Padded Armour

[tlclark]

Hi Travis.
In Basque? Perhaps they would actually drown me into the bog then... :wink:

Well it would be a loss to us here a RAT, but future re-enactors would love to have a preserved example of 21st century costume. :wink:

Of course that illustrates a lots of problem about discoveries like that. How do we know that the other bog bodies aren't Spaniards!? Also, if you wear your kit and wind up in the bog, that will really confuse future historians!

You've studied that matter closer than I've done but, are you sure that the stitching lines running along the borders represents some kind of edging and not only just that. stitching to keep all layers together?

The line is nearly always there, so there's basically two possibilities.

1. Decoration, either in cloth or tooled leather
2. Practical, meaning an edging/sticthing to hold/bind several layers together, or a natural selvage woven edge.

Looking at the edges, it looks like the edging wraps around the edge of the pterugion, indicating a hemmed or selvage edge, and not just stitching, but I could be wrong, but it could just as easily be a tooled decoration in leather, but given that the interior surface has a textile pattern but the edging doesn't, it looks like some other material is wrapped around the edge to secure it.

Travis