Scale Armor

Origin

Scale armor is thought to have first appeared in the Mesopotamia and Egypt of the ancient Near East before the common era. The Assyrian army in particular used scale armor widely, and in Egypt it was adopted in the New Kingdom period. It later spread across the whole ancient world, through the Scythians, the Persians, and the Greeks to Rome (the lorica squamata), and the heavy cavalry of Sasanian Persia, the cataphracts, wore it too. Thanks to the simple method of fixing small scales in rows, it was easy and cheap to make, and so it was used for a long time across many civilizations from antiquity into the Middle Ages.

Features

• Metal scales overlapped like fish scales
• The scales fixed onto a cloth or leather backing
• A structure with both flexibility and protection
• Regional variants such as the Roman lorica squamata
• Easy to make and repair, as every scale is the same shape
• Used worldwide from antiquity into the Middle Ages

Stories

Scale armor was a general-purpose body armor worn by ancient infantry and cavalry alike, worn over a padded garment beneath. The scales overlapping from top to bottom let the shock of a downward cut and the impact of an incoming arrow slide off the surface of the scales, so it guarded the torso without greatly hindering the movement of bending and straightening the body. A damaged part could be field-repaired simply by removing a few scales and putting new ones in, and identical scales could be stamped out and supplied in quantity. The armies of Rome, Persia, and the East used this armor widely alongside mail and plate.

Weakness

The chronic weakness of scale armor arises from the direction in which the scales overlap. Because the scales overlap from top to bottom, an attack thrusting upward from below can lift the gap between the scales and push in beneath them. If the backing or the lacing that holds the scales is cut, moreover, the scales of that part fall away all at once, so it lacks the tenacity of mail, in which the whole mesh holds together. Being densely overlapped with scales, it is also somewhat heavier and stiffer than mail of the same protection.

Cultural Significance

Scale armor is one of the earliest and most widely used forms of armor of humankind. From Egypt and Assyria, through Rome and Persia, to East Asia, distant civilizations each made and wore scale armor, and in this it carries a universality. Its appearance resembling fish scales became the archetypal image of armor itself, and is also the visual root of the dragon-scale armor often seen in fantasy today. East Asian armor is often lumped together as scale armor, however, though much of it is, strictly speaking, lamellar, in which the small plates are laced directly together with no backing.

In Popular Culture

Scale armor appears widely in works dealing with the ancient and medieval worlds and in fantasy. It is drawn as a soldier's armor in films and games set in Rome and Persia, and in fantasy the overlapping-scale look, as with dragon-scale armor, is used as a symbol of tough and splendid protection. In games it commonly appears as a middle-grade armor between mail and plate. In fiction, though, scale armor and lamellar armor are often not distinguished, and the details of the real structure, such as the direction in which the scales overlap, are often not accurately reflected.

Trivia

• Scale armor is one of the oldest metal armor types, arising in the ancient Near East, used widely by the Assyrian army and adopted in Egypt in the New Kingdom period, and carried on through the Scythians, the Persians, and the Greeks to the Roman lorica squamata.
• Scale armor differs from lamellar armor: in scale armor the scales are fixed to a flexible cloth or leather backing and worn like a garment, whereas in lamellar the small plates are laced directly to one another to form the structure with no backing, and the two are often confused.
• Because every scale is the same shape and only needs to be attached in rows, it was relatively easy to make and repair, a damaged scale simply being replaced, which let it be used for a long time across many cultures from antiquity into the Middle Ages, while its chronic weakness was the upward thrust that pushed in beneath the downward-overlapping scales.