The Problem of Plate Armor 273 



istics of the North-Pacific culture-province. It does not suffice for the 

 study of American-Asiatic relations to take into consideration only the 

 present ethnological conditions, as has been done, but the ancient 

 ethnology of that region must first be reconstructed. From this point, 

 the further contact, if any, may be given, and as our knowledge advances, 

 may eventually be established at a future date (I speak only hypo- 

 thetically) with ancient China on the one hand, and ancient Siberia on 

 the other, — relations which would all refer to pre-Japanese times, and 

 move outside of the current of Japan. The early existence of bone 

 armor is one of the examples proving that this view seems to be on the 

 right track, and entitling us to speak of an historic antiquity in North- 

 Pacific culture. 



A pragmatic history of the development of plate armor cannot yet 

 be written, as the subject has not been thoroughly investigated by 

 specialists in the antiquity of western Asia, and as there are doubtless 

 many missing links still unknown to us. Meanwhile the following in- 

 dications which I have been able to trace may be welcome. 



In Assyria, plate armor is unmistakably represented on monuments 

 of King Sargon (b.c. 722-705) in connection with foot-archers, whose 

 coats consist of six or seven parallel rows of small rectangular plates. 1 

 It seems that in Assyria plate mail sprang up during that period, for 

 in the reign of Salmanassar II (b.c. 860-825) the bowmen sculptured in 

 stone are frequently clad with long coats reaching from the neck to the 

 ankles and girdled below the chest, the coats being covered with an 

 irregular checkered design, but not with rows of rectangles. 2 Further, 

 we find metal plate armor in ancient Egypt; 3 there a cuirass of thickly 

 wadded material was covered with metal plates. It is ascribed to the 

 reign of Ramses II, who ruled in the thirteenth century b.c. 



Also the Shardana armor described by Ohnefalsch-Richter 4 — 

 consisting of bronze plates, two of which are mutually joined by means 



1 P. S. P. Handcock (Mesopotamian Archaeology, pp. 350-2), who speaks only 

 of coats of mail. 



1 Ibid., pp. 260, 350. 



s An illustration of it may be seen in A. Erman's Life in Ancient Egypt (p. 545, 

 London, 1894). As a rule, the helmet and body armor did not consist there of metal, 

 being more probably made, as many of the pictures seem to indicate, of thickly wad- 

 ded material, such as is worn even now in the Sudan, and forms an excellent protec- 

 tion. In rare instances, however, defensive armor may have been covered with 

 metal plates. No special investigation of this subject has as yet been made in regard 

 to the two culture zones of Assyria and Egypt; but these indications, however brief, 

 will suffice to show that plate armor must have been widely distributed in ancient 

 times, and that a mere consideration of present conditions alone, as attempted by 

 Ratzel and Hough, cannot bring about the solution of the problem of its history. 



i Zeitschrijt fur Ethnologie, Vol. XXXI, 1899 (Verhandlungen, p. 360). 



