r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/HydrolicKrane • 16h ago
Image Scythian Heavy Armor Museum Recreation: 23kg of weight!
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u/Key_Signature2296 16h ago
As someone who was always into reading about historical stuff, wars etc I remember reading about Scythians when I was 10 years old and it fascinated me. They were the first to master the art of mounted warfare and they always had exquisite burial process if that's the correct way to put it.
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u/CreepyEducator2260 5h ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cataphract
Haven't read anything about the Scythians in my childhood, but encountered them a dozen of times during my journeys through Wikipedia. Those where you usually start with just wanting to look for that one fact, let's say in the 18th century and you end up with 20 open tabs and in the timeline you're at the 1000BC or even some thousand years ahead.
But yeah, this one was what directly came to my mind when seing the picture.
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u/Mental_Thing_7899 6h ago edited 2h ago
Despite the obvious fatigue this made on both the warrior and the mount apparently the lacing was very prone to rot and the scales would fall pretty easily. It was an hassle to maintain. The top to down overlap was not tied up, any blade coming from a lower angle could easily reache inside. Still was used for around 400 years until the adversaries started to adopt faster and more agile tactics that exploited this weakness.
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u/NoChance660 4h ago
That's wild to think about the upkeep involved with that armor. It must have been a real challenge to balance protection with mobility, especially in battle.
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u/HydrolicKrane 16h ago
In 1982, researchers explored a burial site unique in its composition and state of preservation near the village of Gladkovshchina in central Ukraine, between the Dnieper and its tributary, the Supa River.
The original suit is at Cherkasy Museum of Ukraine.
The new suit was recreated for Kyiv History Museum:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGWba42hdvM