Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Scale armour is an early form of armour consisting of many individual small armour scales (plates) of various shapes attached to each other and to a backing of cloth or leather in overlapping rows. [1] Scale armour was worn by warriors of many different cultures as well as their horses.
Historical reenactment of a Sasanian-era cataphract, complete with a full set of scale armour for the horse. The rider is covered by extensive mail armour.. A cataphract was a form of armoured heavy cavalry that originated in Persia and was fielded in ancient warfare throughout Eurasia and Northern Africa.
As depicted, the body hugging scale armour (especially covering the horses' legs) is entirely impractical and must reflect artistic licence based on an oral description. In the period following this war the Romans established the first of their own regular units of cataphracts, they were most likely equipped like the Sarmatians.
A museum display of a sixteenth-century knight with an armoured horse Chinese Song dynasty lamellar horse barding as illustrated on Wujing Zongyao. Barding (also spelled bard or barb) is body armour for war horses. The practice of armoring horses was first extensively developed in antiquity in the eastern kingdoms of Parthia and Pahlava.
Also horses would probably have had armored chests and heads, consisting of an apron and headpiece, or total body protection consisting of five separate pieces, made from either boiled leather or scale armor. Some asbaran units such as mercenaries may have worn little to no armor at all, allowing them to be rather more swift, silent, and mobile.
Mail armour was introduced to the Middle East and Asia through the Romans and was adopted by the Sassanid Persians starting in the 3rd century AD, where it was supplemental to the scale and lamellar armour already used. Mail was commonly also used as horse armour for cataphracts and heavy cavalry as well as armour for the soldiers themselves ...
The first element of body armour to fall out of use was foot and leg protection. Around the same time plate and mail horse barding was relegated to a ceremonial role until disappearing for good in the mid-17th century. [1] In the 18th century, the only troop type to wear body armour was the cuirassier, named after their cuirass. [2]
For a Gothic or Vandal nobleman the most common form of armour was a mail shirt, often reaching down to the knees, and an iron or steel helmet, often in a Roman Ridge helm style. Some of the wealthiest warriors may have a worn a lamellar cuirass over mail, and splinted greaves and vambraces on the forearms and forelegs.