Greek Armor Timeline?

[Gaius Colletti]

Could someone please tell me at what dates or periods the bell cuirass, muscle cuirass, and the tube & yoke (linothorax/spolas) were popular? I thought I had this all figured out but, after some more research I am still confused. Of course if you have more information on other armor I would be interested to see that as well. Thanks

[Giannis K. Hoplite]

The first bell cuirass fates to the 8th century bc, at a time when the phalanx was probably nothing like what we usually have in our mind. The Argos cuirass was found with a Kegel helmet and it is unique in the sence that no such cuirass has been found dating many years before and after this example.
In the 7th century the bell cuirass seems very popular. We have the Chigi vase showing all the hoplites wearing it, and we also have some archeological finds.
In the 6th century the bell cuirass is still the most popular type of armour, but towards the end of this century (around 525-530 bc)we see the first tube and yoke cuirasses along the bell cuirass. By that time the bell type has already started having some more realistic anatomical characteristics, like more refined belly muscles, as we can see in laconian statuettes and in the Siphinian treasure in Delphi. I cannot say that this is really visible in the actual examples however, but we don't really have that many from that period.
Since the tube and yoke first appears in art, it seems that it quickly dominated over any other type of armour. In the start of the 5th century we see almost nothing else, but the 5th century was the time that probably hosted the biggest variety of armour since in this period we see some bell cuirasses as well, and the first muscled cuirasses start to apear in art. We don't have archeological finds from that early but we do see the fully developed muscled cuirass in vase art.
In italy the muscled cuirass became much more popular since the beginning. The vast majority of finds come from there and it continues to be popular till much later, probaly till roman times, even though the last examples date to the late 4th century.
The tube and yoke is the dominant type during the early 4th century even though it starts to change form slowly. The muscle type is becomming more and more popular in sculpture but we don't have archeological finds from Greece or they are too fragmentary. Exception is the iron cuirass now in Corfu, and it is a double exception since it is iron and not bronze.
In the meantime, the bell cuirass was still very popular to Thracian warlords during the fifth century, together with scale tube and yoke and muscled cuirasses a bit later.
The muscled and tube and yoke still exist in hellenistic times, but we cannot be sure of their frequency since we don't have many archeological finds.

Hope it helps you

Khaire
Giannis

[Gaius Colletti]

As always Giannis, you have been a tremendous help,, thank you!

[hoplite14gr]

Hmmm...

The Toledo collection shows composite armor from the 7th century and some late Geomtric art shoes warriors in what could be described as non metallic armor.

Armor that follows body anatomy started appearing from 6th century and reaching perfection in the 4th century.

But things are not so rigid.

If grant dads armor was the only thing you had anf you could not afford something better is means that you would wear it to protect yourself and pay no heed to fashion victims :mrgreen:

Kind regards