Reconstructing and Field Testing Ancient Greek Linen Body Armor: The UWGB Linothorax Project

For nearly 1,000 years, one of the most common forms of protection used by ancient Mediterranean warriors, including the armies of the Greeks and Alexander the Great, was the linothorax, a type of body armor apparently made out of linen. Due to the perishable nature of its material, however, no examples have survived; today it is poorly understood, and is known only through fragmentary descriptions in literature and from images on pottery and in sculpture. Employing only the materials and techniques that would have been available to the ancient Greeks, the UWGB (University of Wisconsin, Green Bay) Linothorax Project is investigating this mysterious armor by reconstructing and wearing examples of the linothorax, as well as subjecting test samples to attack with ancient weapons in order to determine the characteristics and protective qualities of this type of armor. This presentation will not only describe the project’s findings, but will also display a reconstructed linothorax and test samples for the audience’s examination.
Gregory S. Aldrete is Professor of History and Humanistic Studies at the University of Wisconsin at Green Bay. His areas of specialization include the city of Rome, daily life in the Roman world, floods and their effect, military history, Roman rhetoric and oratory, and non-verbal communication. He holds degrees from Princeton (A.B.)and the University of Michigan (M.A. and Ph.D.), and has published a number of books and articles on his Roman research. He has received various awards for scholarship and teaching excellence, and has most recently been awarded a grant towards his Linothorax Project.

This is the annual Sandra Church Lecture, sponsored by the Santa Barbara Society of the Archaeological Institute of America.

For more information, please call (805) 893-3556.

jwil 08.ix.2009