10-04-2013, 08:19 AM
Why waste limited resources messing around with a speculative reconstruction that has absolutely no historical support when those resources could have been spent studying real armour?
FWIW textile armour doesn't change. The same designs and construction methods have been used for thousands of years in unrelated cultures all over the world. It would have been more useful to base Greek constructions on a historical precedent rather than make up something that cannot be supported from the available evidence.
Connolly's glued linen theory was based on the assumption that the only way to get the shoulder flaps on a tube and yoke cuirass to "spring up" like in some illustrations was to make them from glue. That is it! There is nothing else behind the idea. It has since been shown that the same effect can be had from quilting and we have extant examples that do just that. The easiest example to access today is kendo armour. Take a look at the layered construction and how the rows of quilting are done. Note also that this construction is as rigid as a board. Aldrete's attempts at making quilted armour had nothing in common with historical armour so the results of any comparison with his glued samples are irrelevant
FWIW textile armour doesn't change. The same designs and construction methods have been used for thousands of years in unrelated cultures all over the world. It would have been more useful to base Greek constructions on a historical precedent rather than make up something that cannot be supported from the available evidence.
Connolly's glued linen theory was based on the assumption that the only way to get the shoulder flaps on a tube and yoke cuirass to "spring up" like in some illustrations was to make them from glue. That is it! There is nothing else behind the idea. It has since been shown that the same effect can be had from quilting and we have extant examples that do just that. The easiest example to access today is kendo armour. Take a look at the layered construction and how the rows of quilting are done. Note also that this construction is as rigid as a board. Aldrete's attempts at making quilted armour had nothing in common with historical armour so the results of any comparison with his glued samples are irrelevant
Author: Bronze Age Military Equipment, Pen & Sword Books
