Medieval Armor | Ancient Roman Weapons

What do you think of when someone says "Greek Helmet"? The first thing that pops into your head is a picture of a Spartan soldier, complete with a red cape, round, bronze shield, long spear, and a bronze or brass helmet with the ever-so popular plume. Fortunately, stores have recognized this fact and this type of helmet is widely carried online and in brick-and-mortar stores. Commonly names as the Italic Corinthian helmet or just plainly a Spartan helmet, this replica will be a great addition to your collection. What you'll most likely see are three types of helmets: a brass helmet with tan or red plume, a black helmet with a tan plume, or a silver (plain metal) helmet with a tan plume.
Each of these will work just fine as a Spartan or Greek helmet. However, you may be surprised to hear that none of these was historically the actual helmet common Spartan soldiers wore. Most Spartans wore helmets that were quite plain and had no plume. They were characterized by two long cheek guards and a slit in between them for breathing. Though they were historically made out of bronze or brass, today's replicas will be made out of steel or brass.
Another popular Greek helmet is the Hoplite helmet. The Hoplite was a common soldier for the Greek armor and they carried the recognizable white round shield and a long spear. They were excellent for repelling cavalry and charges by soldiers. However, being not very maneuverable, they were vulnerable to attacks in the rear. The hoplite helmet usually has a tan or whitish color plume. Often times it was made into a braided pony tail at the end of the plume.

The earliest form of medieval armor -- mail (a.k.a. “chain mail”) -- traces its origins back to around 500 BC. The Celtic people developed this kind of armor -- iron rings
woven together into a protective garment -- and the Roman Army later copied this engineering to protect its soldiers. In the early Medieval Ages, armor craftsmen added discs, plates, and groin caps to standard mail gear to protect vulnerable areas. Leather coats, kneecaps, underarm protectors (a.k.a. “besagews”), and skullcaps (such as early forms of the bassinet) all provided critical support for soldiers as well.

As the Middle Ages progressed, however, advanced new weapons -- like the crossbow, battle-axe, long bow, and mace -- gained popularity among warriors, making mail and even plated mail far less effective at defense.

1. Plate Armor
2. Armor for Horses
3. Shields

The civil war weapons were basically brought into operation when the Union and the Confederate troops went to the first ever modern war in history. Civil War weapons exemplified a revolutionary change from earlier nineteenth century forms of artillery. The civil war weapons may be distinguished into artillery, small arms, Minnie ball and edged weapons. Mostly, the two types of cannons were used in the war, the first was the riled cannon and the second was the smooth bored cannon. The artillery used during the civil war showed classification on the basis of siege artillery and the tactical deployment.
Rifles and handguns were more frequently used in Civil War. The advancement in newly developed weapon technologies like rapid-fire guns and hand grenades give new form to war. Guns were becoming the most advanced weapons in the Civil War as earlier swords and other blades had been serving this purpose for centuries. However, due to advancement in weapons in the Civil War, these edged weapons were assigned to decoration for officers.
Along with small arms including revolvers and rifles cannons and other large artillery were the pick of the Civil War. These were used when the distance was farther than a hundred yards apart, because of the limited range of guns were not producing fruitful results during the war. In close range, the cannon could be used much like a shotgun. It was filled with a canister full of iron balls. The can split up as soon as the cannon were fired, spraying iron balls at a range of 250 yards or less. As large artillery, cannons were one of the most important weapons in the Civil War, inflicting heavy damage on both sides. Over 600,000 men were killed in the fighting.
When talking about the ancient armory collection, American Civil War weapons are some of the most popular and recognizable collectibles today. Whether you're looking for a Civil War gun, rifle, or an officer's pistol, you can have authentic and historically accurate weapons that are sure to be the ornament of your collection.

Several patterns of linking the rings together have been known since ancient times, with the most common being the 4-to-1 pattern (where each ring is linked with four others). In Europe, the 4-to-1 pattern was completely dominant. Mail was also common in East Asia, primarily Japan, with several more patterns being utilised and an entire nomenclature developing around them.

Historically, in Europe, from the pre Roman period on, the rings composing a piece of mail would be riveted closed to reduce the chance of the rings splitting open when subjected to a thrusting attack or a hit by an arrow.

