Lorica hamata / segmentata

[john m roberts]

We bicker endlessly about the details of armor, but take a look at the big picture. Here's a fun exercise: Make up frontal schematics of the human body, then color in the areas that have been armored throughout Western history: Assyrian, Mycenean, Classical Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Dark Ages, Viking, medieval, Renaissance, English Civil War, on up to modern times. In 90% of cases, maybe more, what's colored in is the torso and as much of the head as is consistent with adequate hearing and vision. What got armored were the parts suceptible to fatal wounds. The arms and legs mostly took their chances. There were periods when more armor was worn, mostly by horsemen, but those were relatively limited. And there was a period from the mid 17th to mid 20th centuries when armor was almost entirely discarded because firearms had made it obsolete, but it made a comeback in the late 20th with the development of new protective materials. Your schematic of one of Tiglath-Pilesar's grunts will be identical to the one of a soldier patrolling the streets of Falujah right now. Then consider the differences in weaponry and fighting styles.