Linothorax vs modern projectiles

Earlier this year I made a linothorax of the kind used by Alexander the Great's army.  That was a lot of fun, but making armour is only half the story.  The important question is: what sort of protection does it provide?  When Aldrete and co made their linothorakes, they tested them against the kind of arrows that were used in ancient Greece and found that the linothorax was very effective at stopping these arrows.  I don't have access to reproduction ancient Greek arrows, but in my family we like target shooting and we have several modern projectile weapons available.  This weekend dad and I tested the linothorax armour against an airgun, a slug gun, and a crossbow.  We learned that the person in most danger during this process is actually the shooter.

Now, just to recap, my linothorax armour is made the same way it was made in ancient Greece, using layers of linen fabric laminated together with rabbit skin glue.  This test patch is about 10 millimeters thick.  The thickness isn't exactly even across the whole surface, but close enough.  The linothorax functioned a lot like a Kevlar vest, by dispersing the energy of an impact.  Armour like this is good at protecting against blunt force trauma, and it will also give protection against edged weapons.

Here you can see what happened when we shot the armour test patch with an airgun: not much.

These shots were fired from 18 meters (top right corner) and 5 meters.  Interestingly, there was no difference in the degree of penetration.  There wasn't any.  The BBs bounced, leaving only tiny dents in the surface of the armour.  This gun will quite happily embed BBs in plasterboard or weatherboards, but linothorax armour absorbs and deflects the energy of the shots.

The airgun, plus the little dents it made.

Next up is a spring loaded slug gun with a rifled barrel, which belonged to my grandfather.  We tried both flat-head slugs and pointed slugs, and they all bounced.

The impacts from the flat-head slugs are ringed in yellow, and the pointed slug impacts in red.  Other than creating different shaped dents, there was no difference between them.

Next up is a pistol crossbow with a 50 pound draw, which is more like the kind of weapons the armour would actually have been used against.  Like the BBs and the slugs, most of the crossbow bolts bounced off the test patch without penetrating.

This photo shows you exactly how far the crossbow bolts bounced.  Circled in yellow is the crossbow, showing where it was fired from, 3 meters away from the target on this occasion.

A couple of bolts did stick in the test patch.  They went through all the linen layers, but only just.  The tips stuck out the back only a millimeter or so.  If you were wearing the armour you'd get a small scratch at worst and probably not even that, since the Greeks wore clothing under this armour.

For comparison, here's what happened when we fired the crossbow at a plastic shotgun target.

We learned that plastic does not provide effective protection against crossbow bolts.

Linothorax armour, however, does provide effective protection against crossbow bolts.

If you look carefully, you'll see that part of the bolt's steel tip is still visible above the surface of the test patch.  It has only stuck in the material and has not gone through.

We didn't test the armour against a shotgun this time.  For that we'll need to go to the shooting range and put some decent safety precautions in place.  Based on these tests, there is likely to be a significant rebound problem.  Whether the shot will be able to penetrate the test patch is a bit more difficult to predict, but will depend on the load.  It won't stop buckshot, but then very few things do.  Bird shot, however, will be interesting.  I expect the test patch to offer at least some degree of protection against bird shot.

The linothorax - finished at last

Well, here it is.  I get such a kick out of the fact that it's a real, functional piece of armour.  I don't know that I'd want to use it as armour though.  Aldrete et al tested it against the kind of arrows used in ancient Greece and it performed very well, but it didn't stop a modern hunting arrow.  Technology has moved on since Alexander's day.

I was going to photograph it on my tailor's dummy, but it doesn't fit on the dummy so you will have to make do with a coat hanger.  Luckily it keeps its shape nicely even with nothing inside.

The last layer of linen is cut larger than the armour piece and folded over to the back to make the edges neat.

The back of the linothorax, showing the neck guard.

Detail of the side lacing.

The linothorax doesn't weigh much.  I could run around all day in it and the weight wouldn't become a problem.  That's an advantage you don't get with metal armour, and would have been a real asset to soldiers who needed to be highly mobile, as Alexander's army did.  The downside is that it wouldn't provide as much protection as metal armour.  Linen armour was obviously cheaper than metal armour and for some soldiers would have been all they could afford, but I think weight was a consideration too and it seems like some people may have chosen to use a linothorax instead of a metal breastplate.  Assuming Greek art reflects what was actually worn into battle, even Alexander the Great wore linen armour.

For some reason the cat liked to lie on top of the pteruges (that's the flappy bits at the bottom) when I put them in front of the fire to dry.  The wet glue didn't seem to bother her at all.

Things I have learned from this project:

• Ideally you want a mate to help you get into your linothorax.  It does bend, but it's extremely stiff and springy, so lacing it up on your own is a bit of a challenge.

• You'd be able to mount and dismount a horse fairly easily in this armour, and because the extra weight is minimal it shouldn't worry the horse too much.

