Ancient Mycenaean Armour Tested and Used in Combat by Marines
Using a replica of a 3500-year-old armour, modern-day Greek Marines were able to successfully use and fight in it
How did the Iliad help solve the mystery surrounding a 3500-year-old suit of armour?
I read the Iliad a few years ago; I enjoyed it even if I didn’t always know what was going on and had to refer to the footnotes to help me (I had to do that quite a lot; the Odyssey was an easier read, to me at least).
The Illiad is an epic poem by the ancient Greek poet Homer from 750 BC. Its central story is set during the Trojan War, which was sparked after Paris Alexandros took Helen of Troy, the wife of his host, Menelaos. The brother of Menelaos, Agamemnon, led his Greek forces against Troy. The story begins with a dispute between Achilles and Agamemnon in which the latter takes Briseis, a war prize, from Achilles, causing Achilles to leave the Greek forces in anger. Without Achilles, the Troys gain the upper hand over the Greeks. Hoping to deceive the Torys, Patroclus, a close friend of Achilles, does Achilles’ armour and goes into battle, where Hector kills him. Grief-stricken and angry, Achilles returns and kills Hector. The king of Troy and father of Hector pleads with Achilles to return his son’s body. Moved by his grief, Achilles agrees — the epic ends with Hector’s funeral.
Now, this is a VERY condensed summary of the Iliad, but for this article, all you need to know is that it is rather detailed and contains many battles.
What does all this have to do with a suit of armour?
Well, let me explain.
The Iliad, the Dendra Armour, and Academic Scrutiny
In 1960, near the village of Dendra (Greece), one of the oldest complete European suits of armour was discovered. Yet until recently, it remained unknown whether this armour was suitable for combat or was merely ceremonial. This fact also limited researchers’ and historians’ understanding of the ancient Greek-Late Bronze Age warfare.
Scientists used their archaeological, historical, and human physiological knowledge to determine whether this ancient Mycenaean armour was suitable for extended combat use in the Late Bronze Age or purely decorative.
How did they do this?
They assembled a group of marine soldiers, put them in replicas of armour, and consulted the Iliad to recreate battle conditions during the Greek-Late Bronze Age.
Sadly, no historical accounts regarding the scope and use of the Dendra armour type survive. Researchers needed to look to the Iliad to understand how the armour could have been used and how the average soldier may have acted. Homer’s epic poem is not a historical account, but it likely holds some truths about the daily activities performed by the warriors of the Late Bronze Age.
Multiple experts extensively analysed the poem to determine the precise characteristics of the physical environment in which battles took place, the typical start and end time of daily army operations, what activities were performed by warriors during one day, the types of food consumed by the average warrior, and the physical characteristics, level of combat experience of the average warrior, the kinds of combat in which warriors engaged, what weapons were used and how these warriors may have moved.
To ensure the researchers were not just cherry-picking random bits of information that may not even have any historical basis, reviews of the Iliad were conducted independently by two separate investigators, one directly affiliated with the study, the other an independent researcher with extensive knowledge of Classical studies. Furthermore, to ensure that there were no biases caused by misinterpretation of the ancient Greek, the widely translated version into Modern Greek by Prof Dimitrios N. Maronitis and a verbatim translation by a third investigator were used. Three independent investigators proofread and analysed these transcripts and then had to review each other’s results and establish the final themes by consensus.
The Participants and Recreating the Past
Thirteen males (Marines from the Hellenic Armed Forces: 29.2 ± 7.9 years; height: 1.73 ± 0.05 m; 74.1 ± 6.8 kg weight) participated in the study; they wore a replica of the Dendra armour and used tropical weapons of the Greek Late Bronze Age, including Mycenaean cruciform swords, spears, bows and simple throwing stones. During the study, many tests and samples were taken, including blood glucose levels, reaction time, heart rate, core body temperature, and self-perceived exhaustion (among many other things).
