The Shoulder-Flap-Cuirass from Golyamata Mogila

Although many scholars grumble about reviews of academic books in academic journals, those reviews can still be valuable. In a review of that valuable but frustrating book from the Midwest, Raimon Graells i Fabregat mentioned some relevant evidence which the authors did not discuss:

In chapters 3 and 4, the author’s experiment is described, with a commentary on the materials and techniques used to reconstruct linen body armor. What is surprising is the absence of an analysis of the two iron cuirasses designed in the same way as linothorakes, one from Tumulus II of Vergina and the other from Burial III of Aghios Athanasios or even the complete linothorax from the Golyamata Mogila near Malomirovo and Zlanitsa. These metal cuirasses would doubtless have provided useful support and verification for technical aspects of the reconstruction.

The third armour was excavated a few years ago in modern Bulgaria (ancient Thrace), and pictures have been floating around on the Internet for some time. Fabregat cites the book in which it has been published with parallel Bulgarian and English text. It is made of one layer of medium-weight leather covered with iron scales. The collar should remind readers of the Alexander historians of a certain passage, and the difference between the right and left shoulders should make readers of Xenophon on horsemanship 12.6 ponder. The author has posted her book on academia.edu where it is available for free download (link). Download both files with the Roman numeral III in the title, and start at page 72.

I do not really know what to say, except that there is clearly more work to be done in bringing different communities into contact with each other, whether archaeologists in Bulgaria and historians in Austria, or people who are interested in material culture in an abstract way, and people who are interested in reconstructing it. And while non-archaeologists can be frustrated that archaeologists have not yet published the things which we want to learn more about, there are often other things to read while we wait if we just learn how to find them.

Fabregat, the reviewer, also reminds readers that some art from the so-called Celtic regions of Iberia, southern France, and northern Italy seems to show a version of this style of armour worn by warriors who are otherwise dressed like locals. A catalogue of this iconography is available in an article by Fabrice de Backer * and is still useful even though I have some concerns about his general statements about armour.

I also think that this find reminds us that even if we are mainly interested in one culture, sometimes evidence from their neighbours can help us understand them better. While this armour is not shaped exactly the same way as armour in Athenian vase paintings, equipment in Crete or the Greek cities in Italy was not exactly the same as Athenian fashions either.

Edit 2016-02-27: Fixed broken link to AJA Online

Edit 2016-03-03: On the tube-and-yoke armour of solid iron plates from Agios Athanasios Tomb III in Thessalonike, Raimon Graelis i Fabregat recommends Μ. Tsimpidas-Avloniti, “Άγιος Αθανάσιος, Μακεδονικός τάφος ΙΙΙ: Ο οπλισμός του ευγενούς νεκρού,” in ΝΑΜΑΤΑ: Τιμητικός Τόμος για τον Καθηγητή Δ. Παντερμαλή [Thessaloniki 2011] pp. 351–63 which is also available as a free PDF in Modern Greek.

Edit 2024-12-25: block editor

* Fabrice de Backer, “Scale-Armour in the Mediterranean Area during the Early Iron Age: a) from the XIth to the IIIrd century BC.” Revue des Études Militaires Anciennes 5 (2012)