Leather Armor? (NO HOLDS BARRED!!)

[tlclark]

Matt posted this on the other board where this conversation started. It's valuable so I am reposting it here.

Avete!

Matt L., I definitely agree that leather and rawhide are different materials! The problem is that the few archeological finds are uncertain or have not been properly analyzed--it's also true that rawhide is far less likely to survive than leather of any sort. So I frankly don't know if that piece from Dura Europas is tanned or not! There is also ambiguity in the literary references, since translators are not always picky about technicalities between hide and leather, and some Latin words (or worse, Greek) can be ambiguous.

I'm like you, I feel that leather/hide had its place, but would not have been chosen as functional armor by someone who could get the best in metal armor. But they clearly did some things that we simply don't understand! Travis and I have been back and forth about this, and it seems we spend a lot of time shrugging our shoulders at each other.

[Comment inserted by Travis: LOL Isn't that the truth!! Again, I think the evidence is clear it was there, and that it was used, but in what capacity, ammounts, conditions, ceremonial or functional, all of those answers are at best educated guesses.]

That image he posted blew my little mind the first time I saw it... I think that all his suggestions could be entirely correct. Or entirely wrong! I am firmly waffling. Isn't research great?

LOL, Matt you're wonderful. If I ever get around to making one of these musculata, I'm gonna make you get one just for hanging in there with me for so long.

Personally, I think the evidence for a leather musculata is very compelling, but largely circumstantial, and I think that's the best it's ever going to be.

Travis