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Mail armour (commonly mislabelled 'chainmail') was used for more than two millennia on the battlefield. After its invention in the Iron Age, mail rapidly spread all over Europe and beyond. The Roman army, keen on new military technology, soon adopted mail armour and used it successfully for centuries. Its history did not stop there and mail played a vital role in warfare during the Middle Ages up to the Early Modern Period. Given its long history, one would think mail is a well-documented material, but that is not the case. For the first time, this books lays a solid foundation for the understanding of mail armour and its context through time. It applies a long-term multi-dimensional approach to extract a wealth of as yet untapped information from archaeological, iconographic and written sources. This is complemented with technical insights on the mail maker's chaîne opératoire.

Mail armour (commonly mislabelled "chainmail") was used for more than two millennia on the battlefield. After its invention in the Iron Age, mail rapidly spread all over Europe and beyond. The Roman army, keen on new military technology, soon adopted mail armour and used it successfully for centuries. Its history did not stop there - mail played a vital role in warfare during the Middle Ages up to the Early Modern Period. Given its long history, one would think mail is a well-documented material, but that is not the case. This book aims to correct this by laying a solid foundation for the understanding of mail armour and its context through time. It applies a long-term multi-dimensional approach to extract a wealth of as yet untapped information from archaeological, iconographic, and written sources. This is complemented with technical insights on the mail maker's chaîne opératoire.

Un cinturón itálico de bronce en la colección del Museo de Louvre muestra una característica única: de él cuelga una malla de anillas formando un faldellín. El cinturón mismo se ha fechado en el siglo IV a. C. En cuanto al faldellín, se ha sugerido que podría ser una de las primeras manifestaciones de cota de malla, o posiblemente un antecesor de este tipo de armadura. No obstante, un análisis detallado ha demostrado que el cinturón y el faldellín no formaban una sola pieza originalmente y que fueron unidos en el siglo XIX. Resulta que el faldellín no tiene que ver con la cota de malla, ni con un antecesor. El análisis de hallazgos similares muestra que es probablemente un adorno de cadera del siglo VIII-VII a. C. que proviene de un entierro femenino del sur de Italia.

Mail armour is made of many interlinking metal rings. It has been a popular type of defensive gear through the centuries, and this popularity has in part been due to mail armour's flexibility. However, this very flexibility today hinders its conservation, interpretation and display. Mail pieces retrieved from archaeological contexts are often in such poor state of preservation that their original shape is unrecognizable. This poses a challenge not only for conserving these artefacts, but also for understanding them. This paper describes a conservation technique for flexible mail that involves restoring preserved rings to their original position and filling in the remaining gaps with dummy rings. In addition to stabilizing the mesh of mail, this measure also aids the artefact's interpretation. The advantages of using this method with archaeological specimens are presented by means of a case-study concerning the remains of a Roman mail coat found near Novae, Bulgaria. The case-study shows that the choice of conservation technique greatly influences the amount of information that researchers can obtain from this material.

Mail armour is made of many metal rings that protect the body against trauma. For more than two thousand years it could be found on the battlefield. Despite this long time span, there have been few attempts to understand this armour in depth. The studies that do, focus mainly on well-preserved historical specimens that belong to the 14th century AD and later. There is not a lot known for the prior period. This study therefore looks at early mail armour, here defined as that from the 3rd century BC until the end of the Western Roman Empire, with some 'excursions' to the period up to the 10th century. Given that there is not much known about early mail, the main research question has been formulated generically, being: what can a systematic analysis of archaeological-, iconographical-, and classical written sources reveal about early mail armour? In order to answer this question his study makes use two analytical methods. The first concerns that of chaîne opératoire or literally the chain of operations. It allows for a reconstruction of technology as a 'total social fact' by tracing back the series of steps involved in transforming raw materials into artefacts. The operational sequences that turn a raw material into a finished product are specific to each society. Consequently, the work process of any craftsperson will be organized according to the internal logic of their particular society. The second concerns a multi-dimensional approach to material culture. The advantage of this method is that it allows the material to be studied from various perspectives and scales. It can be understood as taking a series photographs of the same object, each from a different angle and distance. Every picture reveals particular details, and the sum of the photographs give a more complete and clearer image of the actual object. This also allows for the predictions generated by information at one dimension to be tested by data obtained at another, making it easier to validate findings. This study scrutinises four main topics: 1) The origin and dispersion of early mail. 2) Its use and name. 3) Its technical intricacies. 4) Its socio-cultural context.

Virtual reality opens new ways for reconstructing, preserving and exhibiting clothing and textiles. This applies particularly to those from an archaeological context, which can be incomplete, damaged or fragile. Despite the possibilities of computer technology, such as computer graphics (CG) and computer-aided design (CAD), its potential has only been superficially explored. This article showcases its possibilities by focussing upon the equipment of a Germanic warrior from the 2nd–4th century AD. His panoply consists of trousers, a tunic, shoes, a mail coat, an under-armour garment and a belt. CG and CAD tools, such as stress analysis and strain analysis, were applied to visualize and examine the behaviour of his equipment. The military clothing of the Germanic warrior proves very functional in terms of physics, materials science, anatomy and biomechanics. In other words, his clothing and armour result very suitable for warfare. This case study demonstrates that digital reconstructions can be more than scientific visualisation, but also a new and powerful research tool, generating new insights into archaeological artefacts.