Padded Armour

[Daniel S Peterson]

I saw it in Cairo but it was something like 20 years ago. It was laying flat, close to ground level in an unlit case. It was hard to see much. I recall Peter Connolly painted it in one of his books, complete with patches of felt. Perhaps he had better light. In his text he confirms it is "felt".

Before everyone starts covering their shields with felt however, I would say that this is most probably only a base layer for applying a sheet of rawhide. When roofing a house with stiff tarpaper, a kind of felt is laid down first which is supposed to make the tarpaper last longer. I could see the same thing making sense on a shield.

Felt probably does not survive long in a wet European type archaeological site for it is only compressed hairs held together with a binding agent. It could be excavated and not even recognized as woven fabric would.

I do not think there is any doubt it was used extensively througout the Roman world, and I suspect if all the cloth fragments recovered in more arid places were to be reexamined, we will find that a number of them are felt. I recall something mentioned in Simon James Dura Europas book about a "cap" that may have been felt.

I believe "Libyan Hide" may be the ancient name for a very high quality goatskin from that region known later as "Morrocco Leather". If impregnated with fat, it would become a waterproof cover for a felt "subarmallis".

Dan