Opinions of this lamellar cuirass, please!

[Mighty Maik]

NO, sorry!
I don`t know why not! Maybe trouble with the Orderformular
Please send it again to: [email protected]

Greetz
Maik

[Marcus Mummius]

I send you an email

[FAVENTIANVS]

That lamellar looks great to me.

[Mighty Maik]

Hi,
English Version is online

All the Best
Maik

[Marcus Mummius]

Did you get my email Maik?

[Mighty Maik]

Oh sorry!
Yes i have!
But we have a lot of trouble at the moment!
All lot of things to do. I answer you tomorrow.

All the Best and a Happy new Year to all of you
Maik

[Robert Vermaat]

Ok, thanks Maik! I am also interested in your "frankish" spangenhelm on your web-site, I have been looking for one for a long time!

I think that beautiful Niederstotzingen helmet would fit much better with that lamellar!!

[Virilis]

I think that beautiful Niederstotzingen helmet would fit much better with that lamellar!!

Yes, but it`s usage in re-enacting is just a little bit too restricted to my liking; a basic spangenhelm could go with a little imagination with the late roman, gothic and early byzantine impressions :wink: ...

[egfroth]

The only criticism I have of this cuirass is that it looks rather late period - the width of the lames and their round tops would suggest to me a dating no earlier than about the tenth century AD. The layout of the plates appears to me to be taken straight from the Byzantine klivania in the colour plates of Osprey's "Byzantine Armies - 886-1118"

Fragments of early lamellar have been found - the museum of Crypta Balbi in Rome has a large number of lamellae, presumably all from the same klivanion. The plates are rectrangular, and considerably narrower than those in your example. But even these are 6th, rather than 4th century. I am told the Museo Alto Medioevo in Ostia, just outside Rome, also has a partial lamellar suit from about the same period, but I haven't seen these myself.

There's a fairly early representation on a Byzantine or Lombard dish at http://forums.armourarchive.org/phpBB2/ ... hp?id=9768 - but that's 6th century as well - 2 centuries later than you're interested in.

There's always the armour shown in the representations of the victory at the Milvian Bridge on the Arch of Constantine, dated fairly early in Constantine's reign. But that appears to be scale rather than lamellar.

So I guess if you want to portray 4th century, there's really no evidence that a cuirass of this type was used. Whether you let that affect you is another question. The evidence available from this period is incredibly thin on the ground at the best of times; however what evidence we do have doesn't really support this style of lamellar for the period you're interested in.

[Virilis]

Thanks Steven for the information! How about this lamellar cuirass, then? It is from the same vendor...

[lup_alb]

That looks like a simplified reconstruction of the medieval lamelar armor found at Visby.
Look here:
http://www.hoashantverk.se/hantverk/hoa ... _27bc.html

If the romans had used lamelar, it should have looked like this:
Lorica Squamata from Mainz (it is called scale armor but in fact the scales are conected to each other in vertical plan too so looks like a lamelar armor).
http://www.romanhideout.com/armamentarium.asp
Here is a lamelar that looks like that but it's medieval and turkish, but turks used many armor parts similar to the roman armors... they even used something very similar to a manica until the XVI century.

[aitor iriarte]

Turkish locking-scale armour 8)
Do you have a pic of the other side, Romulus (i.e. Is ithe cuirass open or closed at the other side) :?:

Aitor

[lup_alb]

No. I don't have a picture of the other side, but usually those armors were tied up on both sides. If there is only on side with fastenings, that will be the left side because it's protected by the shield.

[aitor iriarte]

Thanks, Romulus!

Aitor

[egfroth]

Virilis, that one certainly resembles the 6th century examples a lot more.

The one Romulus posted resembles the 4th century examples on the Arch of Constantine, but of course isn't commercially available.

Do we actually know whether or not lamellar was even used by the Romans as early as the 4th century? I've never seen it represented that early, or seen any archaeological remains, but this period is not my main area of interest.

BTW, Romulus, do you have a date for that Turkish cuirass?