Viking Leather lamellar Armour; lamellar Cuirass; Leather Armor; Viking Armor

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Debunking Common Misconceptions about Lamellar Armor in Popular Culture Misconception: Lamellar Armor is Inflexible and Restrictive A brigandine is a form of body armour from the Middle Ages. It is a garment typically made of heavy cloth, canvas, or leather, lined internally with small oblong steel plates riveted to the fabric, sometimes with a second layer of fabric on the inside. A number of lamellar plates were found in a the "garrison" at Birka, Sweden, dated to c.900-950. A re-examination and study of lames is discussed by Niklas Stjerna in 'Steppe nomadic armour from Birka', Fornvannien 99 (2004). Stjerna concludes that the style of the armour is wholly in line with Turkic steppe models, with parallels to depictions from East Turkestan; the lacing system is similar to a burial from Balyk-Sook, Altai, dated c.700-1000. A complete suit of lamellar has been found on Gotland, in the Baltic.

The earliest evidence points to the early- Iron Age Assyrians as the people responsible for the early development and spread of this form of armour, during the Neo-Assyrian Empire. In the numerous battle scenes depicted in the reliefs from Niniveh and Nimrud, commemorating the victories of Ashurnasirpal and Ashurbanipal from the 8th and 7th centuries BCE, hundreds of Assyrian soldiers, both infantry and cavalry, are represented wearing cuirasses constructed of lamellae. These cuirasses reach from shoulder to waist, and in many instances they have short, close sleeves. If we accept the representations as correct and translate the method of construction literally, then we are confronted with a type of lamellar armour quite different from later specimens. [2] In Muscovy, there was a type of armour known as the kuyak, believed to have Mongolian origins [10] [13] and analogous to Central Asian, [14] Indian and Chinese brigandines. [15] The word "kuyak" is itself a derivative from the Mongol huyag, which means "armour" (of any type). No known intact examples of this type of armour survives, but historical depictions, textual descriptions and photos [16] remain. Andrade, Tonio (2016), The Gunpowder Age: China, Military Innovation, and the Rise of the West in World History, Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-0-691-13597-7 . See also a photo of the same set of armour (in the center). Dated late 15th century. The description: "5. A soft type of armour which bears the name of the kuyak, also with a kuyak helmet (15th century)". Laminar cuirasses were manufactured in Japan as early as the 4th century. [3] Tankō (laminar), worn by foot soldiers and keikō (lamellar), worn by horsemen were both pre-samurai types of early Japanese cuirass constructed from iron plates connected by leather thongs.In this way, the Mongols avoided the more painful process of breaking the arrow’s shaft, forcing it into the skin, and pushing the arrowhead remnants out of the skin. Friday, Karl F. (2004). Samurai, Warfare and the State in Early Medieval Japan. New York: Routledge. p. 94. ISBN 978-0-415-32963-7.

There are depictions of Sicilo-Normans wearing lamellar in the late eleventh and twelfth century, under heavy Islamic cultural and military influence. This should be seen as an extension of the Byzantine and middle Eastern world and does not provide useful evidence for western Europe. It has been proposed that the medieval era kite shield favoured by the Normans was introduced to Europe by the Vikings. [29] However, no documentation or remains of kite shields from the Viking period have been located by archaeologists, and the idea has been discarded. [30] Lamellar armour is a type of body armour, made from small rectangular plates (scales or lamellae) of iron or steel, leather ( rawhide), or bronze laced into horizontal rows. Lamellar armour was used over a wide range of time periods in Central Asia, Eastern Asia (especially in China, Japan, Mongolia, and Tibet), Western Asia, and Eastern Europe. The earliest evidence for lamellar armour comes from sculpted artwork of the Neo-Assyrian Empire (911–609 BCE) in the Near East. A picture really does save a thousand words, especially with something as complicated as lamellar armour! Partial plate armour in the form of a cuirass sewn together with fabric is mentioned in the Wubei Yaolue, 1638. Called quantiejia (complete metal armour), the text describes the usage of 100 catties of Fujian iron, 4–5 piculs of northern coal, and over 10 piculs of southern coal in the creation process of the plates. After finishing the plates, they were lacquered and linked together using cotton and woolen ropes. A full set of quantiejia weighed around 34.4 catties. One Ming catty was around 590 grams, making a full set of quantiejia around 20kg in weight. It's not known how common plate armour was during the Ming dynasty, and no other source mentions it. There are no records of mail and plate used together from Chinese records but the Veritable Records of the Joseon Dynasty does mention the dismissal of an official for failing to supervise the production of "Chinese mail-and-plate armour" in the 15th century.According to Meng Hong, the reason for the Mongols' success was that they possessed more iron than previous steppe peoples. [78] Lamellar armour of leather (more appropriately considered untanned or superficially tanned rawhide), bronze and iron appeared by the mid-4th century BC. It consisted of individual armour pieces (lamellae, lamella singular) that were either riveted or laced together to form a suit of armour. [6] Iron helmets constructed with multiple lamellae began to replace the one piece bronze helmets of old. One sample discovered in Yi county, Hebei Province was composed of 89 lamellae, averaging 5cm x 4cm. [7] Sacred texts and buried treasures: issues in the historical archaeology of ancient Japan, William Wayne Farris, University of Hawaii Press, 1998 P.75