Up until the 14th century European mail was made of alternating rows of both riveted rings and solid rings. After that it was almost all made from riveted rings only. Both would have been made using wrought iron. Some later pieces were made of wrought steel with an appreciable carbon content that allowed the piece to be heat treated. Wire for the riveted rings was formed by either of two methods. One was to hammer out wrought iron into plates and cut or slit the plates. These thin pieces were then pulled through a draw-plate repeatedly until the desired diameter was achieved. Waterwheel powered drawing mills are pictured in several period manuscripts. Another method was to simply forge down an iron billet into a rod and then proceed to draw it out into wire. The solid links would have been made by punching from a sheet. Forge welding was also used to create solid links, but the only known example from Europe is that of the 7th century Coppergate mail drape. Outside of Europe this practice was more common such as the well known "theta" links from India.
Practical uses:-Mail is used as protective clothing for butchers against meat-packing equipment. Workers may wear up to 8 lb (4 kg) of mail under their white coats. Butchers also commonly wear a single mail glove to protect themselves from self-inflicted injury while cutting meat.

Woodcarvers sometimes use similar mail gloves to protect their hands from cuts and punctures.

Scuba divers use mail (against shark teeth) as do animal control officers (against animal teeth). Shark expert and underwater filmmaker Valerie Taylor was among the first to develop and test the mail suit in 1979 while diving with sharks. The British police use mail gloves for dealing with knife-armed aggressors.

During World War I, mail was evaluated as a material for bullet proof vests, but results were unsatisfactory as the rings would fragment and further aggravate the damage.[citation needed] A mail fringe, designed by Captain Cruise of the British Infantry, was added to helmets to protect the face but this proved unpopular with soldiers, in spite of being proven to defend against a three-ounce (100 g) shrapnel round fired at a distance of one hundred yards (90 m).

Stab Proof Vests
After an intensive period of study and analysis of stab vests starting in the 1980s revealed that vests capable of providing ballistic protection were insufficient to protect against "ice-picks" or knife thrusts. The highest threat-level of modern stab-proof vests are now being made which incorporate mail armour.

There is anecdotal evidence to suggest that mail is a viable alternative to heavy leather for protecting motorcyclists from injury should they be thrown from their motorcycles.

Mirror armour (Old Russian Зерцало Zertsalo which means a "mirror", Kazakh: Шар-айна Shar-ayna were Kazakh: айна ayna means a "mirror" too), sometimes referred to as disc armour or Chahar-Ainé (Persian چهاﺮآﻳنه ) where "آﻳنه " means mirror and " چهاﺮ" is the number "four". It literally translates to "four mirrors" which is a reflection of how these pieces looked, which resembles four rivetted metal discs or oblong mirrors. It is a kind of oriental partial plate armour which was developed initially from round metal mirrors (a kind of rondel) worn over other armour (usually over mail) as enforcement. Metal mirrors in this armour were considered not only as protection from cold steel and arrows, but also from supernatural influence. It was believed that mirrors could reflect the evil eye, so they were polished and worn over other armour.

Early mirror armour consisted of a round mirror attached to the body with a few leather laces (similar to the Roman phaelerae of Romulus' time).

Late mirror armour took the form of a mirror cuirass, helmet, greaves, and bracers worn with mail. There were two alternative constructions of mirror cuirass:

* with discs - two large round mirrors surrounded by smaller mirror plates
* without discs - typically having four mirror plates - frontplate, backplate, and two sideplates joined by hinges or laces, similar in construction to the Japanese Yukinoshita Dô/Sendai Dô. The main difference from Yukinoshita Dô/Sendai Dô was that the right plate in Yukinoshita Dô/Sendai Dô consisted of two overlapping plates. Another difference is that the mirror cuirass may have three or five plates, instead of four, and open from the front.

Early types of this armour were known in the Middle East, Central Asia, India, Russia, Siberia (where it was worn by Siberian natives before the Russian conquest), Mongolia, Indochina and China.

Later types of this armour were known in the Middle East, Central Asia, India, and Russia. The mirror cuirass with discs was popular in Turkey and Russia, while that without discs was popular in Persia, Central Asia and India.

In India, there was a popular form of brigandine with a few mirror plates riveted to it.

According to Bobrov[1] round metal mirrors worn by Mongolian warriors as armour reinforcement are shown in Persian miniatures of 13c. This is verified by archaeological finds in Central Asia and the Far East. This kind of armour prevailed in Central Asia during 15-17c, and could be worn over any armour including brigandines, lamellar armour, chainmail and even plated mail. In 16c in Persia mirror plates become much larger and changed their shape to rectangular in order to improve body protection. This improved mirror armour gradually spread during 16-17c to Central Asia and North India. Further improvements were made during the 1640s when mirror plates evolved into mirror cuirass, which sometimes had additional mirror plates used as pauldrons for protection of the shoulder laces. Besides separate mirror plates laced as reinforcement to other armours there were small mirrors that were sewn or riveted to brigandine. Brigandines with such integral reinforcements were very popular at the end of 15c, but their use had practically been abandoned by the end of 17c.