Referring back to the Iliad, the general geography of the lad was replicated, ensuring participants ‘fought’ on coastlines, backswamps, and river plains with low hills. The exact date of the Trojan War is unknown (probably sometime between 1334 and 1129 BC) and likely during the middle of summer (June). Researchers consulted palaeoclimate data to determine the average temperature and humidity during this period. They determined that the Greek Late Bronze Age likely had average temperatures between 24–29°C and humidity levels between 70–85%; these temperatures and humidity levels were also recreated.
According to the Iliad, soldiers usually woke and got ready at camp around 4:30 AM, leaving for battle around 2,5 hours later, and were back at camp by 7:30 PM (these times are not mentioned in the text but are estimates based on the descriptions in the text). Using these times, they estimated an average 11-hour combat time for warriors before heading back to camp ca. 1,5 hours before sunset.
The food was also replicated partially from descriptions in the Iliad and partially from archaeological data and isotope studies; most food (40% and 50%, respectively) was consumed at breakfast and lunch. Participants were given dry bread, goat’s cheese, olives, and red wine for breakfast. Snacks eaten throughout the day included dry bread, honey, goat’s cheese, and onions (apparently, onion is a snack; they probably put it on the bread and didn’t munch on it like an apple), and dinner was composed of various types of meat (Sheep, goat, pig or cow), red wine, bread, and cheese.
They cut the meat carefully up into smaller pieces, spitted them, and drew them off again when they were well roasted. Automedon brought bread in fair baskets and served it round the table, while Achilles dealt out the meat, and they laid their hands on the good things that were before them. (Homer, “The Iliad,” trans. Samuel Butler, Book 9)
The results spoke for themselves; not only could the participants easily fight and engage in strenuous combat in the suits of armour, but over two months, they could do so for up to 11 hours a day without the armour becoming cumbersome, impractical, or a source of weakness.
It also proves that the armour described by Homer in the Iliad, while not an exact match to the Dendra armour, was not a later addition added after the adoption of armour in later centuries. Instead, it proves that armour was worn in combat during the Late Bronze Age. Its efficiency at protecting the wearer and ability to allow for extended wearing must have contributed to the Mycenaeans’ perception as fierce and imposing warriors.
Then when he had fashioned the shield so great and strong, he made a breastplate also that shone brighter than fire. He made a helmet, close fitting to the brow, and richly worked, with a golden plume overhanging it, and he made greaves also of beaten tin. (Homer, “The Iliad,” trans. Samuel Butler, Book 18)
Limitations of the study
The researchers did their best to ensure all aspects of the study were as accurate as possible but admit some limitations may have skewed the results. Firstly, the Iliad is not a historical report, and thus, while it was used as the basis for this study, the researcher knew to approach the source with a healthy dose of skepticism.
Secondly, the exact date and battlegrounds of the Trojan War are unknown; thus, reconstructing the environmental conditions is based on estimates. If the War occurred during years of droughts and heatwaves or vice versa, this could skew the results.
The armour replica and weapons were also made of copper, not bronze. And while the materials weigh similar amounts, slight changes in distribution could change the data. The weapons were also blunted for obvious reasons.
This study provides research with a new understanding of the ancient world. First, it proves that the early Greek Mycenaean warriors were well equipped with weapons and wore armour, not for ceremony or pomp but for battle. Second, it demonstrates that the references to bronze armour in the Iliad were not later additions, as Homer described the later Hoplite soldiers. Instead, they could have been descriptions of the earlier Bronze Age warriors.
The researchers went into far more detail than I described here. If you want to know more about it, I suggest you read the original journal publication. They tried their best to recreate the past and account for every minor detail.
But now I think it’s time to dust off my copy of the Iliad and imagine the brave and tragic warriors in the Dendra armour.
References
Flouris, A.D., Petmezas, S.B., Asimoglou, P.I., Vale, J.P., Mayor, T.S., Giakas, G., Jamurtas, A.Z., Koutedakis, Y., Wardle, K. and Wardle, D., 2024. Analysis of Greek prehistoric combat in full body armour based on physiological principles: A series of studies using thematic analysis, human experiments, and numerical simulations. Plos One, 19(5), p.e0301494.
800 BC the Iliad homer translated by Samuel Butler. Available at: http://pinkmonkey.com/dl/library1/iliad.pdf (Accessed: 01 June 2024).
