Reconstructing Ancient Linen Body Armor - New Book

[Dan Howard]

I can't help wondering how differently Aldrete et al would have gone about their reconstructions if they'd had available the information that you could produce at least half their proposed cuirass thickness in one layer of cloth.

I'm not sure it is relevant in the case of body armour. We have plenty of examples of textile armour from Europe to India to South America and none of them are made using weaves like that. Textile armour was either made by stuffing the garment like a cushion and then compressing it with quilting or it was made of multiple layers of quilted cloth (sometimes a combination of both). Standalone armour could be anywhere from 15-30 layers while composite armour was lighter. There isn't a single example from any place or time period in which glue was used in the construction.

It would be very useful however, to test the effectiveness of multiple layers of linen compared to a single thick "twined" layer. It would contribute far more to this subject than all the resources that were squandered messing around with glue.