, limb protection including plate armour for the feet, lower legs and knees.
[3]
Illustration shows a late 14th century cavalryman with a shield and plate armour for the lower legs and arms.
[4]
Illustration shows "Venetian infantryman, late 14th C." with a spear, sword, helmet, shield, guantlets, and plate armour for lower legs.
[4]
[1]: (Smith 2010, 70) Robert Douglas Smith. Armor, Body. Clifford J. Rogers. ed. 2010. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Medieval Warfare and Military Technology, Volume 1. Oxford University Press. Oxford. [2]: (Smith 2010, 73) Robert Douglas Smith. Armor, Body. Clifford J. Rogers. ed. 2010. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Medieval Warfare and Military Technology, Volume 1. Oxford University Press. Oxford. [3]: (Nicolle 1989, Plate B) David Nicolle. 1989. The Venetian Empire 1200-1670. Osprey Publishing. Oxford. [4]: (Nicolle 1989, Plate C) David Nicolle. 1989. The Venetian Empire 1200-1670. Osprey Publishing. Oxford. |
||||||
|
General reference for medieval warfare: "Plate gauntlets and gorgets, plates protecting the neck and chin, appeared at the end of the thirteenth century. From about 1300 poleyns and greaves, the armor for the lower legs, became more common, and sabatons, armor for the foot often made in the shape of the shoe in fashion at the time, first emerged around 1320."
[1]
General reference for medieval warfare: c1320 CE "Full plate arm defenses appeared".
[1]
General reference for medieval warfare: "The increasing use of gunpowder weapons as well as changes in tactics and the increasing sizes of armies led to the demise of armor in the seventeeth century."
[2]
Illustration shows "Venetian infantryman, late 14th C." with a spear, sword, helmet, shield, guantlets, and plate armour for lower legs.
[3]
[1]: (Smith 2010, 70) Robert Douglas Smith. Armor, Body. Clifford J. Rogers. ed. 2010. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Medieval Warfare and Military Technology, Volume 1. Oxford University Press. Oxford. [2]: (Smith 2010, 73) Robert Douglas Smith. Armor, Body. Clifford J. Rogers. ed. 2010. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Medieval Warfare and Military Technology, Volume 1. Oxford University Press. Oxford. [3]: (Nicolle 1989, Plate C) David Nicolle. 1989. The Venetian Empire 1200-1670. Osprey Publishing. Oxford. |
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|
‘Including
[1]
"The earliest armor used in Japan, as elsewhere, was padded or made of scales or rings sewn on cloth. The armor found in the grove mounds of prior to 400 B.C. is made by riveting together small pieces of iron to make helmets and cuirasses. Some of the latter give quite the effect of plate armor but are built up of small pieces. By the 10th century, the earliest time of which we have definite knowledge, it had assumed a characteristic form which it retained until armor was abandoned in the middle of the 19th century. A Japanese suit, fig. 78, consists of a helmet, kabuto, usually made of a large number of narrow plates riveted together with raised edges at the joints. It has a small peak, maizashi, in front and a wide neck guard, shikoro, made of strips of steel or of scales of leather or steel laced together with heavy silk or leather cords. One or more of these pieces is turned back in front to form ear guards, fukigayeshi. The front is usually decorated with two horn-like pieces, kuwagata, representing the leaves of a water plant; between them is an ornament, maidate, corresponding to the European crest. The face is covered by a steel mask, menpo, to which a laminated neck guard, yodare-kake, is attached. There are five varieties of menpo - covering the entire face - all of the face below the eyes - the forehead and cheeks only - and two for the cheeks and chin only. Of these, the second is much most used. A gorget, nodowa, was sometimes worn but was not considered as a regular part of the suit. The body was enclosed in a corselet, do, made of plates or strips laced together with silk or leather cords. It either opened at the side, do-maru, or at the back haramaki-do. Attached to it were shoulder pieces, watagami, from which it hung. The taces, kusazuri, made of strips laced together, hung from the do. Under these was worn an apron, hai-date, of brocade covered with mail or mixed plate and mail. The legs below the knee were protected by close fitting greaves, sune-ate, of plate; and the feet were covered with bearskin shoes, tsurumaki, or with mail or plate tabi. The arm guards, kote, were brocade sleeves covered with mixed plate and mail. They usually ended in guantlets which covered only the backs of the hands and thumbs. Mail guantlets were rare but were sometimes used. Large guards, sode, were hung on the shoulders. They were either single plates, two hinged together or made up of strops or rows of scales laced together."
[2]
"The Japanese made more varieties of mail than all the rest of the world put together."
[2]
[1]: Turnbull, Stephen. 1998. The Samurai Sourcebook. Arms & Armour Press.p.109 [2]: (Stone 1999, 60-61) George Cameron Stone. 1999. Glossary of the Construction, Decoration and Use of Arms and Armor in All Countries and in All Times. Dover Publications, Inc. Mineola. |
||||||
|
"The earliest armor used in Japan, as elsewhere, was padded or made of scales or rings sewn on cloth. The armor found in the grove mounds of prior to 400 B.C. is made by riveting together small pieces of iron to make helmets and cuirasses. Some of the latter give quite the effect of plate armor but are built up of small pieces. By the 10th century, the earliest time of which we have definite knowledge, it had assumed a characteristic form which it retained until armor was abandoned in the middle of the 19th century. A Japanese suit, fig. 78, consists of a helmet, kabuto, usually made of a large number of narrow plates riveted together with raised edges at the joints. It has a small peak, maizashi, in front and a wide neck guard, shikoro, made of strips of steel or of scales of leather or steel laced together with heavy silk or leather cords. One or more of these pieces is turned back in front to form ear guards, fukigayeshi. The front is usually decorated with two horn-like pieces, kuwagata, representing the leaves of a water plant; between them is an ornament, maidate, corresponding to the European crest. The face is covered by a steel mask, menpo, to which a laminated neck guard, yodare-kake, is attached. There are five varieties of menpo - covering the entire face - all of the face below the eyes - the forehead and cheeks only - and two for the cheeks and chin only. Of these, the second is much most used. A gorget, nodowa, was sometimes worn but was not considered as a regular part of the suit. The body was enclosed in a corselet, do, made of plates or strips laced together with silk or leather cords. It either opened at the side, do-maru, or at the back haramaki-do. Attached to it were shoulder pieces, watagami, from which it hung. The taces, kusazuri, made of strips laced together, hung from the do. Under these was worn an apron, hai-date, of brocade covered with mail or mixed plate and mail. The legs below the knee were protected by close fitting greaves, sune-ate, of plate; and the feet were covered with bearskin shoes, tsurumaki, or with mail or plate tabi. The arm guards, kote, were brocade sleeves covered with mixed plate and mail. They usually ended in guantlets which covered only the backs of the hands and thumbs. Mail guantlets were rare but were sometimes used. Large guards, sode, were hung on the shoulders. They were either single plates, two hinged together or made up of strops or rows of scales laced together."
[1]
"The Japanese made more varieties of mail than all the rest of the world put together."
