[J.D. Crawford]

[Artis Aboltins]

Allright I got the "Armour from the battle of Visby" open in front of me on page 160 so here goes:
"Injuries from the cutting weapons (swords and axes) are buy far the most numerous and occur in 456 cases. I have not, however, succeeded in determining with any degre of certainty whether an injury has been caused by an axe or a sword, for which reason I am dealing with them jointly under one head in the following survery. Injuries from the arrows are also plentiful (126 cases) and some of these (60 cases) are combined with cuts. Injuries from lances are impossible to distinguish from arrow wounds, because arrows have been of different sizes.
Furthermore, we have to consider the "morning-stars"; these consisted of a wooden ball studded with square or hexagonal spikes and attached with a chain to a handle. With these weapons warriors dealt each other blows, chiefly on the head. It is probably impossible to distinguish between injuries fro a "morning-star" or an arrow, as it is not certain whether the shape of the iron points of the arrow-heads differ from those of the "morning-star" .....(follows description of how many remains with visiable injuries have been found in which of the digs)...
"In judging the injuries, we must remember that we have only been able to note a very small part of the injuries which the warriors actually sustained; for only very powerfull blows could penetrate right through the bone and leave permanent marks there"..... "as it has been menthioned in Chapter III, several crania have been found in which the coif have been cut to pieces and the blow had partially penetrated to the bones of the cranium." He follows with the detailed description of the various inuries, but of special interest for us is figure 177 (page 174) as it shows the oisutuib if the wounds on the body of a man. There is a remarkiable ammount of injuries to the arms and legs, and none whatsoever to the chest. As about injuries to the head, he writes that in common grave 1 42,3% of man have injuries to the cranium (head) in common grave 2 it is 52.3% and in common grave 3, only 5.4%. Author attributs it to the fact that warriors burried in common grave 3 probably had better armour, including better protection for the head.

[Dan Howard]

It is strange that he doesn't mention pole arms since they would have been one of the more common weapons. I'm betting that most of the damaged to coifs was done with these weapons. I seriously doubt that his morning star played much of a role in the fighting though there might have been a few individuals with them.

[Artis Aboltins]

[J.D. Crawford]

Artis, were any more details provided on the composition of the 'coifs' that were cut to pieces?

[Gary A. Chelette]

It's been a long time since I've been in here, glade to see it still lively!

Greeting to all.

[Artis Aboltins]

[Mike Sale]

hello, why didn't these guys wear a padded under garment with the mail? thanks? Mike

[Artis Aboltins]

[Dan Howard]

[Artis Aboltins]

[Dan Howard]

[Artis Aboltins]

[Steven H]

[Dan Howard]

[Artis Aboltins]

[Dan Howard]

I never claimed that it had a liner. I claimed that the most reasonable explanation is an integrated liner. Hamata has leather edging on both edges of the shoulder flaps. It has nothing to do with making it rest easier on the neck. The construction works better if it has a liner.

[Dan Howard]