Dura -fragment of "armoured tunic"- subarmalis??

[Caballo]

This- described as a fragment of an armoured tunic in the Yale catalogue from Dura Europas- was a new one for me - looks to me like a combination of a dagged leather, linen and metal item. Is this a subarmalis, with some of the original armour remaining? If so, are we looking at it from the inside- ie armour on the white cloth , then a layer of leather (as described by Vegetius), then linen padding?
Its presently in storage at Yale.
From http://ecatalogue.art.yale.edu/ go to collections, and search under arms and armour.

[brennivs - tony drake]

There seams to be more of it

Regards Brennivs

[Paullus Scipio]

In the words of Spock...."Fascinating, Captain!"

Of course it is difficult to see in a brief look at a photo, but it seems to me from your original post that the'dagged leather' is a strip sewn to the edge of the linen (see also Brennius' photo ), there is then a row of scales(?) and above that what looks very like Asian or Japanese lames/lamellar armour in shape...and notice the side-to-side overlap, and what appears to be vertical leather joining pieces? - see also pp162-163 Russell-Robinson 'Armour of Imperial Rome' ( one lame in particular, with characteristic shape shows quite distinctively, I think)

I would hesitantly suggest that what we have here is not a sub-armalis, but rather (possibly at least) a lamellar armoured 'shirt', sewn onto a linen backing, and finished at the bottom by a row of scales, and a nifty leather dagged strip which would 'peep' out from under the row of scales (?) ....... pure speculation, but fun to do.....anyone elses's observations??

[john m roberts]

If it's armor, is it armor for a man or for a horse?

[Paullus Scipio]

...hard to tell size without some sort of scale/ruler beside the items.....

Of the three horse trappers found, one was in fragments, but the other two were relatively intact.One of these was of Copper-alloy scales 35mm( 1.34 ins) x 25mm (1 in). These were linked in rows by copper wire.The rows were then stitched with linen to a textile backing. The edges were trimmed with red leather wrapped over and sewn through.

It would be difficult to tell from size of scale alone, though, since Roman scales varied enormously -some as small as 15mm (0.57 in) x 9mm (0.34 in) to iron ones up to 80 mm (3 ins) x 54 mm (2 ins) ......

[aitor iriarte]

Isn't that one published on Simon James' book as part of horse armour? :?
I've lent that book to a friend... :x

Aitor

[John Conyard]

James has it listed as a fragment of iron scale horse armour. The scales are linked by copper alloy wire. He suggests it is part of an armour trapper or more likely part of a horse's neck armour.