Reconstructing Ancient Linen Body Armor - New Book

[Thomas V.]

The authors' favoured linen cuirass reconstruction is 10 or more layers of linen laminated with rabbit-skin glue to produce a cuirass about 10-12mm thick. Now Granger-Taylor's article in Wearing the Cloak discusses possible fragments of pteryges from Masada and a greave from Dura, both 5mm thick, produced with composite threads and a characteristic "twining" weaving technique. 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.

Given the right thicknesses of the active and the passive part of the twined piece, even one layer of cloth could achieve a thickness of 10-12 mm.

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.

I share your view regarding the Dura Europa piece, yet I think that Granger-Taylor's article has a merit in terms of the connection between twining and armour, as said article mentions twined coconut fibre armour from Oceania. After all, armour made by using the twining technique exists. Here is an example (albeit not the one used iin Hero Grangers article):
   
The resemblance (appearance and material properties) to T&Ydepictions are remarkable.

For those asking themselves why I am resurrecting an old thread by making a post which isn't fully related to the title of the thread: Since I came across the picture yesterday, the resemblance mentioned above makes me wonder, why Granger-Taylor's twining hypothesis didn't seem to be able (at least in my eyes) to get a foothold among reenactors and the living history community.

Regards,
Thomas V.