THE LINOTHORAX PROJECT: RECONSTRUCTING AND TESTING ANCIENT LINEN BODY ARMOR
Summary:
The Linothorax Project was a 10-year experimental archaeology project conducted at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay that sought to reconstruct a widely-used but mysterious type of ancient armor and then scientifically test its capabilities. It was a collaboration between Prof. Gregory S. Aldrete, Scott Bartell, Alicia Aldrete, and several generations of UWGB students as well as members of the community. The results of this project were ultimately published in the form of a book, Reconstructing Ancient Linen Body Armor: Unraveling the Linothorax Mystery by Gregory S. Aldrete, Scott Bartell, and Alicia Aldrete, published in 2013 by Johns Hopkins University Press.
Historical Background:
In little more than two decades, Alexander the Great of Macedon (356-323 B.C.) conquered by military force nearly the entirety of the known world. Despite the fact that he led one of the most successful armies of all time, surprisingly little is understood about the main type of body armor that both Alexander and many of his men apparently wore. This was the linothorax, a type of body armor formed from layers of linen. While we know quite a lot about other types of ancient armor made from metal because specimens have been excavated, the linothorax remains something of a mystery since, due to the perishable nature of its material, no examples have survived. Today, the linothorax is only known through 65 descriptions of linen armor from 40 different ancient authors and approximately 1,000 visual images in vase paintings, tomb paintings, mosaics, and bronze and stone sculptures. Despite the doubts of some scholars regarding how something made of cloth could have provided effective protection to its wearer, the linothorax clearly thrived as a form of body protection for nearly 1,000 years, and was used by a wide variety of ancient Mediterranean civilizations.
The Project:
This is the mystery that the UWGB Linothorax Project has investigated. Using the available literary and artistic sources, the group has reconstructed a half dozen full-size linothorakes using only the authentic fabrics, glues, and methods that would have been available in the ancient Mediterranean. These reconstructions and various sample patches were then subjected to a series of tests to precisely determine how wearable this armor was, and how effective it would have been in protecting its wearer from common battlefield hazards, especially arrows. This involved actually shooting the test patches with arrows and measuring their penetration, as well as hitting them with a variety of weapons, including swords, axes, and spears.
The idea for the project began with UWGB history major Scott Bartell (now graduated), who brought it to Prof. Aldrete, and together they built the first prototypes. It grew to involve a number of faculty as well as several generations of UWGB students, and materials for the project were obtained with the assistance of two Grants for Integrating Research and Teaching from the UWGB Research Council. In January 2009, Aldrete and Bartell presented the results obtained so far in a session of the annual meeting of the American Philological Association. In January 2010, we presented a poster on the project at the annual meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America, which won the Best Poster Award. In 2013, our book on the subject was published. The Linothorax project has appeared in a number of media outlets, including being featured in the TV documentary series Museum Secrets: Athens National Museum, Galileo, and Penn and Teller Tell a Lie, as well as being the subject of articles in U.S. News and World Report, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The New Yorker, Military History, and Der Spiegel.
Your questions and comments about the project are welcome. Send them to: aldretegs@gmail.com
Photos:
Prof. Aldrete wearing linothorax reconstruction and Ancient Greek vase painting of warrior wearing linothorax.
Ancient Greek vase painting of a hoplite putting on a linothorax and photo of reconstruction linothorax being put on.
Linothorax under construction
Shooting arrows at linen test patches and measuring arrow penetration
Students assessing the toughness of a linen test patch with axe and mace
Four variants of reconstructed linothorakes.
The co-investigators of the Linothorax Project, Greg Aldrete and Scott Bartell (photographed shortly after Aldrete shot Bartell with arrow).
Links to Videos and Additional Information:
The following link will take you to lecture on YouTube of a talk that I gave at the University of London in 2015 to the Roman Society summarizing the entire Linothorax Project. The talk is heavily illustrated and is the most comprehensive and up to date summation of the project on this site. London Linothorax Lecture
The following link will take you to a 4-Minute YouTube Video on the Linothorax Project. The video was made quite early in the project, but shows some initial tests.
Short Linothorax Video
The following link will let you download a 8-minute mini-documentary on the Project. This video is a version of the mini-documentary shown on the TV program Galileo and was made by Johannes Wiebus of Jynx Productions. It contains some of the footage from the mini-documentary without the narration and includes scenes showing how the linothorax is made and me shooting Scott with an arrow while he is wearing a linothorax.
Linothorax.Movie
For those wishing to construct their own linothorax, here is a pattern of the two basic pieces. To make a larger or smaller size, just add or cut out a few inches from the right and left sides of the pattern.
Here is the poster that was presented at the 2010 meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America. The poster contains detailed information about ancient literary and visual sources for the linothorax, the reconstruction process, and arrow test methodology and results.
