I do not actualy imply that there is a link between the chinese lamelars and the Brignadine, I was just pointing out another kind of body armour.
After all, there are only so many ways to cover your body in small metal plates. ;)

In my mind Lamelar is a scale armour where the scales/plates overlapp and are riveted together in all four corners, while the Scale armour is just riveted to the backing garment at the top.


Another intersting case is the anticent middle east.
I did my major paper on silk trade throug the parthian empire, and in the process ran into the parthian Catapract;
[ Linked Image ]
Unfortuately, there are not a lot of depictions of them; this is a graffiti from Dura Europus, in what is today Iraq.
It would look like he is wearing mail on his upper torso and thighs, a corslet of larger plates, and laminated arms (Maybe similar to that worn by certain roman gladiators). The horse looks like scale or more coarsely drawn maile.... Hard to tell.

A couple of modern interpitations can be found here:
http://www.iranchamber.com/history/parthians/parthian_army.php

Very famous picture that, it's funny how something so crude and sketchy has appeared in almost every book about Parthian and Sassanid armies :).

I have also seen quite a few attempts at interpreting it as well. As you said, he is probably wearing a mail shirt, Roman style laminated arm and leg defences. I believe fragments of a 2nd or 3rd century AD Roman cuisse of this type was found at Newstead in Scotland (?) and laminated arm defences are shown on the Adamklissi Monument, which shows scenes of Trajan's campaigns against the Dacians. An alternative explanation I have read is that the limb defences are made of quilted fabric, but I don't think there is any evidence to support this. I think the corselet may be some kind of lamellar armour, but it's hard to tell.

One book I have seen reconstructed the armour as a "mail and plate" cuirass similar to those used in the Middle East, Russia and Iran from the 14th to the 18th centuries AD, however I think that is highly unlikely.

The helmet could be a conical helmet of spangenhelm construction. There has been some debate about what is underneath the helmet. My favorite interpretation is that it is probably a face covering mail aventail, similar to that on the monumental early 7th century statue at Taq-i-Bustan in Iran and on Turco-Iranian "Turban Helmets". (Like the one on my avatar :D)

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Contemporary roman sources state that
"Their armour, and that of their horses, is formed of plates, lapping over one another like the feathers of a bird, and covers both man and horse entirely."
This would sugest scale or lamelar armour. The romans used scale, but as far as I rembember they used very small scales;
http://www.carlislemillenniumdig.co.uk/pages/armour.htm

This page features a large, better picture of the graffiti, as well as a picture of persian soldiers, from the synagoge at Dura Europus. (Which is in syria, buy the way... My bad)
http://faculty.maxwell.syr.edu/gaddis/HST354/Apr17/Default.htm

There is obviously three different kinds of armour on the rider.
I'm tempted to say that the Katapract is wearing a mail shirt, reinforced with metal plates around the waist, like comonly seen on later oriental mail shirts.

The armoured figueres on the synagoge fresco seem to be wearing scale, but again the drawing is highly styliced.

A friend of mine actually visited the Dura Europus museum, and said that they had a complete lalelar horse armour there... I'm unable to find a picture or refernce of it on the net, but he said he would see if he could find any...

A segment of roman/parthian/sassania/generic anticent middle eastern lamelar, found at Zeugma, Turkey
[ Linked Image ]
The site:
http://www.classics.uwa.edu.au/projects/zeugma

According to James, there was no lamellar at all at Dura Europas. In his "Final Report" he reckons that the items that were initially described as lamellar are, in fact, scale armour. There certainly wasn't any lamellar horse armour found. It was all scale.

Regarding the Graffito, looking at the link posted by Elling I am thinking that the arms and legs of the Graffito may not be metal at all.

Take a look at the legs on the first image.
http://faculty.maxwell.syr.edu/gaddis/HST354/...lerian.jpg

And the arms on this image
http://faculty.maxwell.syr.edu/gaddis/HST354/Apr17/Hunting01.jpg

One might conclude that the artist is attempting to represent some sort of quilted padding over which was worn mail/scale armour reinforced with plates so that only the quilting on the arms and legs are visible.

Hmm, the plot thickens...

So we have at least 3 possible explanations for the lines on the Parthian cataphractus' limbs:
1. It is a laminated metal limb defence related to those worn by Roman gladiators.
2. It is a quilted fabric limb defence.
3. It is a stylised way of representing Parthian baggy clothing.

I have to admit I personnally feel that any or all of the 3 explanations could be possible, as the evidence is vague and fragmentary. I will illustrate by the following pictures:


First off we need to remember that from the death of alexander until the end of the 3rd century BC, Iraq and big chunks of Iran were part of the Hellenistic Seleucid kingdom. They were then conquered by the Parthians and became the heartland of the Parthian Empire.

This first relief is also Hellenistic, but from Pergamon:


No of course this is not Seleucid, but there seem to be laminated arm defences at the bottom there, between the helmet and the chariot wheel.

However this probably is Seleucid, it's from Iraq and it is 3rd-2nd century BC:


Then we have this relief of Parthians and Sassanids from the 3rd century AD:


But to confuse the issue we get terracotta reliefs and statuettes like these:



Edit: If a reenactment group ever decided to reconstruct the appearence of the Dura Europus cataphract, there should be some interesting discussions! :D

With the exception of the Pergamon relief at the top, I think those are all depictions of quiting (or baggy civilian clothing) and convince me more than ever that the clibanarius is wearing metal torso armour over quited shirt and leggings. Are there any primary documents describing the clibanarius? I can't find any.

How do you strap a knee cop over segmented plate so that the joint still articulates? Knee cops are more likely to be worn over soft/flexible material.

From the above pictures one can see that the Parthians wear the laminated arm deffence and scale/lamelar, while the sassanids wear mail. on their arms, and the same kind of laminated leg deffence.
Would the parthinan grand vizer, and all his Katapracts, go to war without metal armour on his arms or leggs?

Caution gentlemen.

More educational discourse and less condescension.

There is a possible clue in the term itself. The word "clibanarius" refers to the Roman field oven - suggesting that the armour worn was stiflingly hot. If only the torso was covered by metal, it is difficult to see why such a term would have been applied.