Scale-armour in the Neo-assyrian Period: Manufacture and Maintenance

During the Neo-Assyrian period, the scale-armours surely represented a massive investment of time, human and material resources, which can be understood as they appear to be mentioned in the booty from the 8th Campaign of Sargon II. Obviously, the lacing patterns were different according to a lot of particular factors, like the period, the region, the people, the function of the soldier and the availability of the materials required. The shapes of the armour-scales also, and certainly, evolved according to the changes in warfare tactics and style of combat. In this monograph, the basic principles for scale-armour manufacture and maintenance will be exposed as they have been observed by the present author on hundreds of scale-armour fragments coming from more than ten sites.