[1]
[1]: (Stone 1999, 60-61) George Cameron Stone. 1999. Glossary of the Construction, Decoration and Use of Arms and Armor in All Countries and in All Times. Dover Publications, Inc. Mineola. |
||||||
|
"The earliest armor used in Japan, as elsewhere, was padded or made of scales or rings sewn on cloth. The armor found in the grove mounds of prior to 400 B.C. is made by riveting together small pieces of iron to make helmets and cuirasses. Some of the latter give quite the effect of plate armor but are built up of small pieces. By the 10th century, the earliest time of which we have definite knowledge, it had assumed a characteristic form which it retained until armor was abandoned in the middle of the 19th century. A Japanese suit, fig. 78, consists of a helmet, kabuto, usually made of a large number of narrow plates riveted together with raised edges at the joints. It has a small peak, maizashi, in front and a wide neck guard, shikoro, made of strips of steel or of scales of leather or steel laced together with heavy silk or leather cords. One or more of these pieces is turned back in front to form ear guards, fukigayeshi. The front is usually decorated with two horn-like pieces, kuwagata, representing the leaves of a water plant; between them is an ornament, maidate, corresponding to the European crest. The face is covered by a steel mask, menpo, to which a laminated neck guard, yodare-kake, is attached. There are five varieties of menpo - covering the entire face - all of the face below the eyes - the forehead and cheeks only - and two for the cheeks and chin only. Of these, the second is much most used. A gorget, nodowa, was sometimes worn but was not considered as a regular part of the suit. The body was enclosed in a corselet, do, made of plates or strips laced together with silk or leather cords. It either opened at the side, do-maru, or at the back haramaki-do. Attached to it were shoulder pieces, watagami, from which it hung. The taces, kusazuri, made of strips laced together, hung from the do. Under these was worn an apron, hai-date, of brocade covered with mail or mixed plate and mail. The legs below the knee were protected by close fitting greaves, sune-ate, of plate; and the feet were covered with bearskin shoes, tsurumaki, or with mail or plate tabi. The arm guards, kote, were brocade sleeves covered with mixed plate and mail. They usually ended in guantlets which covered only the backs of the hands and thumbs. Mail guantlets were rare but were sometimes used. Large guards, sode, were hung on the shoulders. They were either single plates, two hinged together or made up of strops or rows of scales laced together."
[1]
"The Japanese made more varieties of mail than all the rest of the world put together."
[1]
[1]: (Stone 1999, 60-61) George Cameron Stone. 1999. Glossary of the Construction, Decoration and Use of Arms and Armor in All Countries and in All Times. Dover Publications, Inc. Mineola. |
||||||
|
"The earliest armor used in Japan, as elsewhere, was padded or made of scales or rings sewn on cloth. The armor found in the grove mounds of prior to 400 B.C. is made by riveting together small pieces of iron to make helmets and cuirasses. Some of the latter give quite the effect of plate armor but are built up of small pieces. By the 10th century, the earliest time of which we have definite knowledge, it had assumed a characteristic form which it retained until armor was abandoned in the middle of the 19th century. A Japanese suit, fig. 78, consists of a helmet, kabuto, usually made of a large number of narrow plates riveted together with raised edges at the joints. It has a small peak, maizashi, in front and a wide neck guard, shikoro, made of strips of steel or of scales of leather or steel laced together with heavy silk or leather cords. One or more of these pieces is turned back in front to form ear guards, fukigayeshi. The front is usually decorated with two horn-like pieces, kuwagata, representing the leaves of a water plant; between them is an ornament, maidate, corresponding to the European crest. The face is covered by a steel mask, menpo, to which a laminated neck guard, yodare-kake, is attached. There are five varieties of menpo - covering the entire face - all of the face below the eyes - the forehead and cheeks only - and two for the cheeks and chin only. Of these, the second is much most used. A gorget, nodowa, was sometimes worn but was not considered as a regular part of the suit. The body was enclosed in a corselet, do, made of plates or strips laced together with silk or leather cords. It either opened at the side, do-maru, or at the back haramaki-do. Attached to it were shoulder pieces, watagami, from which it hung. The taces, kusazuri, made of strips laced together, hung from the do. Under these was worn an apron, hai-date, of brocade covered with mail or mixed plate and mail. The legs below the knee were protected by close fitting greaves, sune-ate, of plate; and the feet were covered with bearskin shoes, tsurumaki, or with mail or plate tabi. The arm guards, kote, were brocade sleeves covered with mixed plate and mail. They usually ended in guantlets which covered only the backs of the hands and thumbs. Mail guantlets were rare but were sometimes used. Large guards, sode, were hung on the shoulders. They were either single plates, two hinged together or made up of strops or rows of scales laced together."
[1]
"The Japanese made more varieties of mail than all the rest of the world put together."
[1]
[1]: (Stone 1999, 60-61) George Cameron Stone. 1999. Glossary of the Construction, Decoration and Use of Arms and Armor in All Countries and in All Times. Dover Publications, Inc. Mineola. |
||||||
|
"The earliest armor used in Japan, as elsewhere, was padded or made of scales or rings sewn on cloth. The armor found in the grove mounds of prior to 400 B.C. is made by riveting together small pieces of iron to make helmets and cuirasses. Some of the latter give quite the effect of plate armor but are built up of small pieces. By the 10th century, the earliest time of which we have definite knowledge, it had assumed a characteristic form which it retained until armor was abandoned in the middle of the 19th century. A Japanese suit, fig. 78, consists of a helmet, kabuto, usually made of a large number of narrow plates riveted together with raised edges at the joints. It has a small peak, maizashi, in front and a wide neck guard, shikoro, made of strips of steel or of scales of leather or steel laced together with heavy silk or leather cords. One or more of these pieces is turned back in front to form ear guards, fukigayeshi. The front is usually decorated with two horn-like pieces, kuwagata, representing the leaves of a water plant; between them is an ornament, maidate, corresponding to the European crest. The face is covered by a steel mask, menpo, to which a laminated neck guard, yodare-kake, is attached. There are five varieties of menpo - covering the entire face - all of the face below the eyes - the forehead and cheeks only - and two for the cheeks and chin only. Of these, the second is much most used. A gorget, nodowa, was sometimes worn but was not considered as a regular part of the suit. The body was enclosed in a corselet, do, made of plates or strips laced together with silk or leather cords. It either opened at the side, do-maru, or at the back haramaki-do. Attached to it were shoulder pieces, watagami, from which it hung. The taces, kusazuri, made of strips laced together, hung from the do. Under these was worn an apron, hai-date, of brocade covered with mail or mixed plate and mail. The legs below the knee were protected by close fitting greaves, sune-ate, of plate; and the feet were covered with bearskin shoes, tsurumaki, or with mail or plate tabi. The arm guards, kote, were brocade sleeves covered with mixed plate and mail. They usually ended in guantlets which covered only the backs of the hands and thumbs. Mail guantlets were rare but were sometimes used. Large guards, sode, were hung on the shoulders. They were either single plates, two hinged together or made up of strops or rows of scales laced together."
[1]
"The Japanese made more varieties of mail than all the rest of the world put together."
[1]
[1]: (Stone 1999, 60-61) George Cameron Stone. 1999. Glossary of the Construction, Decoration and Use of Arms and Armor in All Countries and in All Times. Dover Publications, Inc. Mineola. |
||||||
|
"The dearth of illustrative material for the greater part of six centuries is largely due to the wanton destruction caused by two savage invasions from the east and only such finds as the stucco figures from Kara-shar [Central Asian warrior, eighth to tenth century] tell us that in all this period there had been little change."
