Roman Leather Lamellae Scales from Karanis, Egypt

[Urselius]

The scale size doesn't tell us that it is horse armour

It doesnt make sense for a person to wear 7cm x 4.6cm scales. They would functionally be useless. The only clear conclusion is that they were meant for a horse IMO.

Perhaps that would be true of metal, but leather scales would presumably be somewhat more flexible. Larger scales/lamellae would also need less lacing than smaller ones and therefore produce a less expensive piece of armour.

I cannot imagine that native Egyptian methods of armour production survived the many centuries of assimilation to the Hellenistic and Roman worlds. It seems more likely that, as the Roman army is the only substantial organised entity in Egypt at this date requiring armour, the armour belonged to a Roman soldier. Probability would suggest that this should be the primary hypothesis, recourse to any other explanation would need further contextual evidence.