The Problem of Plate Armor 291 



Central Asia, ages before the T'ang, presumably as early as the era of 

 the Han (p. 214). Iranians surely were the mediators between the 

 west and the east in this matter, in the same manner as they acted in 

 the transmission of chain mail, caparisons for horses, l and the great 

 principles of cavalry tactics. Up to this point the territory is fairly 

 well reconnoitred. But thus far we are entirely ignorant of when and 

 how plate mail may have arisen in Iran, nor do we positively know 

 whether it existed there at all; if it did, the possible connection with the 

 plate mail of ancient Egypt and Assyria remains a subject for in- 

 vestigation. Altogether the impression remains that plate armor, the 

 last offshoots of which we encounter in the farthest north-east corner 

 of Asia and the farthest north-west of America, took its origin from 

 western Asia. This field is entirely beyond my competency ; and it is 

 the sole object of these notes to point out the existence of the problem, 

 and to leave its final solution to the ambition of others. 



1 See Chapter VII. 



