Some suits of armor were designed to impress rather than to protect; others were lifesaving tools used in battle, where they were tested against swords, spears and arrows. From the stiffened linen of ancient warriors, to the flexible chain mail of Roman soldiers, to the gleaming plate armor of medieval knights, armor has evolved over millennia to protect soldiers in battle.
But it comes at a cost: “Every suit of armor is a trade-off between mobility and defense,” Barry Molloy, an archaeologist and ancient warfare expert at University College Dublin, told Live Science.
Nor is there a perfect suit of armor. “It’s down to what tactics you’re using, what weapons you’re accompanying it with, and do you have a large or a small shield?” he said.
Here are seven suits of real battle armor from centuries past.
Dendra armor (3,500 years old)
The Dendra armor was unearthed in 1960 at an archaeological site near the village of Dendra in southern Greece. It dates to around 1500 B.C. during the Mycenaean era, which began in southern Greece in about 1750 B.C. and ended around 1050 B.C., soon after the Late Bronze Age collapse.
The armor consists of more than a dozen bronze plates tied together with leather straps. They encased a warrior in bronze from their neck to their knees, while additional pieces of bronze protected the shins and lower arms. Fragments of boar’s teeth also indicate the warrior wore a Mycenaean boar’s-tooth helmet.
Molloy has studied and worn a precise replica of the Dendra armor and another study revealed that the armor protected users in an 11-hour battle simulation inspired by the Trojan War.
Molloy said the helmet and large neck guard provided almost complete protection for the head and neck, but later developments in armor removed most of the neck protection and shifted most of the face protection to the helmet.
King Tut’s armor (3,300 years old)
The Egyptian boy king Tutankhamun died in his late teens around 1323 B.C. This suit of leather armor was found in a box when his tomb, in the Valley of the Kings near Luxor, was opened in 1922.
Military training would have been a part of the young king’s education, and it is possible — but not proven — that this armor was worn by Tutankhamun himself. The armor is now part of the collection at the Grand Egyptian Museum in Cairo. It consists of a…
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