The Problem of Plate Armor 275 



of the successive rows of small plates which form the mail, alternately 

 red-blue and red-green, were remarkably well preserved, and not less 

 so all the details of the ornaments which are shown along the front and 

 lower edge of the coat and on the girdle around the waist. Even the 

 arrangement of the rivets which join the plates of mail, and the folds 

 of the garment protruding below the armor, are indicated with great 

 accuracy. There can be no doubt that the artist has carefully re- 

 produced here details of armor and dress, with which he was familiar 

 from his own times." l 



A rich material for the study of plate mail in the art of Turkistan is 

 offered by the fascinating work of A. Grunwedel, 2 who himself has 

 clearly recognized and pointed out this armor type. 3 The fact that the 

 plates are painted blue clearly proves that they were wrought from 

 iron. The coats are tight-fitting, and open in front; the sleeves are 

 likewise bedecked with plates, and the shoulders with pauldrons. A 

 further example will be found in the work of A. v. Le Coq. 4 



The T'ang period (618-906) is responsible in China for a far-reaching 

 innovation in the line of armor, which has persisted at least down to the 

 end of the eighteenth century, — the combination of armor with the 

 military uniform, resulting in a complete armor-costume. Up to that 

 time, armor and garment had been distinct and separate affairs. The 

 ancient hide harnesses were worn over the ordinary clothing or uniform, 

 and were naturally put on only when making ready for battle; while 



1 The comparison made by Stein (Ancient Khotan, p. 252) between this armor 

 and that on a Gandhara relief figured by Grunwedel (Buddhist Art of India, 

 p. 96) is not to the point. The two suits of armor are of entirely different types, the 

 former being plate armor; the latter, as correctly interpreted by Grunwedel, scale 

 armor. Stein did not recognize this difference, nor did V. A. Smith (History of Fine 

 Art in India, p. 122), who copied him on this point. Among the finds made by A. 

 Stein (Ancient Khotan, pp. 374, 411) at Niya, there is a single piece of hard, green 

 leather, shaped and perforated very much like the metal plate of an armor. Stein 

 suggests that "it probably belonged to a scale armor" (he means plate armor), and 

 thinks that this supposition is confirmed by the metal plates of an armor coming from 

 Tibet (p. xvi). This is possible; I do not believe, however, that an entire suit of 

 armor was ever made in Turkistan in this manner, but that only certain parts of an 

 armor suit were of this technique. There would be no sense in producing a complete 

 suit by means of such separate leather laminae, — a very toilsome and cumbrous 

 process; any plain hide coat would probably present a more enduring protection 

 than such an affair. Indeed, this technique is known to us from Japan: thus a 

 shoulder-guard believed to date from prior to 1 100 (Bashford Dean, Catalogue of the 

 Loan Collection of Japanese Armor, Fig. 12 B) is made from bands of lamina; of 

 boiled leather interlaced with rawhide. Leather laminae, of course, do not present 

 any original state, but are a secondary development, being the outcome of an imita- 

 tion of metal laminae. 



2 Altbuddhistische Kultstatten in Chinesisch-Turkistan (Berlin, 1912). 



3 L. c, p. 201, and Figs. 451, 452, 456, 460, 512, 513, 628. 



4 Chotscho, Plate 48 (Berlin, 1913). 



