Topics for Academic Fame

[Theodosius the Great]

I am not that knowledgeable about the prehistory of chain mail. My point was that, going by its earliest appearance, the diffusion of that type of armour follows a clear pattern from west to east, probably each time adopted in the course of military conflict with western neighboure:

Celts to Romans
Romans to Parthians
Parthians to Central Asian nomads
Central Asian nomads to China
India? Perhaps during the Muslim conquest

Agreed, that's a worthy subject and the history does seem fairly straight forward. But I was startled by something I read the other night in one of my books on Medieval heroes. In a chapter on Frederick Barbarossa there's a section on 'The Chain Mail Revolution' which basically says that chain mail was an eastern technology which, during the Crusades, replaced inferior European types of mail. I'll just quote it :

By the latter half of the twelfth century, when the crusades were in full swing, chain mail replaced the simpler scale armour to a great extent, and the pot helmet was increasingly used by the wealthier warriors. Chain mail was an eastern technology, and the crude Western version made from bands or rings fared badly when compared to the light, skilfully-made mail of the oriental cavalry during the crusading period. The Saracen warriors were able to ride and fight with far more comfort and freedom than their European adversaries. The best chain mail in the Christian armies was, at first, that looted from the Saracens. A general improvement of European mail occured due to this influence, but true chain mail was expensive, and the almost exclusive property of the lords and princes.

I'm disinclined to believe any of the claims made in the book as far as archeology or technology goes. The author cites no sources for these bold claims and most of them are contrary to everything else I've ever read on the subject of chain mail. This is pretty shoddy scholarship and the book was published in the UK back in 1988 and reprinted in 1993. In fact, the book doesn't even use footnotes, it only has a bibliography. The books on armor from the list date from the late 70s to mid-80s.

I wonder how much more misinformation is floating around out there about chain mail. Clearly a new book based on facts would do some good in setting the record straight.

~Theo