Hamata by Erik Schmidt

[John M McDermott]

Here are pictures of a new hamata by Erik Schmidt. Erik made one trip to England to view a recently discovered hamata and based this hamata on some of his observations.

There are several features that will provoke discussion:

Buckles to attach doubling on the back. This is based on a recent hamata discovered in England. The buckles were clearly attached to the hamata, not sitting on top of it.

The doubling is backed in leather, not merely edged. This decision was arrived at after long consideration of the effectiveness of mail and the doubling. It seemed that merely adding doubling did nothing for the hamata in the way of added protection. Back it with something like leather, hide or linen and you increase the defensive power many times.

Tinning. The hamata is made of iron, not steel. Iron lasts about 3 rustings unprotected, then it is gone. Tinning is one solution. There may be others, but as of yet, no one has constructed a hamata using another technique for protection that we know of.

The chest hooks are based on the Kalkriese chest hooks.

[Neuraleanus]

Has the explempar that Eric copied been published? If so, where and when? What is the justification for the leather backing on the doubling?

[John M McDermott]

I will check with Erik, but it is my understanding that nothing has been published and that few have even been allowed to see it up close.

[Peroni]

Salvete,

There are sections of preserved mail on display at the Castle Museum in Colchester (Camulodunum) They are in the form of lumps, but it too has small hinged buckles among the rings. The ring sizes on this example are between 3 and 4mm internal diameter.

a photo of the find is here.. http://www.sheshen-eceni.com/images/gol ... %20col.JPG

Unfortunately only one of the hinge-plates is visible at the bottom of the picture, and another near the top of the largest section on the right.

Regards,

[John M McDermott]

Yes, I believe this is it. Erik was allowed to see it before anyone else was.

[Erik D. Schmid]

About the Colchester pieces, I was not the first to see them. However, it does seem to be an item that is not often considered when people are constructing a hamata. The pieces came from a grave and were ritualistically hacked into smaller pieces. The mail from this shirt has buckles and hinges attached directly to the mail. There were also silver fittings on it as well. After many discussions with Brian Stobbs, we came to the conclusion that perhaps the shoulder doubling was attached with buckles rather than a row of links as is so often done. This would allow for it to be easily removed for cleaning or other purpose. The heavy leather backing also came about through these discussions.

[Neuraleanus]

I'll likely include buckles when I get to the point of making the doubler for my hamata. Erik, by the way, what size rings did you use?

[Dan Howard]

Hey John,

Are you going to test its effectiveness against arrows? I am thinking that a lot of people will be surprised at its protective capabilities and an experiment of this sort will help to dispell the myth of mail's susceptibility against arrows.

[Erik D. Schmid]

The links used in this hamata are around 6.5 - 7mm ID. This size is similar to that of the mail on display in the Saalburg museum. The second one I am doing for John has links around 3.5 - 4mm ID.

[Erik D. Schmid]

Dan,

I do not think this shirt would be suitable for that sort of testing as the metal is not entirely correct. The next one might be a bit better, but will still suffer from the same metal defficiency as this one. :wink:

[Dan Howard]

Is there any sculptural evidence showing the back of a hamata?

[John M McDermott]

This one won't be used for any destructive tests. At present, it is the only one I know of that is constructed of iron and not steel.

It would be nice to test one someday, however. A lot has been bandied about concerning hamatas and their relative effectiveness. Usually, the conclusion is that they couldn't be very effective at all. And yet, the Romans continued to use them before during and after the appreance of the segmentata.

The reasoning for the backing on the doubling is this: Mail, by itself, is a very poor defense. In fact, it actually seems capable of helping to harm the wearer as the mail rings become part of the damaging force directed at the wearer. A subarmalis is necessary to create an effective defensive system. By combining a hard defense provided by the mail to a flexible, soft defense provided by a subarmalis, you get the best of both worlds. The same logic applies to the doubling. Just laying more mail on top of mail seems to add nothing but weight. Backing it with leather or linen gives more defense of the same kind.

Also, this shirt is incredilbly light. I haven't weighed it yet, but it is less than 20 lbs.

[Erik D. Schmid]

Dan,

I looked around quite a bit, but could not come up with anything that could prove one method over another.

[Tarbicus]

This one won't be used for any destructive tests.

Is it really necessary to test on a complete hamata? Can smaller areas be put together and used as test pieces. A gladius and pilum only have a small point, so small pieces would do just to see if the weapons penetrate.

I'm thinking of using small sections of scutum before getting angry with the complete thing. Mainly so I don't have to kick any dogs and upset Arthes

[Neuraleanus]

Volume 4 of JRMES has a picture of a buckle attached to a piece of maille, reportedly roman. I also remember seeing another picture posted on RAT awhile back showing buckles on a piece of maille. If someone has this, please repost it.