[1]
[1]: (Robinson 1967) Robinson, H. Russell. 1967. Oriental Armour. Walker and Co. New York. |
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|
Judging from contemporary texts from Mesopotamia chariot warriors (currently not confirmed by archaeology) typically required arm and neck protection. This could include a leather hood that covered the neck and shoulders and which had sewn-in bronze plates (numbering 140-190).
[1]
"the warrior’s weapon includes a sword (Yašt 5.130; 10.131; 14.27), a spear (Yašt 10.39,102; 15.48; 17.12), bow and arrows (Yašt 7.28; 10.39) and a mace, which sometimes has a bull handle, sometimes it has 100 edges (Yašt 6.5, 10.96, 101, 132; 11,10), and sometimes it is made of gold (Yašt 10.96, 131). The body was covered by protective armor, the main part of which was a helmet made of a bull skin or metal (Yašt 13.45; 15.57) and a shield."
[2]
[1]: (Kuz’mina 2007, 136) Elena Efimovna Kuzʹmina. 2007. The Origin of the Indo-Iranians. J P Mallory ed. BRILL. Leiden. [2]: (Kuz’mina 2007: 137) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/UW7JEMDK/q/Kuz’mina. |
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|
Present in Egypt at this time - the regime in the Morocco probably used weapons similar to those of its neighbours. We could also check - as yet unconsulted - references for Christians in contemporary Iberia who may have been used as mercenaries.
|
||||||
|
Knights: "The princes of Black Africa who could afford to outfitted themselves in complete or partial armor like that of the knights of the Western Middle Ages."
[1]
"coat of mail and iron breastplate, helmet, boots, javelin ... all of it."
[2]
However, due to climate complete knightly armour not as common as in Europe and in fact Songhai Askia Bano died of suffocation.
[2]
[1]: (Diop 1987, 116) Diop, Cheikh Anta. Salemson, Harold trans. 1987. Precolonial Black Africa. Lawrence Hill Books. Chicago. [2]: (Diop 1987, 117) Diop, Cheikh Anta. Salemson, Harold trans. 1987. Precolonial Black Africa. Lawrence Hill Books. Chicago. |
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|
Knights: "The princes of Black Africa who could afford to outfitted themselves in complete or partial armor like that of the knights of the Western Middle Ages."
[1]
"coat of mail and iron breastplate, helmet, boots, javelin ... all of it."
[2]
However, due to climate complete knightly armour not as common as in Europe and in fact Songhai Askia Bano died of suffocation.
[2]
[1]: (Diop 1987, 116) Diop, Cheikh Anta. Salemson, Harold trans. 1987. Precolonial Black Africa. Lawrence Hill Books. Chicago. [2]: (Diop 1987, 117) Diop, Cheikh Anta. Salemson, Harold trans. 1987. Precolonial Black Africa. Lawrence Hill Books. Chicago. |
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|
The last Yuan emperor Toghon Temur returned to Mongolia and established the capital of his new Mongol state ("which extended from Manchuria to Kyrgystan") at Karakorum. At that time the MilTech codes would be the same as for the preceding Yuan China. Over the next decades the state lost territory and there was civil war at the start of the 15th century although in 1409 CE they still managed to rout a very large invading Ming army. The Ming attacked again but the Mongols were not conquered. Under an Oirat noble called Esen (1440-1455 CE) they invaded China in 1449 CE with 20,000 cavalry and captured the Ming emperor. In 1451 CE Esen overthrew the Mongol Khan but he wasn’t a direct descendent of Genghis Khan and was killed during a 1455 CE rebellion. His rule was followed by minor Khans who ruled a Mongolia in which the Khalkhas were one of three ’left-flank’ tumens (in addition to Chahars and Uriangqais). The state also had ’right-flank’ tumens (Ordos, Tumeds, Yunshebus) and the Oirats of western Mongolia. "These 6 tumens were major administrative units, often called ulus tumens (princedoms), comprising the 40 lesser tumens of the military-administrative type inherited from the Yuan period, each of which was reputedly composed of 10,000 cavalry troops ..."
[1]
The narrative suggests at least for 1400 CE and 1500 CE the army was cavalry based and in continuity with the preceding Yuan. The Yuan Dynasty is coded present for this armour.
[1]: (Ishjamts 2003, 208-211) N Ishjamts. 2003. The Mongols. Chahryar Adle. Irfan Habib. Karl M Baipakov. eds. History Of Civilizations Of Central Asia. Volume V. Development in contrast: from the sixteenth to the mid-nineteenth century. UNESCO Publishing. Paris. |
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|
Knights: "The princes of Black Africa who could afford to outfitted themselves in complete or partial armor like that of the knights of the Western Middle Ages."
[1]
"coat of mail and iron breastplate, helmet, boots, javelin ... all of it."
[2]
However, due to climate complete knightly armour not as common as in Europe and in fact Songhai Askia Bano died of suffocation.
[2]
[1]: (Diop 1987, 116) Diop, Cheikh Anta. Salemson, Harold trans. 1987. Precolonial Black Africa. Lawrence Hill Books. Chicago. [2]: (Diop 1987, 117) Diop, Cheikh Anta. Salemson, Harold trans. 1987. Precolonial Black Africa. Lawrence Hill Books. Chicago. |
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|
By the time of ’Etruscan Rome’ (400 BCE?) - here I believe the author is referring to ancient armies in general - "bronze greaves to protect the shins and forearms of the soldier were standard items of military equipment."
[1]
[1]: (Gabriel and Metz 1991, 51) Richard A Gabriel. Karen S Metz. 1991. The Military Capabilities of Ancient Armies. Greenwood Press. Westport. |
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|
Knights: "The princes of Black Africa who could afford to outfitted themselves in complete or partial armor like that of the knights of the Western Middle Ages."
[1]
"coat of mail and iron breastplate, helmet, boots, javelin ... all of it."
[2]
However, due to climate complete knightly armour not as common as in Europe and in fact Songhai Askia Bano died of suffocation.
[2]
[1]: (Diop 1987, 116) Diop, Cheikh Anta. Salemson, Harold trans. 1987. Precolonial Black Africa. Lawrence Hill Books. Chicago. [2]: (Diop 1987, 117) Diop, Cheikh Anta. Salemson, Harold trans. 1987. Precolonial Black Africa. Lawrence Hill Books. Chicago. |
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|
"Teotihuacan soldiers required armor that protected not only the trunk against shock attack, but also such extremities as the legs, which were vulnerable to the indiscriminate fire of projectiles."
[1]
[1]: (Hassig 1992: 84) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/E9VHCKDG. |
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|
"Most of the basic Mesoamerican armaments were in existence at this time [Classic period] - atlatls, darts, and spears, we well as clubs (bladed and unbladed), shields, cotton body armor, and unit standards [...] This military organization and technology was carried forward and elaborated on first by Toltecs and then by Aztecs".
[1]
[1]: (Hassig 1992: 5) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/E9VHCKDG. |
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|
The coins from the period show muscled cuirass, scaled corsets, metal grieves and thigh protectors made of leather.
[1]
For a wider view of equipment of the period, see the Osprey works on typical equipage.
[2]
[1]: Sidky, H., The Greek Kingdom of Bactria, pp. 168-169 [2]: Sekunda, Nick, and Nicholas Sekunda. The Ancient Greeks. Vol. 7. Osprey Publishing Company, 1986. |
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|
Safavid and Mughal cavalry armour of the period included mail, cuirass (four breast-pieces, back and side plates), arm guards, circular shield, helmet.
