The Evolution of Splint Armour in Georgia and Byzantium: Lamellar and Scale Armour in the 10th-12th Centuries

Abstract

<span style="font-family: MgOldTimesUCPolNormal; font-size: 11pt"><font face="Times New Roman">Byzantine technology was part of the military technology that existed in vast areas of Eurasia; hence study of the armament of its neighbours is important.</font></span><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-family: MgOldTimesUCPolNormal; font-size: 11pt">The purpose of the present paper is to add new data about Byzantium’s Caucasian neighbour (namely, Georgia). Besides that, it also includes certain views about the stages of the evolution and provenance of splint (scale and lamellar) armour. This paper also attempts to clarify the difference between </span><em><span style="font-family: MgOldTimesUCPolItalic; font-size: 11pt">banded</span></em><span style="font-family: MgOldTimesUCPolNormal; font-size: 11pt"> and </span><em><span style="font-family: MgOldTimesUCPolItalic; font-size: 11pt">linear</span></em><span style="font-family: MgOldTimesUCPolNormal; font-size: 11pt"> suits of lamellar armour.</span></font><span style="font-family: MgOldTimesUCPolNormal; font-size: 11pt"><font face="Times New Roman">There is no doubt that the Byzantine military machine exercised considerable influence on its neighbours, though an opposite phenomenon can also be noticed. The article shows that changes in armour were taking place almost simultaneously in the Byzantine Empire and the Georgian kingdoms and that some of the types of armour that were widespread in Byzantium may have originated in Georgia.</font></span>