Looking at the whole hamata vs segmentata discussion from another angle

[Dan Howard]

How does the segmentata provide more protection? Mail covers the belly, thigh, groin, and armpit. Segmentata leaves all of those locations completely exposed. Mail stopped weapons just as well as every other type of armour. It was the preferred armour for nearly two thousand years in almost every metal-using culture on the planet when the most common threat on all of those battlefields was from arrows and spears.

This might prove edifying, it contains more than enough proof that mail stopped spears and arrows: http://myarmoury.com/feature_mail.html