Padded Armour

[tlclark]

A

This would seem to turn every theory I had about the defensive value of pteruges on their heads.

The weave is extemely large, indicating almost knitting. What could be the defensive value of such a large weave?

Actually, the weave is very large, but not loose. It's weft faced, which means that the weave is so tightly packed you can't see the warp at all. That could make a very heavy wool band, much like tablet weaving and I don't know if that would be effective or not, but it seems to me that it would. Weft-faced double weave is what is being used to make the bands of clavi on late tunics. This would just be very heavy clavi bands.

In any case it's clear that at the very least the pteruges are cloth faced. They may have had felt or leather cores that added further defensive value. Having seen a lot of pteruges, they seem more flexible than leather so I think they are cloth of laminate cloth.

One of the problems is the edging, which when you see it up close is really problematic since it seens to go around all three edges, but if that's the case, how does the fringe poke out the bottom? That implies a core of one material and two layers on both sides to make a pteruge "sandwich".

Looking at the weave like pattern on the pteruges, it made me think of weft-faced bands. In weaving, the fringe and edging could be naturally produced on the loom, this would greatly simplify their construction.

Travis