[1]
[1]: (Roy 2014, 47) Kaushik Roy. 2014. Military Transition in Early Modern Asia, 1400-1750: Cavalry, Guns, Government and Ships. Bloomsbury Academic. London. |
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|
In the New Kingdom: "Body armour, in the formof small bronze plates riveted to linen or leather jerkins, with a tapered lower half, began to be used." Jerkins do not have sleeves.
[1]
[1]: (Shaw 1991: 42) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/7J8H86XF. |
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|
Greaves: present.
[1]
According to a military historian (requires check by polity expert): Greece c1600 BCE: "Early Mycenaean and Minoan charioteers wore an arrangement of bronze armor that almost fully enclosed the soldier, the famous Dendra panoply."
[2]
[1]: Bryce T. (2007) Hittite Warrior, Oxford: Osprey Publishing, pp. 15 [2]: (Gabriel 2007, 78) Richard A Gabriel. 2007. Soldiers’ Lives Through History: The Ancient World. Greenwood Press. Westport. |
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|
Preiser-Kapeller says present.
[1]
"Pteruges or leather thongs or strips provided upper-arm protection."
[2]
"Some cavalry also wore splinted lower leg armour (greaves) of bronze(Haldon 1999:131), but high leather boots seem to me more common in the pictorial sources."
[3]
"in the eighth or ninth century ... the lamellar cuirass with associated splinted arm-guards was adopted from the steppe, probably through the Khazars and Magyars".
[4]
[1]: (Johannes Preiser-Kapeller 2015) Institute for Medieval Research, Division of Byzantine Research, Austrian Academy of Sciences) [2]: (O’Rourke 2010, 11) O’Rourke, M. 2010. The Land Forces of the Roman (Byzantine) Empire in the 10th Century. Canberra. [3]: (O’Rourke 2010, 12) O’Rourke, M. 2010. The Land Forces of the Roman (Byzantine) Empire in the 10th Century. Canberra. [4]: (Haldon 2008, 473) Jeffreys E, Haldon J and Cormack R eds. 2008. The Oxford Handbook of Byzantine Studies. Oxford University Press. Oxford. |
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|
Preiser-Kapeller says present.
[1]
"The mid-tenth-century heavy cavalryman is described in several sources, in particular the Praecepta militaria ascribed to the emperor Nikephoros II Phokas, and was protected by a lamellar klibaniony with splinted arm-guards, sleeves, and gauntlets, the latter from coarse silk or quilted cotton. From the waist to the knee he wore thick felt coverings, reinforced with mail; over the klibanion was worn a sleeveless quilted or padded coat (the epilorikon); and to protect the head and neck an iron helmet with mail or quilting attached and wrapped around the face. The lower leg was protected by splinted greaves of bronze."
[2]
[1]: (Preiser-Kapeller 2015) Institute for Medieval Research, Division of Byzantine Research, Austrian Academy of Sciences) [2]: (Haldon 2008, 476-477) Jeffreys E, Haldon J and Cormack R eds. 2008. The Oxford Handbook of Byzantine Studies. Oxford University Press. Oxford. |
||||||
|
Greaves: present.
[1]
According to a military historian (data requires check by polity expert): Greece c1600 BCE: "Early Mycenaean and Minoan charioteers wore an arrangement of bronze armor that almost fully enclosed the soldier, the famous Dendra panoply."
[2]
[1]: Bryce T. (2007) Hittite Warrior, Oxford: Osprey Publishing, pp. 15 [2]: (Gabriel 2007, 78) Richard A Gabriel. 2007. Soldiers’ Lives Through History: The Ancient World. Greenwood Press. Westport. |
||||||
|
Greaves: present.
[1]
According to one military historian (a polity expert is needed to check its application here): Greece c1600 BCE: "Early Mycenaean and Minoan charioteers wore an arrangement of bronze armor that almost fully enclosed the soldier, the famous Dendra panoply."
[2]
[1]: Bryce T. (2007) Hittite Warrior, Oxford: Osprey Publishing, pp. 15 [2]: (Gabriel 2007, 78) Richard A Gabriel. 2007. Soldiers’ Lives Through History: The Ancient World. Greenwood Press. Westport. |
||||||
|
Closest reference in Anatolia is the Hittite period.
[1]
In Greece c1600 BCE: "Early Mycenaean and Minoan charioteers wore an arrangement of bronze armor that almost fully enclosed the soldier, the famous Dendra panoply."
[2]
Mesopotamia (the Assyrians) c800 BCE?: iron plates used for shin protection.
[3]
[1]: Bryce T. (2007) Hittite Warrior, Oxford: Osprey Publishing, pp. 15 [2]: (Gabriel 2007, 78) Richard A Gabriel. 2007. Soldiers’ Lives Through History: The Ancient World. Greenwood Press. Westport. [3]: (Gabriel and Metz 1991, 51) Richard A Gabriel. Karen S Metz. 1991. The Military Capabilities of Ancient Armies. Greenwood Press. Westport. |
||||||
|
Greaves were worn by Thracian cavalry after the 4th century BCE.
[1]
By the time of ’Etruscan Rome’ (400 BCE?) - here I believe the author is referring to ancient armies in general - "bronze greaves to protect the shins and forearms of the soldier were standard items of military equipment."
[2]
[1]: Webber, C. (2003) Odrysian Cavalry, Army, Equipment and Tactics. Bar International Series 1139, pp. 529-554. p549 [2]: (Gabriel and Metz 1991, 51) Richard A Gabriel. Karen S Metz. 1991. The Military Capabilities of Ancient Armies. Greenwood Press. Westport. |
||||||
|
Closest reference in Anatolia is the Hittite period.
[1]
According to a military history (data requires check by polity expert): In Greece c1600 BCE: "Early Mycenaean and Minoan charioteers wore an arrangement of bronze armor that almost fully enclosed the soldier, the famous Dendra panoply."
[2]
[1]: Bryce T. (2007) Hittite Warrior, Oxford: Osprey Publishing, pp. 15 [2]: (Gabriel 2007, 78) Richard A Gabriel. 2007. Soldiers’ Lives Through History: The Ancient World. Greenwood Press. Westport. |
||||||
|
Closest reference in Anatolia is the Hittite period.
[1]
In Greece c1600 BCE: "Early Mycenaean and Minoan charioteers wore an arrangement of bronze armor that almost fully enclosed the soldier, the famous Dendra panoply."
[2]
Mesopotamia (the Assyrians) c800 BCE?: iron plates used for shin protection.
[3]
[1]: Bryce T. (2007) Hittite Warrior, Oxford: Osprey Publishing, pp. 15 [2]: (Gabriel 2007, 78) Richard A Gabriel. 2007. Soldiers’ Lives Through History: The Ancient World. Greenwood Press. Westport. [3]: (Gabriel and Metz 1991, 51) Richard A Gabriel. Karen S Metz. 1991. The Military Capabilities of Ancient Armies. Greenwood Press. Westport. |
||||||
|
Closest reference in Anatolia is the Hittite period.
[1]
In Greece c1600 BCE: "Early Mycenaean and Minoan charioteers wore an arrangement of bronze armor that almost fully enclosed the soldier, the famous Dendra panoply."
