Today I heard someone describing an Assyrian relief of the 10th century BCE and mentioned that one of the warriors wore "bronze chain mail." He didn't seem to be a military history or arms and armour expert, but this not only seems extremely early dating for mail (one of my sources said that mail was invented around 300 BCE), but I've never heard of functional bronze mail either. Is this just a case of the man misinterpreting the relief, or is there something about mail that I haven't heard of?

Thanks,
Max

Thanks for your help, Hisham.
Max

Victorians commonly used the word "mail" to describe any sort of metal armour - plate mail, scale mail, chain mail, etc. The above reliefs have not been misidentified. The person who described the reliefs would have considered "mail" to be the correct term for scale armour.

FWIW bronze mail is perfectly functional. The metal may need to be annealed more often than iron but it was made. IRC there are several surviving Persian mail shirts dating to around the 5th century AD.

I'd also like someone to explain to me how a person can look at a stone carving and know what type of metal a particular item being depicted is made from.

Looking at the Assyrian reliefs I don't see "maille" at all, rather a brigandine type garment or one of studded hide
more likely. But as always I envy those beards!

Doug G.

Definitely no studded armour. The Assyrians used iron scale extensively. The scales were laced onto the foundation, not riveted. Some claim that they invented lamellar. This is not true.