Reconstructing Ancient Linen Body Armor: Unraveling the Linothorax Mystery

3 What Material Was Used to Make Type IV Armor?

c h a p t e r t h r e e What Material Was Used to Make Type IV Armor? In the attempt to reconstruct an example of Type IV armor and figure out what it was made of, one of the greatest challenges stems from two apparently conflicting characteristics evident in the visual images. On the one hand, the basic material of Type IV armor possessed considerable flexibility, because vase paintings portray ancient warriors putting on this type of armor by dramatically bending the main section from a flat rectangle into a tube shape that encloses their torsos (figs. 1.1, left; 2.5; 3.1; 8.1). Similarly, the shoulder section is shown bending from a flat shape to a sharply curved one as it comes forward around the neck and is tied down on the upper chest. On the other hand, vase paintings also depict the shoulder flaps standing rigidly and vertically upright before they are tied down, and springing upright when they are untied (figs.1.1, left and right; 2.5; 3.1; 8.1; compare with fig. 3.2). Thus, whatever substance the armor was made of had to be flexible enough to bend from a flat to a tubular shape, yet also sufficiently rigid to stand up on its own. This combination of flexibility and rigidity is difficult to replicate in practice and has led to a great deal of speculation and debate about possible materials and construction methods. To account for the conflicting qualities of Type IV armor, five competing hypotheses have been proposed for its method of construction: leather; layers of linen sewn or quilted together; layers of linen glued together; a combination of these materials, with the most commonly proposed arrangement being a central core of leather with one or more layers of linen attached on the outside; and a core of metal plates with leather or linen affixed to the outside. We will consider the main evidence and arguments for and against each of these ideas. Leather versus Linen Construction One possibility is that Type IV armor was made of leather. This is the conclusion reached by Jarva who, while conceding that some examples of Type IV on vases probably do depict linen or metal versions, argues that the leather form was the dominant one and that the others were simply imitations of it. Before discussing 58 Reconstructing Ancient Linen Body Armor Fig. 3.1. A scene of a warrior arming from an Athenian red-figure cup. He is bending the main portion of his linothorax from a flat to a tubular shape to fit around his torso. Note the manner in which the untied shoulder flaps stick upright. (R-154. Photo: © The Trustees of the British Museum.) the likelihood that Type IV armor was made of leather, it is first necessary to sort through a terminological debate concerning a word that is sometimes thought to refer to this type of armor. Jarva and others equate Type IV armor made of leather with the word spolas. This is a rare word in ancient texts, and the identification of spolas as armor is based mainly on a single source, the second-century A.D. Onomasticon of Pollux. In a rather confused passage in this work, a spolas is described as “a thorax of skin which hangs down from the shoulders, as Xenophon said ‘and spolas instead of thorax.’ Sophocles considers it a Libyan custom: a Libyan spolas, a leopard skin” (spola;~ de;, qwvrax ejk devrmato~, kata; tou;~ w[mou~ ejφaptovmeno~, What Material Was Used to Make Type IV Armor? 59 Fig. 3.2. Putting on a reconstruction linothorax. Compare the raised shoulder flap with those seen on Greek vase paintings, as in fig. 3.1. wJ~ Cenoφw'n e[φh, kai; spola;~ ajnti; qwvrako~. Soφoklh`~ dΔ aujth;n Livbussan nomivzei, spola;~ Livbussa, pardalhφovron devro~., 7.70). This description does potentially match the way that Type IV armor was worn and the prominence of the epomides. It also states that the spolas is one type of thorax. Because the word thorax is used to mean substantial body armor, on the surface, this passage appears to provide evidence that the spolas was a type of armor. Unfortunately, the reliability of this passage is highly questionable. A confusingly jumbled string of citations from other authors, these lines contain nothing that...