Participants in a recent research study wore a replica of an ancient suit of armor to test its efficacy. The Bronze Age saw the creation of complex societies and complex warfare, and served as the setting of some of the world’s most famous myths. In fact, the Aegean Bronze Age was the time of Achilles and Odysseus — of the legendary Trojan Horse and Trojan War — memorialized in the works of
But how widespread was this early armor, and how effective? Not all cultures seemed to have employed it in military campaigns, and there is still some dispute about how intensely people like the Minoans and Mycenaeans used it. But Wardle believes that the absence of armor on many statues may be due to artistic license taken centuries after the period in which the subjects were supposed to have lived. “It’s more heroic to be naked,” he says.
Ultimately, the tests revealed that the replica, which weighed a whopping 51 pounds, wasn’t just for show. “It looks clumsy, but it’s actually perfectly practical,” Wardle says. “We now understand, despite its cumbersome appearance at first sight, that it is not only flexible enough to permit almost every movement of a warrior on foot but also resilient enough to protect the wearer from most blows,” Wardle and his team wrote in the study.
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