Early examples of leather armour

[G. Cornelius]

In another thread, the subject of leather armour came up.

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=122066

Leather seems an obvoius candidate for making armour, it is cheap, plentiful and can be made pretty tough.

Sheilds were often coated with leather. A collector friend of mine has a 19th century sheild from Africa, made of hippo hide. It is amazingly tough and heavy. Apparently the original owner though it could stop a (19C) bullet. I can see why this might be tought to be true. Zulu sheilds are made from animal hide, although they look relatively flimsy.

Leather was a common component of armour, being used to mount scales, connect parts of articulated armour or as a padded undergarment etc. And, of course, leather was used as a type of armour in later years - I am thinking of those heavy buff coats worn in the English Civil war etc.

However, I have not seen any convincing evidence for early armour made of leather - where it is the leather that provides the protection.

Is there any direct evidence from archaeology or literature?
What is the earliest use of leather armour?
If leather was not used as an armour, why not?

[CalMeacham]

There are descriptions of leather shields in The Iliad, IIRC. I don't recall any mentions of leather armor, offhand.

If you read Bernal Diaz del Castillo's Conquest of New Spain, you'll find descriptions of the Cotton armor used by the Americans. The Spaniards came to prefer it, too -- it was a lot lighter, and you could sweat through it.

[johncole]

The author's recent research on the leather scale armour from the tomb of Tut'Ankhamun has resulted in the hypothesis that the majority of armour used in the Late Bronze Age Eastern Mediterranean was formed entirely of leather

SYMPOSIUM ON MEDITERRANEAN ARCHAEOLOGY (http://usitweb.shef.ac.uk/~soma/program.html)






If you want to make some:try here (http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Medieval/Articles/Perfect_Armor_Improved.htm)

[Tranquilis]

Morrison, Sean. Armor. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell. 1963.

This site (http://www.angelfire.com/wy/svenskildbiter/armsandarmour/vrngbra3.html) mentions depictions of leather armor from period artwork, but most image links are down.

Here's the article (http://members.tripod.com/~whitebard/ca6.htm) I was thinking of in the above mentioned thread. It includes an image of the armor worn by the steppes nomads.

However, I think this puts 'paid' to the myth of "no historical leather armor":Cuir-bouilli (http://www.leatherchemists.org/Links/leather_use_medieval.html) (From the Oxford English Dictionary, 2d Ed.)
Forms: 4/5 quir-, quyr- boilly, -boily, -boyly, -boile,
-boyl(l)e, quere- boly, qwyrbolle, coerbuille, -boyle, 6 Sc.
cur-, corbule. [F., lit."boiled leather."]
Leather boiled or soaked in hot water, and, when soft, moulded
or pressed into any required form; on becoming dry and hard it
retains the form given to it, and offers considerable
resistance to cuts, blows, etc.
The word was in common English use from 14th to 16th c., after
which it is not found till modern times, when it appears as
borrowed from modern French.
1375 Barbour Bruce xii. 22 On his basnet hye he bar Ane hat
off qwyrbolle...
Boiled leather is specifically referenced in fourteenth century documents (the site has additional references from the fifteenth century, as well).

[G. Cornelius]

Thanks for the links. G.C.