Single Combat during the Trojan War

[Dan Howard]

I realize there is no connection, but does anyone else find the similarity between the Dendra panoply and the later Roman lorica segmentata interesting?

There isn't any similarity except that they both had exaggerated shoulder pauldrons. The Dendra Panoply consisted of a solid cuirass reaching down to the midriff and three segmented plates covering the groin and thighs. Roman segmented armour consisted of segmented plates reaching to the midriff and nothing protecting the groin and thighs. Even the type of segmentation was completely different, both in the width of the plates and the method of attachment.

I agree that the Dendra Panoply has no place in the discussion of Homeric warfare. Look at the artefacts found at the Thebes arsenal for a better example of Homeric armour. The Dendra Panoply dates to an earlier period when the Mycenaean elite were chariot archers just like all of their contemporaries. The most thorough argument for this was presented by Drews in "End of the Bronze Age".

I'm more inclined to think that Homer IS describing weapons, armour, and tactics that actually occurred at the end of the Bronze Age. The old argument that Homer was writing 300 years later no longer holds water. There is more than enough evidence to suggest that the current chronology is wrong. Various experts suggest that between 100 and 250 years should be removed from the so called "Dark Ages". Homer could have been writing as little as 2 or 3 generations after the events in question. There have been five publications just this year alone supporting this.
http://www.centuries.co.uk/news.htm

The most relevent one is this
Nikos Kokkinos, "Ancient Chronography, Eratosthenes and the Dating of the Fall of Troy", in Ancient West and East 8 (2009), pp. 37-56. It proposes that the Trojan War should be dated to c. 940 BC, not c. 1200 BC.