The armour scales were found in China’s eastern province of Jiangxi, where the main tomb of Liu He was unearthed about a decade ago.
Such evidence of a multi-material, composite approach to armour-making, in contrast to the typical single-material armours, is unprecedented in Han dynasty archaeology, according to Bai Rongjin, a veteran armour restoration expert from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS).
Each armour scale or plate from the find is just 1cm (0.39 inch) wide and 0.2cm thick, making them “the smallest armour scales ever unearthed from the Han dynasty”, Bai told Xinhua, adding that smaller pieces would demand more intricate forging and assembly techniques.
Each armour scale or plate from the find is just 1cm (0.39 inch) wide and 0.2cm thick, making them “the smallest armour scales ever unearthed from the Han dynasty”, Bai said, adding that smaller pieces would demand more intricate forging and assembly techniques.
Han dynasty scales were typically 4cm to 10cm wide, Bai said. Even the finely crafted armour scales from the tomb of Liu Sheng, a prince of the Western Han empire (202 BC – AD9), were 2cm to 3cm wide – much larger than those from Liu He’s armour. Liu Sheng’s tomb was discovered in northern Hebei province in 1968.