Many historical reenactment groups, especially those whose focus is Antiquity or the Middle Ages, commonly use mail both as practical armour and for costuming. Mail is especially popular amongst those groups which use steel weapons. A fighter wearing hauberk and chausses can run, lie, stand up, jump, do somersaults (or even cartwheels), and even swim wearing full armour, depending on the fitness of the wearer. A modern hauberk made from 1.5 mm diameter wire with 10 mm inner diameter rings weighs roughly 10 kg and contains 15,000–45,000 rings. Mail can be used under everyday clothes and many reenactors wear a hauberk under their regular clothes to accustom themselves to it.

One of the two real drawbacks of mail is the uneven weight distribution; the stress falls mainly on shoulders. Weight can be better distributed by wearing a belt over the mail, which provides another point of support.

A reenactment of a long-distance march conforming to service conditions in the Imperial Western Roman army has recently revealed that mail which is worn daily is effectively rustproof and self-polishing; the motion of the rings against each other keeps them scoured.

Decorative uses

Mail remained in use as a decorative and possibly high-status symbol with military overtones long after its practical usefulness had passed. It was frequently used for the epaulettes of military uniforms. It is still used in this form by the British Territorial Army, and the Royal Canadian Armour Corps of the Canadian Army.

Mail also has applications in sculpture and jewelry, especially when made out of precious metals or colorful anodized metals. Recent trends in mail artwork include headdresses, Christmas ornaments, chess sets, and all manner of jewelry. For these non-traditional applications, hundreds of new weaves or patterns have been invented

Several patterns of linking the rings together have been known since ancient times, with the most common being the 4-to-1 pattern (where each ring is linked with four others). In Europe, the 4-to-1 pattern was completely dominant. Mail was also common in East Asia, primarily Japan, with several more patterns being utilised and an entire nomenclature developing around them.

Historically, in Europe, from the pre-Roman period on, the rings composing a piece of mail would be riveted closed to reduce the chance of the rings splitting open when subjected to a thrusting attack or a hit by an arrow.

Up until the 14th century European mail was made of alternating rows of both riveted rings and solid rings. After that it was almost all made from riveted rings only. Both would have been made using wrought iron. Some later pieces were made of wrought steel with an appreciable carbon content that allowed the piece to be heat treated. Wire for the riveted rings was formed by either of two methods. One was to hammer out wrought iron into plates and cut or slit the plates. These thin pieces were then pulled through a draw-plate repeatedly until the desired diameter was achieved. Waterwheel powered drawing mills are pictured in several period manuscripts. Another method was to simply forge down an iron billet into a rod and then proceed to draw it out into wire. The solid links would have been made by punching from a sheet. Forge welding was also used to create solid links, but the only known example from Europe is that of the 7th century Coppergate mail drape. Outside of Europe this practice was more common such as the well known "theta" links from India.
Practical uses:-Mail is used as protective clothing for butchers against meat-packing equipment. Workers may wear up to 8 lb (4 kg) of mail under their white coats. Butchers also commonly wear a single mail glove to protect themselves from self-inflicted injury while cutting meat.

Woodcarvers sometimes use similar mail gloves to protect their hands from cuts and punctures.

Scuba divers use mail (against shark teeth) as do animal control officers (against animal teeth). Shark expert and underwater filmmaker Valerie Taylor was among the first to develop and test the mail suit in 1979 while diving with sharks. The British police use mail gloves for dealing with knife-armed aggressors.

During World War I, mail was evaluated as a material for bullet proof vests, but results were unsatisfactory as the rings would fragment and further aggravate the damage.[citation needed] A mail fringe, designed by Captain Cruise of the British Infantry, was added to helmets to protect the face but this proved unpopular with soldiers, in spite of being proven to defend against a three-ounce (100 g) shrapnel round fired at a distance of one hundred yards (90 m).

Stab Proof Vests
After an intensive period of study and analysis of stab vests starting in the 1980s revealed that vests capable of providing ballistic protection were insufficient to protect against "ice-picks" or knife thrusts. The highest threat-level of modern stab-proof vests are now being made which incorporate mail armour.

There is anecdotal evidence to suggest that mail is a viable alternative to heavy leather for protecting motorcyclists from injury should they be thrown from their motorcycles.