[2]
[1]: Bryce T. (2007) Hittite Warrior, Oxford: Osprey Publishing, pp. 15 [2]: (Gabriel 2007, 78) Richard A Gabriel. 2007. Soldiers’ Lives Through History: The Ancient World. Greenwood Press. Westport. |
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|
"The dearth of illustrative material for the greater part of six centuries is largely due to the wanton destruction caused by two savage invasions from the east and only such finds as the stucco figures from Kara-shar [Central Asian warrior, eighth to tenth century] tell us that in all this period there had been little change."
[1]
The Sassanids had limb protection.
[2]
Samanid period bowls show mounted warriors wearing lamellar armor - do they also show leg protection?
[3]
[1]: (Robinson 1967) Robinson, H. Russell. 1967. Oriental Armour. Walker and Co. New York. [2]: (Mitterauer 2010, 106) Mitterauer, M. 2010. Why Europe?: The Medieval Origins of Its Special Path. University of Chicago Press. [3]: (Khorasani 2014) Khorasani, Manouchehr Moshtagh. 2014. The Development of Persian Armour from the Sassanian to the Qajar Period. Harnischtreffen 26-28 September 2014. https://www.academia.edu/8561475/Moshtagh_Khorasani_Manouchehr_2014_._The_Development_of_Persian_Armour_from_the_Sassanid_to_the_Qajar_Period |
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|
"Hard armor of wood was found throughout the Northeast area in early times, although soft armor— rawhide corselets, long tunics, war shirts— is rarely mentioned. Lafitau offered this description of Iroquois armor: ’Their breastplates were also a fabric of wood or little reed wands, cut in proportional lengths, clasped against each other, twined and woven very neatly with little cords made of antelope or deerskin. They had thigh and arm guards of the same material. These breast-plates were made to resist arrows with bone or stone heads but would have been no protection against iron arrowheads. (1977, 115- 116)’"
[1]
"[T]he introduction of firearms and metal tipped weapons into native warfare forced the Iroquois to reconsider the way they approached combat. They discarded their wooden body armor and shields, which were only marginally effective against metal weapons and afforded no protection whatsoever against French guns. Moreover, continued use of wooden armor became impractical as Iroquois warriors learned to adapt their fighting style to the new weaponry. Shortly after the stunning debut of French firearms in the 1609 revolt of the Mohawks, Champlain recorded that the Iroquois had already learned to ’throw themselves on the ground when they hear the report’ of guns being fired. Wooden armor was too cumbersome for use in evolving Iroquois tactics, which also included hiding behind trees for protection until after the guns had fired. Armor and shields remained present in Iroquois society as teaching and protectice tools in the education of young warriors, but they no longer found a place in Iroquois wars."
[2]
[1]: (Jones 2004, 58-59) Jones, David. 2004. Native North American Armor, Shields, and Fortifications. Austin: University of Texas Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/collectionKey/943RGM7A/itemKey/HABDQG2T [2]: (Barr 2006, 28) Barr, Daniel P. 2006. Unconquered: The Iroquois League at War in Colonial America. Westport, Conn.: Praeger. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/collectionKey/943RGM7A/itemKey/KA4QX6HF |
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|
"In the late-fourteenth- and early-fifteenth-century miniatures, plate armour for the limbs makes its reappearance in the form of tubular vambraces, consisting of two hinged plates tapered towards the wrist, the lower one extended into a point to protect the elbow."
[1]
"The legs - always vulnerable parts of a horseman’s anatomy - were protected with separate knee-plates of ‘pot-lid’ form, set in mail or mounted upon fabric which extended up the thigh (rānāpanō). Usually, boots were worn below these; but sometimes a tubular greave of two plates opening upon hinges encased the shins and calves. These are clearly represented in a miniature painted at Shiraz, c.1433—4, in the Bodleian Library, Oxford."
[1]
[1]: (Robinson 1967) Robinson, H. Russell. 1967. Oriental Armour. Walker and Co. New York. |
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|
"In the seventh century the Arab Caliphate overran the Sāssānian Empire and, as far as we can tell, no great changes took place in the Persian equipment then or for a long time afterwards. The invader came under the influence of the remarkable Persian culture and no doubt, in due course, took advantage of the superior craftsmen now at his disposal for the making of his own equipment."
[1]
The Sassanids had limb protection.
[2]
[1]: (Robinson 1967) Robinson, H. Russell. 1967. Oriental Armour. Walker and Co. New York. [2]: (Mitterauer 2010, 106) Mitterauer, M. 2010. Why Europe?: The Medieval Origins of Its Special Path. University of Chicago Press. |
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|
"In the late-fourteenth- and early-fifteenth-century miniatures, plate armour for the limbs makes its reappearance in the form of tubular vambraces, consisting of two hinged plates tapered towards the wrist, the lower one extended into a point to protect the elbow."
[1]
"The legs - always vulnerable parts of a horseman’s anatomy - were protected with separate knee-plates of ‘pot-lid’ form, set in mail or mounted upon fabric which extended up the thigh (rānāpanō). Usually, boots were worn below these; but sometimes a tubular greave of two plates opening upon hinges encased the shins and calves. These are clearly represented in a miniature painted at Shiraz, c.1433—4, in the Bodleian Library, Oxford."
[1]
Shoulder armour.
[2]
[1]: (Robinson 1967) Robinson, H. Russell. 1967. Oriental Armour. Walker and Co. New York. [2]: (Nicolle 1990, 37) Nicolle, David. 1990. The Age of Tamerlane. Osprey Publishing. |
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|
Code inferred from Abbasid Caliphate
[1]
which occupied Yemen between 751-868 CE.
[1]: Hugh N Kennedy. 2001. The Armies of the Caliphs: Military and Society in the Early Islamic State. Routledge. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/SGPPFNAZ/q/kennedy |
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|
Illustration "Officer, Bengal Horse Artillery" shows knee-high (leather?) boots.
[1]
"Whereas the 8th had worn their trousers loose, the 67th adopted puttees (from a Hindi word meaning bandages) to support and protect the leg, as worn by Indian troops and soon widespread among the British. Pictorial evidence suggests, however, that puttees were not necessarily worn at all times."
[2]
Steel cuirasses worn mainly for ceremonial purposes/use.
[3]
[1]: (Barthorp 1988, Plate B) Michael Barthorp. 1988. The British Army on Campaign. 1856-1881. Osprey Publishing Ltd. [2]: (Barthorp 1988, 37) Michael Barthorp. 1988. The British Army on Campaign. 1856-1881. Osprey Publishing Ltd. [3]: Richard Knotel, Herbert Knotel, Jr., & Herbert Sieg. Uniforms of the World: A Compendium of Army, Navy and Air Force Uniforms, 1700-1937. New York: Scribner’s, 1980. |
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|
-
|
||||||
|
Not mentioned by sources.
|
||||||
|
Reference for Greece c1600 BCE: "Early Mycenaean and Minoan charioteers wore an arrangement of bronze armor that almost fully enclosed the soldier, the famous Dendra panoply."
[1]
Reference for Mesopotamia (the Assyrians) c800 BCE?: iron plates used for shin protection.
[2]
Reference for ’Etruscan Rome’ (400 BCE?): "bronze greaves to protect the shins and forearms of the soldier were standard items of military equipment."
