Yes, I heard the group of sighs, but this is fairly specific in nature and venue, and no Dan,...no Vikings

Are there any good references to Syrian, Sarmatian, or Egyptian scale armour which could have been composed exclusively of rawhide scales? I'm specifically looking for scale which exhibits a medial ridge. Yes, picky, I know.

Oriental Armour By H. Russell Robinson has a depiction of Egyptian scale from the 7th Century B.C. citing bronze, but I understand that rawhide was used in conjunction with these. Also he shows Syrian Scale from Nuzi, 5th Century B.C. but does not cite the material used. My problem with Robinson is that he states that the Egyptian scale armour depicted from the wall painting from the tomb of Kenamon, 1436-1411 B.C. had a circular neck protector which was made of leather which is of course, impossible to tell from a wall painting.

Any help would be appreciated.

An example was found by Carter in Tut's tomb. It is currently in the Cairo museum. They aren't sure whether it was made from rawhide or oil-cured leather. Thomas Hulit studied it the most and wrote it up in his PhD thesis. He made a replica of this and a bronze example and shot them with arrows.

Dan, don't the Nuzi tablets refer to a *lot* of rawhide scale armor? Something like 200 times as many as bronze, if I'm remembering correctly? Probably no references to midribs, though!

I always assumed the neckguard in that fresco was bronze, like the Dendra one. It *looks* like bronze, even has ridges and a flaired rim, I think.

Matthew


PS: Viking scales were always black leather. With studs. Ouch, stop hitting me!

Dan: Thanks for the reference. Do you know if there is a readily available image of Hulit's replica?

Matthew: Robinson's image of the Nuzi tablets does show a medial ridge, but then again a corroboration by another reference would be best.

In short, I'm looking for as complete a reconstruction of either, both or any of these.

The entire PhD thesis can be downloaded here
http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?did=1&...hos.247577