About 2,500 years ago, a man in Northwest China was buried with a suit of armor made from over 5,000 scales of leather. This military outfit was designed with great complexity, resembling overlapping fish scales, a recent study has discovered.
According to the lead researcher Patrick Wertmann, a scholar at the Institute of Asian and Oriental Studies at the University of Zurich, “This is a type of light defensive clothing, tailored to fit various sizes, highly effective for soldiers.”
The armor (highlighted in red) discovered in an ancient tomb in Northwest China
In this case, the overlapping leather scales resemble fish fins, enhancing the strength of human skin against blows, stabs, and gunfire, said Mayke Wagner, a co-researcher and scientific director of the Eurasian Department at the German Archaeological Institute.
Local villagers discovered this ancient cemetery in the early 1970s. Since 2003, archaeologists have excavated over 500 tombs there, including the one containing the leather armor.
This armor is a rare find. However, leather armor was previously discovered in the ancient tomb of King Tutankhamun in Egypt, dating back to the 14th century BC, which is known as the only well-preserved ancient leather armor with a known provenance.
Another well-preserved leather armor, housed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, dates from the 8th to the 3rd century BC, but its origin remains unclear.
The researchers found this armor in the tomb of a man who died at around 30 years of age, buried alongside several artifacts, including pottery, two horse cheek pieces made from horn and wood, and a sheep’s skull.
Researchers also found a plant thorn stuck in the armor, which dates it from 786 BC to 543 BC. According to the team’s reconstruction results, this armor weighs approximately 5 kg.
