01-11-2016, 10:20 PM
I'm new-ish to RAT but I thought that I would chime in on this old thread only to add that I don't think that we are accounting for the fact that our modern waist size is surely much larger than our ancient counterparts. When I use graphical software to layout a buckle, frogs and plates to scale for my waist size at 38 inches, I am able to place 8-10 plates only (the smaller number of plates are if no plates are placed beneath the apron). I take this to mean that someone with a much smaller waist (for example my waist at age 18 was 28-30 inch circumference?!), there would be 3-4 fewer plates per belt. Who knows whether the plates were left off under the apron or in the back but my guess would be that they left them off under the apron when the apron passes over the belt. This number of plates seems to agree with the numbers of plates found in the archaeological record.
