A History of the Idea of Glued Linen Armour

[Sean Manning]

This claim has put historical research back decades. It is this kind of spurious logic that leads to highlander ninjas. Proper research is based on evidence, not baseless speculation. It is good to keep an open mind, but not so open that your brain falls out.

Fact free opinion, and not all opinions are equall, yours being an excellent example of how unequal they can be.

Hi Hanny,

a cool thing about science is that we can verify claims rather than judging them by who is saying them! For example, if you don't trust my translation of Niketas Choniates, the article in Mouseion has the Greek text and an alternate translation by a medievalist who is not involved in this debate!

You can read the site reports from Mycenae and Tarquinia which the Green Bay team cites on my site and see that there is nothing about glued linen in either and that the linen from Italy is not even layered. They are also from places and times which did not leave us the pictures of the shoulder-flap cuirasses or the texts which mention linen body armour.

If anyone ever finds evidence for glued linen armour in the ancient world (other than "we built some and it looks kind of like these paintings and protects pretty well") , they can bring it forward for examination.