Most believe that the Celts invented mail armour around 300 BC but some argue that the Etruscans invented it because of a curious find that is dated a little earlier. It consists of a bunch of long chains, joined by a few cross-links, and suspended from the bottom of metal plate.

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Based on the fact that it was attached to the bottom of the plate it seems likely that this was an attempt to make metal ptyruges. I wouldn't call it "mail" because it doesn't form an interlinked mesh but it definitely could be a kind of "proto mail". I could also see how further experimentation with this could lead to the 4-in-1 mail mesh that appears a century or so later. The contention would be whether the Etruscans developed it themselves and were the true inventors of mail or whether the Celts were the ones to develop this idea. We'd need to find an Etruscan example of proper mail dating to the 3-4th century to know for sure.

There are some supposed links between Etruscans and Celts. I need to find where I read that somewhere...

Guess Mail could be independent development since it is such a useful and long-lived technology.

Interesting pictures and post, thanks!

Found one of my sources regarding Celts and Etruscans. Peter Berresford Ellis discusses the theory and ultimately dismisses it on linguistic grounds. The book is The Celtic Empire: The First Millennium of Celtic History, 1990. He writes that Roman historians had associated the two groups way back when and in the late 19th century the idea was picked up again, mainly using by comparing some remnants of Etruscan language with Irish Gaelic. However, Ellis quite effectively discards it.

Anyhow, technological transmission isn't necessarily discouraged here, just the idea of seeing them as closely related culture groups with language sharing.

Maybe we should call it kusari? It is a type of chain armor, without necessarily being a net. Then again, I'm not really fond of calling many types of kusari "mail".

Me neither. The word essentially means "mesh". If the construction doesn't form an interlinked mesh then it isn't mail. A few cross-links don't change that. I'd simply call it a "chain skirt".

I know that assyrians got different lammelled armour types, but these look like chainmails:

http://digilander.libero.it/marcoguidocorsini...%20III.jpg

http://www.archaeologyillustrated.com/see/389...ury-bc.jpg

Dan,

Are you familiar with this one from Hansen's The Armor of the Kelts?
https://www.academia.edu/2761101/Die_Panzerung_der_Kelten._Eine_diachrone_und_interkulturelle_Untersuchung_eisenzeitlicher_R%C3%BCstungen_Kiel_2003_

P.26: Brno-Židenice grave discovered in 1925, 15,000 (bronze?) rings recovered, with a preserved sample measuring 20 cm². The rings are stung on a proven remain of organic cord. (Fig.7)

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Stone first starting writing that book in the 19th century. His first sentence on mail says, "The earliest mail was made of rings sewn on leather..." Stone's photos are wonderful but his text is seriously outdated and full of inaccuracies.

If we would call this Etruscan skirt a "mail", than there is plenty of similar Ilyrian decorative pieces made of bronze rings that we would have to call "mail" and they are all earlier than what we now call first mail armour we know of.