What was left were ‘precautionary’ armor pieces, meant to protect major blood vessels at the neck, under the armpits, and inner groin (center groin if you were lucky), or classic ‘kidney belt’, and even these were often not effective enough to justify wearing in non formation melee. You had chafing, human fleas, material rot, all leading back to the infection issue as well.
I think there is some misunderstanding of armor types and fighting styles from stone age and early metal work periods, being put under a microscope of modern values and interpretation here.Ī lot of individual fighting was done nude and near nude, because armor bits do go into wounds, and make otherwise survivable wounds lethal when you have no effective medical disciplines.įlexible, and breathable armor, able to withstand fighting long enough to be worth it, was not in many cultures capability to do economically.