[2]
[1]: (Gabriel 2007, 78) Richard A Gabriel. 2007. Soldiers’ Lives Through History: The Ancient World. Greenwood Press. Westport. [2]: (Gabriel and Metz 1991, 51) Richard A Gabriel. Karen S Metz. 1991. The Military Capabilities of Ancient Armies. Greenwood Press. Westport. |
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|
Checked by Peter Peregrine.
|
||||||
|
No references in the literature.
|
||||||
|
No references identified in the literature. RA.
|
||||||
|
Sources
[1]
only mention very little archaeological evidence for military technology for this period, and this does not include armour. However, armour made from wood and cloth have been documented for the later periods, so their absence in the archaeological record may be due to preservation bias.
[1]: Marcus and Flannery (1996) Zapotec Civilization: How urban society evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley. Flannery and Marcus (1983) The Cloud People: divergent evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec civilizations. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Academic Press, New York. |
||||||
|
Reference for Greece c1600 BCE: "Early Mycenaean and Minoan charioteers wore an arrangement of bronze armor that almost fully enclosed the soldier, the famous Dendra panoply."
[1]
Reference for Mesopotamia (the Assyrians) c800 BCE?: iron plates used for shin protection.
[2]
Reference for ’Etruscan Rome’ (400 BCE?): "bronze greaves to protect the shins and forearms of the soldier were standard items of military equipment."
[2]
[1]: (Gabriel 2007, 78) Richard A Gabriel. 2007. Soldiers’ Lives Through History: The Ancient World. Greenwood Press. Westport. [2]: (Gabriel and Metz 1991, 51) Richard A Gabriel. Karen S Metz. 1991. The Military Capabilities of Ancient Armies. Greenwood Press. Westport. |
||||||
|
Reference for Greece c1600 BCE: "Early Mycenaean and Minoan charioteers wore an arrangement of bronze armor that almost fully enclosed the soldier, the famous Dendra panoply."
[1]
Reference for Mesopotamia (the Assyrians) c800 BCE?: iron plates used for shin protection.
[2]
Reference for ’Etruscan Rome’ (400 BCE?): "bronze greaves to protect the shins and forearms of the soldier were standard items of military equipment."
[2]
[1]: (Gabriel 2007, 78) Richard A Gabriel. 2007. Soldiers’ Lives Through History: The Ancient World. Greenwood Press. Westport. [2]: (Gabriel and Metz 1991, 51) Richard A Gabriel. Karen S Metz. 1991. The Military Capabilities of Ancient Armies. Greenwood Press. Westport. |
||||||
|
Not mentioned by sources.
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
Not mentioned by sources.
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
Not mentioned in the literature.
|
||||||
|
Sources
[1]
only mention very little archaeological evidence for military technology for this period, and this does not include armour. However, armour made from wood and cloth have been documented for the later periods, so their absence in the archaeological record may be due to preservation bias.
[1]: Marcus and Flannery (1996) Zapotec Civilization: How urban society evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley. Flannery and Marcus (1983) The Cloud People: divergent evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec civilizations. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Academic Press, New York. |
||||||
|
Relative to military technology used in this period, sources only mention the atlatl and spears.
[1]
However, armour made from wood and cloth has been documented for the later periods, so its absence in the archaeological record may be due to preservation bias.
[1]: Marcus and Flannery (1996) Zapotec Civilization: How urban society evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley. Flannery and Marcus (1983) The Cloud People: divergent evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec civilizations. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Academic Press, New York. |
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|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
The few who could afford it used body armour.
[1]
The military retinue of kings and magnates (including clergy) "had the most complete equipment and were virtually professional warriors."
[2]
David Baker says present.
[3]
[1]: (Hooper and Bennett 1996, 12) Nicholas Hooper. Matthew Bennett. 1996. The Cambridge Illustrated Atlas of Warfare: The Middle Ages, 768-1487. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. [2]: (Hooper and Bennett 1996, 14) Nicholas Hooper. Matthew Bennett. 1996. The Cambridge Illustrated Atlas of Warfare: The Middle Ages, 768-1487. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. [3]: David Baker. Personal communication to Seshat Databank. |
||||||
|
The few who could afford it used body armour.
[1]
The military retinue of kings and magnates (including clergy) "had the most complete equipment and were virtually professional warriors."
[2]
David Baker says present.
[3]
[1]: (Hooper and Bennett 1996, 12) Nicholas Hooper. Matthew Bennett. 1996. The Cambridge Illustrated Atlas of Warfare: The Middle Ages, 768-1487. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. [2]: (Hooper and Bennett 1996, 14) Nicholas Hooper. Matthew Bennett. 1996. The Cambridge Illustrated Atlas of Warfare: The Middle Ages, 768-1487. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. [3]: David Baker. Personal communication to Seshat Databank. |
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
Relative to military technology used in this period, sources only mention the atlatl and spears.
[1]
However, armour made from wood and cloth has been documented for the later periods, so its absence in the archaeological record may be due to preservation bias.
[1]: Marcus and Flannery (1996) Zapotec Civilization: How urban society evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley. Flannery and Marcus (1983) The Cloud People: divergent evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec civilizations. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Academic Press, New York. |
||||||
|
Not mentioned in the literature.
|
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|
-
|
||||||
|
-
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||||||
|
-
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||||||
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-
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-
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-
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-
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||||||
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-
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||||||
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-
|
||||||
|
Not mentioned in the literature.
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
Not mentioned in the literature.
|
||||||
|
Probably present for the Andronovo charioteers but by the 12th century BCE "mounted horsemen armed with bows and arrows replaced chariot drivers"
[1]
so we need to know what armour (if any) they wore. Tazabagyab culture is considered to have had its origin in Andronovo culture.
[2]
Andronovo culture (2000-900 BCE, Alakul phase 2100-1400 BCE, Fedorovo phase 1400-1200 BCE, Alekseyevka phase 1200-1000 BCE). Tazabagyab culture (15th - 11th), Suyarganskaya culture (11th - 9th), Amirabad culture (9th - 8th).
[1]: (Kuz’mina 2007, 138) Elena Efimovna Kuzʹmina. 2007. The Origin of the Indo-Iranians. J P Mallory ed. BRILL. Leiden. [2]: (Mallory 1997, 20-21) J P Mallory. Andronovo culture. J P Mallory. D Q Adams. eds. 1997. Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture. Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers. Chicago. |
||||||
|
Not mentioned by sources.
|
||||||
|
E.g., greaves.
|
||||||
|
In 13th and 14th centuries.
[1]
Mail leggings worn to about 1350 CE.
[2]
Hundred Years’ War (1337-1453 CE) reference: typical French knight wore "plate armor for shoulders and limbs topped by a bascinet, a metal helmet with projecting hinged visors and air holes. Instead of the surcoat, they wore a shorter leather jupon, and their warhorses were also armored, with plate covering their heads and mail or leather their flanks."
[3]
Hundred Years’ War (1337-1453 CE) reference: plate shotes, greaves, cuisses (leg coverings), knee piece, vambraces (lower arm), rebraces (upper arm), cowters and pauldrons (elbows and shoulders), gauntlets (hands and wrists), bevor (triangular metal plate to protect the neck).
