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An illustration from:
Mamuka Tsurtsumia, The Evolution of Splint Armour in Georgia and Byzantium, Lamellar and Scale in the 10th-12th Centuries
St George of Jakhunderi, Georgia, 11th century


Fig. 23. St George of Jakhunderi in the lamellar with concealed thongs, after Chubinashvili (pl. 188).
    An archaeological expedition headed by O. Makushnikov unearthed a burnt, 13th-century armourer's workshop in Gomel, where 1500 plates of lamellar armour were discovered. These finds allowed reconstruction of some very interesting suits of lamellar, differing from typical armour. As is known, lamellar armour can withstand any weapon, but sword strikes damage its thongs. Masters seem to have always been looking for a method of protecting the suspending thongs, which they did achieve by means of changing the shape of the armour plates. Sword strikes are not at all dangerous for the lamellar armour of such plates, since the thongs practically never come out onto the surface of the plates [fig. 22].
    As stated above, lamellar armour of this type with concealed thongs is not rare in Georgian works of art. It is this type of lamellar that St George wears on the Jakhunderi icon of the 11th century [fig. 23]; the fortress guard depicted in the miniature at folio 186v of the Jruchi 2nd Tetraevangelion and the archangel on the Labsqaldi icon, probably dating from the 13th century, are clad in the same type of lamellar armour.

Source: Byzantina Symmeikta



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