08-29-2016, 04:31 AM
Paullus Scipio, yes, I have read all the posts on RAT regarding what folks think about linen armor and the Greeks, and just because you say it over and over (sigh) doesn't mean you are correct. Among the folks who accept the possibility/probability of linen upper body armor are Krentz, Adkins, VDH, Snodgrass, Connolly, Schwartz, Lendon and van Wees. Even Jarva while stating his preference for leather over linen ("for the time being"), presents a series of plausible arguments in favor of some form of linen being used. Are they ALL all wrong then, and their many decades of research and publishing as poorly conceived and executed as you say Aldrete's was?
When you dismiss even the idea of the Greeks using linen for body armor because no source you are aware of supports the idea you seem to say there is no need for further research into what is depicted not on hundreds, but on thousands of pieces of intact and fragments of pottery.
The question of the use of glue to harden and connect the layers of linen is a reasonable one, one that well-informed folks can disagree about without claiming someone is perpetrating a fraud on the public. New research and the use of new technologies should answer the question soon enough. Non-destructive techniques to test and evaluate even the tiniest fragments of linen, ancient glue and linen/glue residue in soils are already in use and when these studies are published I'm 100% certain that at least some of the upper body armor depicted on Archaic and Classical pottery will have been linen impregnated with glue.
When you dismiss even the idea of the Greeks using linen for body armor because no source you are aware of supports the idea you seem to say there is no need for further research into what is depicted not on hundreds, but on thousands of pieces of intact and fragments of pottery.
The question of the use of glue to harden and connect the layers of linen is a reasonable one, one that well-informed folks can disagree about without claiming someone is perpetrating a fraud on the public. New research and the use of new technologies should answer the question soon enough. Non-destructive techniques to test and evaluate even the tiniest fragments of linen, ancient glue and linen/glue residue in soils are already in use and when these studies are published I'm 100% certain that at least some of the upper body armor depicted on Archaic and Classical pottery will have been linen impregnated with glue.
Joe Balmos
