Old Age Body Armor

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Going right back in history body armor has been used to protect warriors from sword or knife wounds for many years, even well before Christ. This is apparent in writings as far back as 500 BC when it was believed that the chain mail body armor was invented by the Celts in Eastern Europe. Even further back than that was scale armor that was said to have been used by Scythian horse warriors before 400 BC. The oldest record of western armor recorded was back in 1400 BC and called the Dendra panoply used by the Greeks in the Mycenaean era.

Japanese and Chinese body armor

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In Eastern Asian history laminated armor called Lamellar was used inspired by scale armor. It reached Japan from China somewhere around the 5th Century. This was basically an evolution of scale armor and consisted of hundreds of small rectangular plates. The plates were usually made of bronze, iron or leather and were laced together using leather strips. Most of the early types of Chinese armor versions were made from leather mainly from rhinoceros hide.

Historical Types and Styles

One of the most popular types of old age armor was plate armor. This armor consisted of pure steel or iron plates. By the end of the 14th Century a full body armor version was developed. This protected the user from attacks to the legs and the arms. Another popular type of armor was chain mail armor. Mail armor was made from thousands of interlinked steel or iron rings. When these rings interlocked together it formed a lightweight protective solution against weaker types of ballistic and stab attacks.

Horse Armor

Ultimately most body armor in old age and ancient history has been used very effectively on horseback and with cavalry. From 13th to 16th Century plate body armor was used to protect Heavy cavalry on a charge. Eventually protection for the horses become apparent as weapons developed and the Swiss Pike was invented. Horse armor otherwise known as barding was very similar to rider armor. It was created in response to the use of pikes against charging knights on horseback. We see an example of this was the battle of Bannockburn when Infantry managed to stop English Knights dead in their charge.

More powerful ballistic

By the 15th century crossbows were engineered to actually pierce armor more effectively. This coupled with the threat of the hand cannon forced most body armor versions to increase in weight and thickness. This response saw old age armor weights go from 15 KG in 13-15th Century to 25 KG by 16th Century. This meant a reduction in movement for the wearer but gave substantial protection against most weapons of that time.

For even more Information on more modern day body armor including buying effective Kevlar and hard armor vests up to Type IV Visit www.safeguardarmor.com
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