Hi!

A friend of mine asked me to do a bit of a research. He is interested if the macedonians or greeks in Alexanders army, or in some other army in that time wore any kind of gauntlets or maby some other armor to protect their fingers and hands.

Hoo, not that I've ever seen. Greaves are common, but guards for the arms and thighs were comparatively rare. There is a nice hinged foot guard in the British Museum, REALLY rare. But nothing Greek for the hands.

There *might* be some sort of handguard with Persian or Parthian cataphract armor (heavy cavalry), maybe just a plate for the back of the hand but possibly something more substantial. It's just not something I've researched, so I don't know.

Come to think of it, I seem to recall some sort of a guard for the left hand for some armored Hellenistic cavalry, since they didn't carry shields. But again, I'm not sure.

Pretty sure that soft leather gloves did exist, though they were also quite uncommon, and they weren't armor.

Sorry, not much to go on!

Matthew

I wouldn't be surprised if they had some sort of hand protection. The guards on there swords are not very big, and I imagine you would get poped on the hands a lot.

A lot of viking reenactors wear padded gloves, but none of the texts or art depict of them wearing any sort of hand protection that I'v seen.

that's because most of us have a 9-5 day job that we use our hands for. :) the evidence just isn't there for time period gauntlets

What about this thing in Olympus? I've been meaning to ask about it; it is labeled as a 'gauntlet', if the source I got it from is to be believed.

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Hands, interestingly enough, is probably the last part of the body to be armoured...
For sparring, gloves are essential. In periods where hand protection was not common (like anything untill late 14th c, if not in full armour...) , simply consider it safety equipment when fighting, like tooth guards or cups.

First I've heard of this. There definitely wasn't any hand protection found at Dendra.

Some interesting stuff here: http://www.salimbeti.com/micenei/armour4.htm

Very interesting website.

But regarding main question- never have meet with additional gauntlets in Macedonian army. Some changes are in late Hellenistic armies, when there are more Eastern influence- then maybe we could start to talk about Persian inspired foregoer, but I have never met anything like that in Alexander's army.
Would be glad to see if anyone has any evidence.

The item was originally misidentified as ankle protection. I won't believe that it is hand armour until some who actually knows something about armour personally examines it.

HOLY CRAP! :eek: :eek: Seen at those other angles, it really does look like a gauntlet! It sure ain't no ankle guard.