[3]
[1]: (Nicolle 2000, 15-17) David Nicolle. 2000. French Armies Of The Hundred Years War. Osprey Publishing. Oxford. [2]: (Boulton 1995, 124-127) W W Kibler. G A Zinn. 1995. Medieval France: An Encyclopedia. Routledge. [3]: (Wagner 2006, 27-29) John A Wagner. 2006. Encyclopedia of the Hundred Years War. Greenwood Press. Westport. |
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’The custom of wearing talismanic war garments was well established by the nineteenth century, and some were worn with other northern appurtenances. ‘Their vest was of red cloth, covered with fetishes and saphies in gold and silver; and embroidered cases of almost every colour, which flapped against their bodies as they moved, intermixed with small brass bells, the horns and tails of animals, shells, and knives; long leopards tails hung down their backs, over a small bow covered with fetishes. They wore loose cotton trowsers [ sic], with immense boots of a dull red leather, coming half way up the thigh, and fastened by small chains to their cartouch or waist belt; these were also ornamented with bells, horses tails, strings of amulets, and innumerable shreds of leather; a small quiver of poisoned arrows hung from their right wrist, and they held a long iron chain between their teeth, with a scrap of Moorish writing affixed to the end of it.’
[1]
[1]: McLeod, M. D. (Malcolm D.) 1981. “Asante”, 147 |
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Not mentioned by sources in lists of artefacts found at sites in the region dating to this time.
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we need expert input in order to code this variable
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According to the Chinese Nan chou i wu chih (A Record of Strange Things in the Southern Regions) written about 222-228 CE a volcanic country called ’Ge-ying’ (thought to be western Java) traded with the Malay Peninsula and imported horses from India. They were used by warriors.
[1]
It is likely they had some basic armour. Metallurgy was introduced after the third century BCE
[2]
so in addition to imported items, they may have had the ability to smith their own armour.
[1]: (Miksic and Goh 2017, 215) John Norman Miksic. Geok Yian Goh. Routledge. 2017. Ancient Southeast Asia. London. p. 215 [2]: (Bellwood 2004, 36) Bellwood, Peter. The origins and dispersals of agricultural communities in Southeast Asia. Glover, Ian. Bellwood, Peter. eds. 2004. Southeast Asia: From Prehistory to History. RoutledgeCurzon. London. |
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The Borobudur reliefs depict armour but do not specify which kinds.
[1]
Old Mataram was a ’highly Indianized culture’ until it was replaced by an East Javanese one "that increasingly promoted various elements of the island’s older indigenous traditions."
[2]
Indian military terms surviving in Javanese include ’armour, shield, helmet’.
[3]
[1]: (Draeger 1972, 23) D F Draeger. 1972. Weapons and Fighting Arts of Indonesia. Tuttle Publishing. [2]: (Unesco 2005, 233) Unesco. 2005. The Restoration of Borobudur. Unesco. [3]: (Kumara 2007, 161) Sasiprabha Kumara. 2007. Sanskrit Across Cultures. Special Centre for Sanskrit Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University. New Delhi. |
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"After the formation of the Majapahit Dynasty, however, weapons and warfare underwent significant changes. The military dress completely evolved from the Indian to the East Javanese fashion."
[1]
Indian military terms surviving in Javanese include ’armour, shield, helmet’.
[2]
The Borobudur reliefs depicted armour but do not specify which kinds.
[3]
[1]: (Powell 2002, 325) John Powell. 2002. Weapons & Warfare: Ancient and medieval weapons and warfare (to 1500). Salem Press. [2]: (Kumara 2007, 161) Sasiprabha Kumara. 2007. Sanskrit Across Cultures. Special Centre for Sanskrit Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University. New Delhi. [3]: (Draeger 1972, 23) D F Draeger. 1972. Weapons and Fighting Arts of Indonesia. Tuttle Publishing. |
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Old Mataram was a ’highly Indianized culture’ until it was replaced by an East Javanese one "that increasingly promoted various elements of the island’s older indigenous traditions."
[1]
Indian military terms surviving in Javanese include ’armour, shield, helmet’.
[2]
[1]: (Unesco 2005, 233) Unesco. 2005. The Restoration of Borobudur. Unesco. [2]: (Kumara 2007, 161) Sasiprabha Kumara. 2007. Sanskrit Across Cultures. Special Centre for Sanskrit Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University. New Delhi. |
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If "the first archaeologically recognizable, large post-Indus urban settlements are not earlier than the fifth century BC ... solidly visible states ... appear in a sudden profusion in the late first millennium B.C."
[1]
- who was king Stabrobates of India who used war elephants against a queen of Assyria (considered Shammuramat?) in the 9th century BCE?
[2]
One could infer king Stabrobates, if not based there himself, must have subdued and controlled the Kachi Plain region in order to invade Mesopotamia from ’India’. (Another source says Assyria invaded India and were driven out of Pakistan and India).
[3]
Diodorus Siculus says this too, queen Semiramis was based in Bactra (Bactria?).
[4]
If king Stabrobates’s polity controlled the Kachi Plain then we must code the according to the military technology he possessed. This would have included armour. Note: one military historian estimates that the Assyrian army had a strategic range of 2000 km
[5]
which places the Indus region in reach of their forces.
[1]: (Ahmed 2014, 64) Mukhtar Ahmed. 2014. Ancient Pakistan - An Archaeological History: Volume V: The End of the Harappan Civilization, and the Aftermath. Foursome Group. [2]: (Mayor 2014, 289) Adrienne Mayor. Animals in Warfare. Gordon Lindsay Campbell. ed. 2014. The Oxford Handbook of Animals in Classical Thought and Life. Oxford University Press. Oxford. [3]: (Kistler 2007, 18) John M Kistler. 2007. War Elephants. University of Nebraska Press. Lincoln. [4]: Diodorus Siculus. Delphi Complete Works of Diodorus Siculus. Delphi Classics. [5]: (Gabriel 2002, 9) Richard A Gabriel. 2002. The Great Armies of Antiquity. Praeger. Westport. |
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Not mentioned by sources in lists of artifacts found at sites in the region dating to this time.
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NB: The following refers to a different era and place. Kautilya’s Arthasastra, written after 200 BCE, mentions "dense structures made of the skin, hooves, and horns/tusks of the river dolphin, rhinocerous, Dhenuka, and cattle" used as armor and a leather shield.
[1]
[1]: (Olivelle 2016, 142-143) Patrick Olivelle trans. 2016. King, Governance, and Law in Ancient India: Kautilya’s Arthasastra. Oxford University Press. Oxford. |
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This time is earlier than the earliest reference in Greece c1600 BCE: "Early Mycenaean and Minoan charioteers wore an arrangement of bronze armor that almost fully enclosed the soldier, the famous Dendra panoply."
[1]
It is also earlier than the earliest reference in Anatolia, the Hittite period.
[2]
[1]: (Gabriel and Metz 1991, 51) Richard A Gabriel. Karen S Metz. 1991. The Military Capabilities of Ancient Armies. Greenwood Press. Westport. [2]: Bryce T. (2007) Hittite Warrior, Oxford: Osprey Publishing, pp. 15 |
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No references in the literature. RA.
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This time is earlier than the earliest reference in Greece c1600 BCE: "Early Mycenaean and Minoan charioteers wore an arrangement of bronze armor that almost fully enclosed the soldier, the famous Dendra panoply."
[1]
It is also earlier than the earliest reference in Anatolia, the Hittite period.
[2]
[1]: (Gabriel and Metz 1991, 51) Richard A Gabriel. Karen S Metz. 1991. The Military Capabilities of Ancient Armies. Greenwood Press. Westport. [2]: Bryce T. (2007) Hittite Warrior, Oxford: Osprey Publishing, pp. 15 |
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Checked by Peter Peregrine.
