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Questions (linothorax, sandals, Spartan moustache)
#46
Quote:In EVERY book I own for Ancient Greek warfare (over 100 books), every author (ancient or modern) speaks about the HUGE weight of the panoply!
Those books are wrong. Most books rely on outdated scholarship and rarely do authors attempt to independently confirm their "facts".

Quote:The "Aspis" was between 9-11 kgr heavy... The helmet ONLY, was about 3 kgr AT LEAST heavy - if it had a HIGH-LONG plume, it was heavier... Your "Dendron" panoply was as much as heavy as it was a Medival Knight's armor! That's why these guys fought on chariots and they had "bad day", if they had to get of the chariot and fight in the ground...
The best source for Dendra Panoply information is Paul Astrom and he was closely consulted during the construction of my replica. The metallurgical composition of the plate is very close to the original and the plate thickness is the same or heavier than the original. The armour, including the boar's tusk helm and gorget, weighs just a little over 25 kg. Considering that some segments of the plate are heavier than the original it is reasonable to conclude that the original was lighter. It is impossible to get an accurate weight of the original because of all the restoration work that has been done on it.

Regarding the "huge weight" of this, I can run, jump, throw a spear, fire a bow, even play cricket in it (I had to try this after Andrew said he did it). It takes me all of two seconds to get to my feet after lying on my back. It is perfectly possible to do everything expected of heavy infantry in a Dendra Panoply.

Regarding the bell cuirass Connolly says that the Argos example, when lined, would have weighed about 6 kg. [Greece and Rome at War, p.58]. Regarding the Argive shield, Connolly says that the Vatican example would have weighed about 7 kg in its original form. [Greece and Rome at War, p.53]

People constantly overestimate the actual weight of medieval armour. A medieval knight wearing fully articulated plate would rarely have carried more than 30 kg. All that is required to learn about this subject is to examine a handful of museum catalogues or any number of Journals. I have one of the Royal Armouries Journals in my hand now:

Arms & Armour, Vol 2 No 1, 2005.
Page 12 has a table of 30 breastplates dating between 1625 and 1650. The lightest weighs 2.813 kg and the heaviest weighs 4.7kg. Nineteen of these were proofed against firearms. On page 20 the article describes 39 breastplates from the Popham armoury at Littlecote with an average weight of 4 kg. Again, the majority of these were proofed against firearms.
During earlier centuries before firearms were common, plate armour was even lighter. For example the plate harness attributed to Wladislas (King of Bohemia 1471, d.1516), and made in South Germany around 1510 (Wallace Collection A22) only weighs 20 kg in total (including the helmet).
http://www.wallacecollection.org/i_s/co ... armour.htm
http://www.rdg.ac.uk/engin/home/materia ... poster.ppt
Author: Bronze Age Military Equipment, Pen & Sword Books
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#47
Agree Dan.
There was a publication called "Encyclopedia of medieval warfare". with lots of photos. It showed renactrors doing acrobatics in full plate armor!

Most modern wooden hoplitee shields go up to 6 kgr. At leastr those that were available in June. I did not felt very strained at hoplitodromy in Watford

Also I would not describe linothorax as very heavy item.
Kind regards
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#48
Anyway, friends... I'm not expert or study to make an armor myself; I don't looking forward anyway... I'm here in this forum (among other similar), to gathering infos for my illustrations...

So... I'll not argue with you guys... You may are better informed than me.
aka Romilos

"Ayet`, oh Spartan euandro... koroi pateron poliatan... laia men itin provalesthe,
...dori d`eutolmos anhesthe, ...mi phidomenoi tas zoas. Ouh gar patrion ta Sparta!
"
- The Lacedaimonian War Tune -
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