Linothorax design/construction

[PMBardunias]

Unfair!....Is this your best reply,really to my previous post?

You're right, I was being an arguement bully by tossing the ball back at you without answering :lol:

When I came up with the idea of pectoral sized metal plates stitched into the linen matrix ( not overlapping inside like a brigandine or outside like scale) I had zero evidence of it occuring in Greece. It was all conjecture based on some features of the linothorax in vase representations:

1) Box shaped body. Could be heavy sewn quilted panels, but unless very thick quilted or leather armor would more naturally be in the form of a tube and probably not have the yoke, but be more like a vest or jacket.

- metal pieces account for the boxy shape and the need for a seperate yoke for the shoulders which may not have metal.

2) A metal plate easily explains why the front looks less armored than the sides or the top of the chest- places that need less protection than right over the solar plexus.

3) The "decorative" bands seen across the chest make sense if they are the borders of plates.

4) Provides a transition from all bronze to just linen. Without plates we have a scenario where they go from all bronze to no bronze and then bring it back as scale for some reason.

5) Perhaps it explsins the odd attachment of the shoulder flaps- they are so low to be fastened directly to plate.

6)Um...any other good arguement I may have espoused previously that I now forget.

I was forced to make analogies to armors from far different cultures, but now I have some precedent from greece. I could be right in terms of sequence and wrong in terms of time. The whole progression I present may have happened in the bronze age!

The fact is, I don't know. I'm simply presenting a possibility. Why not play devil's advocate and see if you can think of anything else a linothorax with plates would account for that linen or leather alone does not?