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2,600-Year-Old Leather Armor Found In China Was Made By Neo-Assyrians [Maybe]
Ancient Origins ^ | 10 DECEMBER, 2021 - 13:58 | NATHAN FALDE

Posted on 12/10/2021 10:48:30 AM PST by BenLurkin

An international team of archaeologists and historians has completed an extensive analysis of a rare leather armor waistcoat recovered from the grave of an ancient horse-riding soldier in Northwest China.

Notably, the climate in that region of China is desert-like and bone-dry. This is significant, because the arid conditions and lack of moisture in the soil allowed the leather armor to survive intact despite being buried for nearly 3,000 years.

Under the supervision of archaeologist Patrick Wertmann from the Institute of Asian and Oriental Studies at University of Zurich, the research team members used radiocarbon dating procedures to establish the age of the Chinese leather armor. These tests showed the armor had been created sometime between 786 and 543 BC.

This fact alone was not enough to prove the armor had been manufactured in Mesopotamia, however. To reach that eye-opening conclusion, the archaeologists and historians compared the characteristics of the newly excavated Chinese leather armor to those of a similar artifact currently on display at New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art (the MET).

Scaled armor is designed to protect a warrior’s body from injury without weighing them down or limiting their mobility.

This type of armor features multiple overlapping rows of small- or medium-sized plates, which are sewn into a cloth or leather backing. The plates could be made of bronze or iron (metals available during the Neo-Assyrian period), but they could also be made from leather, as was the case with the armor recovered in China.

Despite its obvious durability, the leather armor found at Turfan was a lightweight piece of equipment. It was covered by more than 5,000 small leather scales and 140 larger ones and was bound together tightly by leather laces sewn through leather lining. In total the armor weighed around ten pounds (five kilograms).

(Excerpt) Read more at ancient-origins.net ...


TOPICS: History
KEYWORDS: ancientautopsies; assyria; assyrianempire; assyrians; china; godsgravesglyphs; leatherarmor; mercenaries; mercenary; neoassyrians; silkroad
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( Lunstream / Adobe Stock)


Closeup images of the Yanghai leather scale armor fragment: A: inside; B: outside. (P. Wertmann / Quaternary International )

1 posted on 12/10/2021 10:48:30 AM PST by BenLurkin
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To: SunkenCiv

ping


2 posted on 12/10/2021 10:48:44 AM PST by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion, or satire. Or both.)
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To: BenLurkin; SunkenCiv

Cheap Chinese copy, of course........................


3 posted on 12/10/2021 10:51:17 AM PST by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels.....................)
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To: BenLurkin

Does that mean they stole this technology too? They’re like the borg.


4 posted on 12/10/2021 10:51:47 AM PST by Track9 (Agamemnon came home to a HRC type party. )
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To: BenLurkin

two examples in the world huh? wow, maybe “rare” can still mean rare sometimes.


5 posted on 12/10/2021 10:53:08 AM PST by dadfly
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To: BenLurkin

“Chinese leather armor”

I don’t think they are using this term correctly.... the whole basis of the article is that the armor was made in Mesopotamia and not China...they should instead be calling it either middle-easter, Mesopotamian, or neo-assyrian armor.

The only reason to call it Chinese is because of where it was geographically unearthed.


6 posted on 12/10/2021 10:53:33 AM PST by reed13k (For evil to triumph it is only necessary that good men do nothing)
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To: BenLurkin

The best protection for a Chinese warrior was a steaming serving of General Tso’s chicken.


7 posted on 12/10/2021 10:56:35 AM PST by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer”)
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To: BenLurkin

The guy on the left is wearing a dress and the guy on the right has some kind of wrench.

So this ancient Chinese army was made up of transvestite plumbers.


8 posted on 12/10/2021 10:59:00 AM PST by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer”)
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To: blueunicorn6

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Tso‘s_chicken


9 posted on 12/10/2021 11:00:53 AM PST by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels.....................)
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To: BenLurkin

They need to see if they can do some genetic analysis of the bones.


10 posted on 12/10/2021 11:07:04 AM PST by Little Ray (Civilization runs on a narrow margin. What sustains it is not magic, but hard work. )
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To: Red Badger

Harbor Freight the early centuries.


11 posted on 12/10/2021 11:09:56 AM PST by wally_bert (I cannot be sure for certain, but in my personal opinion I am certain that I am not sure.)
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To: BenLurkin

They both bought the armor from some rich Corinthian guy.


12 posted on 12/10/2021 11:13:04 AM PST by ClearCase_guy (Alec Baldwin has killed more people than the Jan 6 protesters. And he will serve less jail time.)
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Next FReepathon Starts January 1st

Please Support FR
To Donate Hit The Button


13 posted on 12/10/2021 11:13:55 AM PST by DJ MacWoW (The Fed Gov is not one ring to rule them all)
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To: BenLurkin; Red Badger; StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; 1ofmanyfree; 21twelve; 24Karet; ...
Thanks BenLurkin. Riders on the swarm ping.

14 posted on 12/10/2021 11:16:54 AM PST by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: wally_bert

LOL!...................


15 posted on 12/10/2021 11:18:33 AM PST by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels.....................)
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To: ClearCase_guy
Are the Neo-Assyrians the same as the Neo-Sumerians?

It gets so confusing.

Seems some are bearded...and other clean shaven; wonder if that is the way to tell them apart?


16 posted on 12/10/2021 11:20:38 AM PST by Daffynition (*This admin tells us *A* story; but they don't tell us *THE* story* & :) ~ D Bongino)
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To: reed13k

“The only reason to call it Chinese is because of where it was geographically unearthed.”

I think today that is considered racist.


17 posted on 12/10/2021 11:37:47 AM PST by alternatives?
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To: Daffynition

Neo-Assyrians were Semitic, pre-Aramaeans/Babylonians.

Sumerians were, well, Sumerian with no proven contemporary or earlier/later relatives.


18 posted on 12/10/2021 11:43:42 AM PST by epluribus_2 (He, had the best mom - ever.)
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To: ClearCase_guy

Excellent.


19 posted on 12/10/2021 12:01:16 PM PST by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion, or satire. Or both.)
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To: BenLurkin

if you look closely at the lower right hand corner it says “Made in China”.


20 posted on 12/10/2021 12:03:55 PM PST by bunkerhill7 (That`s 464 people per square foot! Is this corrrect..it was NYC.)
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