Skeleton unearthed wearing armor/armour

[Bugyotsuji]

Anyone see this? Reminded me of Vesuvius and Pompeii!

http://mainichi.jp/english/english/news ... 5000c.html

[uwe]

Hmm......it happens either very fast or he did it on purpose. Nevertheless, very interesting and a quite seldom event. Thanks for sharing. Are there more pics available?

Uwe

[Drago]

Very interesting! I just wish there had been better/more photos.

[kusunokimasahige]

Would love to see better images !

 

Piers, you mean the Herculaneum soldier...

 

 

Who was not wearing armor but arms. A belt (cingulum) And two swords of which one was kind of an oversized dagger.

 

Part of his sword belt.

 

 

Pity many Japanese archaeological photos are hard to get really.

 

KM

[John A Stuart]

A quick flyby of the site in Gunma prefecture. John

[Bugyotsuji]

There are several pics/video clips available on J Yahoo. but some of these require something called Silverlite to view.

http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20121 ... i.view-000

 

This from the Asahi:

http://www.asahi.com/culture/intro/TKY2 ... 2=cabcbcbb

 

From NHK

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/2012121 ... 11000.html

 

FNN (video partly blocked in mid section)

http://www.fnn-news.com/news/headlines/ ... 36858.html

 

Actual site can be viewed by the general public only today, the 12th, until 3pm!

[Bugyotsuji]

Henk-Jan, he was found at Herculaneum! Simply amazing. Thank you.

[kusunokimasahige]

Most welcome !

 

It is thought by many in the Ancient history community that he might have been a marine/sailor aged 35-45. He was hit by the pyroclastic flow which flung him flat on his face. He had a tool bag with him with several woodworking (ship?) tools like chisels, and his being without armor probably indicates he was either on leave or in some other function. Some say he was a legionary due to the way his bones had deformed. The luxury of his belt is not uncommon, many Roman soldiers spent a lot of money on their equipment. It is uncertain though whether he belonged to the relief fleet sent by Scipio the elder (who actually died there of poisonous fumes).

 

Here are two images of his weaponry.

 

http://www.romanhideout.com/images/it/h ... oldier.asp

 

The links posted on the Kofun period soldier are great ! Thanx for those.

 

KM

[IanB]

The Japanese body is wearing what is known as a keiko, a lamellar armour that arrived in Japan with later waves of invaders from the Asian mainland who also brought horses. The video shows a reconstruction of one but without the shoulder and neck defence. This type of armour superseded earlier armours called tanko that were of larger plates designed for use on foot. These had a solid dou of rather hour-glass shape with a bell-like skirt reaching to the knees, very similar to the foot combat tonlet armours of 15th century Europe. It is interesting that the thread also contains reference to the Roman bodies from Herculaneum since they used lamellar armour as well.

Ian Bottomley

[kusunokimasahige]

I found a site with better/more images :

 

http://japanesearchaeology.com/2012/12/ ... ing-armor/

 

 

 

 

 

Indeed it is interesting seeing how many nations of the world used lamellar and plate armor Ian !

 

Roman plate/lamellar armor :

 

 

 

Lamellar/scale armor :

 

https://sites.google.com/site/archoevid ... ale-armour

 

Roman Lorica Squamata reconstructed, nice images, click on them :

 

http://legvi.tripod.com/thirdcohort/id30.html

 

 

Japanese Keikō

 

 

And Tankō

 

 

KM

[Luc T]

and this is a tanko..

[estcrh]

Seeing this post reminded me of a leather armor from Japan that I purchased awhile back. I did not know what it was but it looked interesting, some time later when I posted images of it on another forum Anthony Bryant said that it looked like a recreation of an ancient tanko armor, possibly for a festival.

[myochin]

Here is a link from the Gunma web site (hope it wasn't posted above already...):

http://www.pref.gunma.jp/03/x4500038.html

 

Paul