09-28-2005, 09:46 AM
Huge quantities of felt have been preserved in Scycthian graves, and in appearance it seems identical to modern wool felts, even to include vidid colors. It was unquestionably widely known and widely used in the ancient world, but due to its perishable nature rarely found today. I suspect felt is the "most ancient" of all "fabric" if it can be termed as such. I believe the famous "Pylos" cap, from which the shape of the helmet of that name was developed was actually described in an ancient source as being made of felt, and likely many other forms of ancient headgear as well, including as least some versions of the "pannonian cap" were as well.
I still do not think there is any evidence of padded/filled linen garments worn under armor in the ancient world save for interpretation of period art which is speculative at best. Of course, there is the layered linen armor of Classical Greece, so no reason a padded armor couldn't have existed, for event stone age, mesoarmericans discovered it, but a surer bet would be to use something actually mentioned by ancient Roman writers as to what was worn under armor.
Regrettably, good quality, thick wool felt is very expensive today, probably because it is such a rare, specialty item with few uses in our modern world. For the Europeans, I recommend checking out the Hungarian sources, where it cannot be too expensive if they still make whole tents from it. The event where we saw it is held each year in what was Roman Savaria (forget the Hungarian name). I believe this source would become even cheaper the further east you travel. Another idea would be to make it yourself, for it is a much simpler process than weaving.
I still do not think there is any evidence of padded/filled linen garments worn under armor in the ancient world save for interpretation of period art which is speculative at best. Of course, there is the layered linen armor of Classical Greece, so no reason a padded armor couldn't have existed, for event stone age, mesoarmericans discovered it, but a surer bet would be to use something actually mentioned by ancient Roman writers as to what was worn under armor.
Regrettably, good quality, thick wool felt is very expensive today, probably because it is such a rare, specialty item with few uses in our modern world. For the Europeans, I recommend checking out the Hungarian sources, where it cannot be too expensive if they still make whole tents from it. The event where we saw it is held each year in what was Roman Savaria (forget the Hungarian name). I believe this source would become even cheaper the further east you travel. Another idea would be to make it yourself, for it is a much simpler process than weaving.