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Sources
[1]
only mention very little archaeological evidence for military technology for this period, and this does not include armour. However, armour made from wood and cloth have been documented for the later periods, so their absence in the archaeological record may be due to preservation bias.
[1]: Marcus and Flannery (1996) Zapotec Civilization: How urban society evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley. Flannery and Marcus (1983) The Cloud People: divergent evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec civilizations. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Academic Press, New York. |
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Not mentioned by sources.
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Not mentioned by sources.
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Not mentioned by sources.
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Not mentioned by sources.
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Sources
[1]
only mention very little archaeological evidence for military technology for this period, and this does not include armour. However, armour made from wood and cloth have been documented for the later periods, so their absence in the archaeological record may be due to preservation bias.
[1]: Marcus and Flannery (1996) Zapotec Civilization: How urban society evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley. Flannery and Marcus (1983) The Cloud People: divergent evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec civilizations. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Academic Press, New York. |
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Reference for Greece c1600 BCE: "Early Mycenaean and Minoan charioteers wore an arrangement of bronze armor that almost fully enclosed the soldier, the famous Dendra panoply."
[1]
Reference for Mesopotamia (the Assyrians) c800 BCE?: iron plates used for shin protection.
[2]
Reference for ’Etruscan Rome’ (400 BCE?): "bronze greaves to protect the shins and forearms of the soldier were standard items of military equipment."
[2]
[1]: (Gabriel 2007, 78) Richard A Gabriel. 2007. Soldiers’ Lives Through History: The Ancient World. Greenwood Press. Westport. [2]: (Gabriel and Metz 1991, 51) Richard A Gabriel. Karen S Metz. 1991. The Military Capabilities of Ancient Armies. Greenwood Press. Westport. |
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Sources
[1]
only mention very little archaeological evidence for military technology for this period, and this does not include armour. However, armour made from wood and cloth have been documented for the later periods, so their absence in the archaeological record may be due to preservation bias.
[1]: Marcus and Flannery (1996) Zapotec Civilization: How urban society evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley. Flannery and Marcus (1983) The Cloud People: divergent evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec civilizations. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Academic Press, New York. |
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Reference for Greece c1600 BCE: "Early Mycenaean and Minoan charioteers wore an arrangement of bronze armor that almost fully enclosed the soldier, the famous Dendra panoply."
[1]
Reference for Mesopotamia (the Assyrians) c800 BCE?: iron plates used for shin protection.
[2]
Reference for ’Etruscan Rome’ (400 BCE?): "bronze greaves to protect the shins and forearms of the soldier were standard items of military equipment."
[2]
[1]: (Gabriel 2007, 78) Richard A Gabriel. 2007. Soldiers’ Lives Through History: The Ancient World. Greenwood Press. Westport. [2]: (Gabriel and Metz 1991, 51) Richard A Gabriel. Karen S Metz. 1991. The Military Capabilities of Ancient Armies. Greenwood Press. Westport. |
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Reference for Greece c1600 BCE: "Early Mycenaean and Minoan charioteers wore an arrangement of bronze armor that almost fully enclosed the soldier, the famous Dendra panoply."
[1]
Reference for Mesopotamia (the Assyrians) c800 BCE?: iron plates used for shin protection.
[2]
Reference for ’Etruscan Rome’ (400 BCE?): "bronze greaves to protect the shins and forearms of the soldier were standard items of military equipment."
[2]
[1]: (Gabriel 2007, 78) Richard A Gabriel. 2007. Soldiers’ Lives Through History: The Ancient World. Greenwood Press. Westport. [2]: (Gabriel and Metz 1991, 51) Richard A Gabriel. Karen S Metz. 1991. The Military Capabilities of Ancient Armies. Greenwood Press. Westport. |
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Reference for Greece c1600 BCE: "Early Mycenaean and Minoan charioteers wore an arrangement of bronze armor that almost fully enclosed the soldier, the famous Dendra panoply."
[1]
Reference for Mesopotamia (the Assyrians) c800 BCE?: iron plates used for shin protection.
[2]
Reference for ’Etruscan Rome’ (400 BCE?): "bronze greaves to protect the shins and forearms of the soldier were standard items of military equipment."
[2]
[1]: (Gabriel 2007, 78) Richard A Gabriel. 2007. Soldiers’ Lives Through History: The Ancient World. Greenwood Press. Westport. [2]: (Gabriel and Metz 1991, 51) Richard A Gabriel. Karen S Metz. 1991. The Military Capabilities of Ancient Armies. Greenwood Press. Westport. |
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Reference for Greece c1600 BCE: "Early Mycenaean and Minoan charioteers wore an arrangement of bronze armor that almost fully enclosed the soldier, the famous Dendra panoply."
[1]
Reference for Mesopotamia (the Assyrians) c800 BCE?: iron plates used for shin protection.
[2]
Reference for ’Etruscan Rome’ (400 BCE?): "bronze greaves to protect the shins and forearms of the soldier were standard items of military equipment."
[2]
[1]: (Gabriel 2007, 78) Richard A Gabriel. 2007. Soldiers’ Lives Through History: The Ancient World. Greenwood Press. Westport. [2]: (Gabriel and Metz 1991, 51) Richard A Gabriel. Karen S Metz. 1991. The Military Capabilities of Ancient Armies. Greenwood Press. Westport. |
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|
Sources
[1]
only mention very little archaeological evidence for military technology for this period, and this does not include armour. However, armour made from wood and cloth have been documented for the later periods, so their absence in the archaeological record may be due to preservation bias.
[1]: Marcus and Flannery (1996) Zapotec Civilization: How urban society evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley. Flannery and Marcus (1983) The Cloud People: divergent evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec civilizations. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Academic Press, New York. |
||||||
|
Reference for Greece c1600 BCE: "Early Mycenaean and Minoan charioteers wore an arrangement of bronze armor that almost fully enclosed the soldier, the famous Dendra panoply."
[1]
Reference for Mesopotamia (the Assyrians) c800 BCE?: iron plates used for shin protection.
[2]
Reference for ’Etruscan Rome’ (400 BCE?): "bronze greaves to protect the shins and forearms of the soldier were standard items of military equipment."
[2]
[1]: (Gabriel 2007, 78) Richard A Gabriel. 2007. Soldiers’ Lives Through History: The Ancient World. Greenwood Press. Westport. [2]: (Gabriel and Metz 1991, 51) Richard A Gabriel. Karen S Metz. 1991. The Military Capabilities of Ancient Armies. Greenwood Press. Westport. |
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|
Reference for Greece c1600 BCE: "Early Mycenaean and Minoan charioteers wore an arrangement of bronze armor that almost fully enclosed the soldier, the famous Dendra panoply."
[1]
Reference for Mesopotamia (the Assyrians) c800 BCE?: iron plates used for shin protection.
[2]
Reference for ’Etruscan Rome’ (400 BCE?): "bronze greaves to protect the shins and forearms of the soldier were standard items of military equipment."
[2]
[1]: (Gabriel 2007, 78) Richard A Gabriel. 2007. Soldiers’ Lives Through History: The Ancient World. Greenwood Press. Westport. [2]: (Gabriel and Metz 1991, 51) Richard A Gabriel. Karen S Metz. 1991. The Military Capabilities of Ancient Armies. Greenwood Press. Westport. |
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