Modern soldiers test ancient Greek armour to show it worked for war

New Scientist ^ | May 22, 2024 | Jeremy Hsu

[SunkenCiv]

An experiment inspired by Homer's description of combat in The Iliad tested the capabilities of the Dendra armour suit from Greece's Bronze Age

Modern military volunteers donned replicas of ancient Greek armour and engaged in exercises inspired by Homer's epic poem The Iliad. The demonstration shows how elite Bronze Age warriors could have fought in heavy protective gear during sustained combat.

The experiment's results strongly suggest that the 3500-year-old Dendra armour suit – one of the oldest complete suits of metal armour from Europe's Bronze Age – was indeed suitable for battle. Some scholars have argued that it was merely a ceremonial outfit for the Mycenaean civilisation that once dominated mainland Greece and the Aegean Sea's islands.

Andreas Flouris at the University of Thessaly in Greece and his colleagues recruited modern Greece's Hellenic Marines to wear 23-kilogram Dendra armour replicas as each participant walked, ran, rode on a replica chariot and performed combat moves involving a sword, spear, bow and arrow and even a stone.

These activities followed Homer's descriptions of heavily armoured elite warriors, surrounded by bands of followers, roaming the battlefield, periodically attacking the enemy and retreating to safety behind the main battle lines to rest and eat, says co-author Ken Wardle at the University of Birmingham in the UK.

"Homeric fighting activity was characterised by hit-and-run tactics, a form of physical effort described in modern physiology as 'high-intensity interval exercise'," says Flouris.

[SunkenCiv]

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[SunkenCiv]

Thanks for the link!

[Rummyfan]

Of course it worked - that’s why they wore it!

[Rummyfan]

I would add, in an age of swords and spears and arrows, of course armor worked and was indeed essential. Even a leather jerkin was better than nothing.

[CopperTop]

The more things change... d;^)

[BobL]

They look somewhat gay when they wear it, though.

[HartleyMBaldwin]

You probably could have culled out the Simpsons-related ones from your list.

[JZelle]

If it didn’t work we wouldn’t have Gerard Butler.

[SauronOfMordor]

23 kilos sounds heavy until you reflect that modern soldiers carry a similar weight of gear in their backpacks

[tet68]

I have often wondered if archeologists have excavated
the ancient river beds that Homer so often described
as being choked with the bodies of the fallen.

Certainly their armor would not all have been recovered so perhaps the ancient stream beds would prove
a fruitful source of artifacts.

[NFHale]

Bkmk

[SunkenCiv]

Good idea. The Xanthus or Xanthos is the modern Scamander, but it is bound to have shifted. Ground-penetrating radar and such could be used.

There were large burial mounds made as a consequence of the war, visible in antiquity.

The harbor used by the Greeks had long since silted up, but has been identified in modern times.

[SunkenCiv]

Book XXI:

https://home.ubalt.edu/ntygfit/ai_01_pursuing_fame/ai_01_tell/iliad21.htm

Rivers in the Iliad:

https://mythagora.com/bios/rivers.html

[SunkenCiv]

The hostiles encountered by Cortez and described by Bernal Diaz wore cotton armor. Whatever’s handy, plentiful, and can be made to work got used. :^)

[SunkenCiv]

Didn’t look.

[Red Badger]

Of course it works..........

[SunkenCiv]

https://freerepublic.com/focus/chat/4240686/posts?page=3#3

[marktwain]

The Spanish conquistadors adopted some of it for their own purposes.

Probably about as effective as wood armor without the worry of it splitting. Maybe as good as leather armor?

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Like paper armor it worked weirdly well. The Greeks also used linen armor.

[HartleyMBaldwin]

Fiberglass armor probably would have been too itchy.