• The linothorax doesn't take much skill to make.  It's just a matter of cutting out the pieces and gluing them together.  Anybody could make themselves a suit of armour using this method.  They couldn't do it in a hurry though.

• I have obviously lost weight since I made my tailor's dummy.  The linothorax fits me okay, but doesn't fit the dummy at all.  I'm glad I discovered that before I tried to drape my next project on the dummy.

In due course I'll make a couple of linen test patches and see how they go against an airgun.  Watch this space!

The Challenge: War and Peace.  Obviously, this relates to the "war" component of War and Peace.

Fabric: Approximately 10 meters of linen.

Pattern: From Reconstructing Ancient Linen Body Armor: Unraveling the Linothorax Mystery by Aldrete et al.  If you want to make a linothorax but don't have the book, the authors have kindly made patterns available online here.

Year: We have pictures of this type of armour from approximately 600BCE to 200BCE.  We also know that linen armour was used in Mycenaean times, but I'm not aware of any images from before the 6th century showing armour that looks like this.

Notions: 750 grams worth of rabbit skin glue from Gordon Harris.

How historically accurate is it?  Probably not bad.  This reconstruction is conjectural, but it does replicate what we see in the pictures using materials and processes available at the time, and it provides effective protection against the weaponry used at the time.  Aldrete and co were able to source linen that had been processed, spun, and woven by hand just like the Greeks would have used, but my linen is commercially produced. According to the book, handmade linen is slightly less resistant to arrow penetration.

Hours to complete: This is hard to estimate.  Once each layer has been glued it takes anywhere up to 24 hours to dry, and you kind of have to do each layer individually, but actually pasting a layer on only takes a couple of minutes.  Aldrete and co have calculated that making a linothorax from start to finish required somewhere around 715 man hours.  Of course it takes much less time if you buy the linen.

First worn: I tried it on quite a few times to check the fit, see how much it weighed etc.

Total cost: About $145, and it would have been nearly double that if I hadn't bought the linen on sale.

Alexander's water resistant armour

In their book on linothorakes, Aldrete and colleagues note that the laminated linen construction can withstand getting soaked (Alexander's army, after all, was crossing rivers in this armour).  They said that the glued linen will stick itself back together when it dries.

Well, it does.

As my Wellington readers know, the weather here changes quickly.  To cut a long story short, I misjudged the weather and my linothorax got rained on.  It took ages for all those layers of linen to dry, but when they did the piece was fine.  This appears to be a benefit of using rabbit skin glue.  I doubt something like PVA would cope with water anywhere near as well.

The body of my linothorax.  Some water stains, but it is structurally sound.

The shoulder flaps of my linothorax.  Those aren't water stains; the glue is still a bit wet in this photo.

Another thing I've learned about linen laminated with rabbit glue is that you don't want to bark your knuckles on it.  It's like sandpaper.

So rabbit glue has a lot of advantages.  The pot currently sitting on my stove has congealed and been re-liquefied at least four times and seems none the worse for it.  All it needs is a splash more water and a low heat, and it's ready to go in half an hour.  It's easy to use.  Aldrete et al applied it to the fabric with a putty scraper, but I use my fingers and you could also use a brush.  It does take a long time to dry though.  I don't think I'll be able to get this project done in time for the challenge due date.

This year's big nerdy project

This is 20 meters of linen.

It's all intended for April's Historical Sew Monthly project, which I'm quite excited about. I'm going to make a linothorax.  If you're unfamiliar with this term*, the linothorax was a piece of body armour made of linen, which was used by the ancient Greeks and Etruscans.

The recent book by Gregory Aldrete, Scott Bartell, and Alicia Aldrete focuses on linen armour as used by Alexander the Great's army, and as you would hope it contains instructions and a pattern for the reader who wishes to make their own at home.  The authors have used research and practical experimentation to determine how linen armour might have been made, and whether it could have provided reasonable protection in battle.  It appears the linothorax worked a bit like kevlar in that it absorbed and dissipated the force of a blow, and it offered pretty good protection against the weaponry of the time.

Here's a picture of a chap wearing a linothorax:

Image found here.

If, like me, you have a Classics degree, you know that armour like this is pictured a lot in Greek art, which implies it was quite common.

Predictably, I bought the linen before I got to the part of the book that describes how much linen is required, and probably bought a lot more than I will actually need, but linen isn't cheap and I had to take advantage of The Fabric Warehouse's 40% off sale while it was on.  Yes, I could possibly have got the linen cheaper online somewhere, but with the Fabric Warehouse I know what I'm getting.  For one thing I know it is linen, and not some dodgy mystery blend.  It'll still have slightly different properties to ancient Greek linen, because it has been produced using modern industrial methods, but it's the closest I'm going to get on my budget.  It's is a medium-weight linen which is, I suspect, a reasonable approximation of what the ancient Greeks might have used.


*Strictly speaking, "linothorax" is an Anglicised version of the Greek term λίνος θώραξ  .