05-21-2007, 10:16 AM
I'm just reading a book about the hoplites in the archaic and classic times (as I'm relatively new to the Greek times I have to read a lot yet 
) which has some interesting ideas. It is a revised edition of a dissertation of J.P. Franz named "Krieger, Bauern, Bürger" from 1999.
Generally he does not exclude leather or linen as possible materials for composite armour although in classical times he mentions linen as normal.
He quotes some maybe interesting books to which I don't have access to, f.e. from Philip H. Blyth "The Effectiveness of Greek Armour...", a dissertation of 1977, which includes sometimes very debatable but nonetheless valuable tests of different materials. Does anybody possess it? In that book a 15 layered linen armour should have proved a bit less effective than 5 mm leather or 0,62 mm bronze and a lot less effective than 1 mm bronze. But the linen seemed to be not layered in the correct way (alternatively).
He gives a sidenote that leather pieces were found in Argos which were believed to belong to 8th c. armour and gives as an additional source for it E. Protonotairiou-Deilaki "Apo to Argos tou 8ou kai 7ou aiona" in ASAtene 44 (1982), 33-48. Perhaps this source should be discussed also if it comes to leather armour.
But what I wanted to mention actually are his thoughts about the shoulder pieces. He presumes that it was constructed with a thin flexible bronze layer embedded in linen oder leather sheets. That would explain the straight-in-the-air habit when open and add considerably to the protection of the very vulnerable shoulder area (assuming the frequent use of downward thrusts). I like that thoughts; it would help the not-glued-linen as well as the leather fraction.
) which has some interesting ideas. It is a revised edition of a dissertation of J.P. Franz named "Krieger, Bauern, Bürger" from 1999.Generally he does not exclude leather or linen as possible materials for composite armour although in classical times he mentions linen as normal.
He quotes some maybe interesting books to which I don't have access to, f.e. from Philip H. Blyth "The Effectiveness of Greek Armour...", a dissertation of 1977, which includes sometimes very debatable but nonetheless valuable tests of different materials. Does anybody possess it? In that book a 15 layered linen armour should have proved a bit less effective than 5 mm leather or 0,62 mm bronze and a lot less effective than 1 mm bronze. But the linen seemed to be not layered in the correct way (alternatively).
He gives a sidenote that leather pieces were found in Argos which were believed to belong to 8th c. armour and gives as an additional source for it E. Protonotairiou-Deilaki "Apo to Argos tou 8ou kai 7ou aiona" in ASAtene 44 (1982), 33-48. Perhaps this source should be discussed also if it comes to leather armour.
But what I wanted to mention actually are his thoughts about the shoulder pieces. He presumes that it was constructed with a thin flexible bronze layer embedded in linen oder leather sheets. That would explain the straight-in-the-air habit when open and add considerably to the protection of the very vulnerable shoulder area (assuming the frequent use of downward thrusts). I like that thoughts; it would help the not-glued-linen as well as the leather fraction.
Wolfgang Zeiler
