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<\/div>A modern replica of 3500-year-old armour from the Mycenaean civilisation<\/p>\n
Andreas Flouris and Marija Markovi\u0107<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n
Modern military volunteers donned replicas of ancient Greek armour and engaged in exercises inspired by Homer\u2019s epic poem The Iliad<\/em>. The demonstration shows how elite Bronze Age warriors could have fought in heavy protective gear during sustained combat.<\/p>\n The experiment\u2019s results strongly suggest that the 3500-year-old Dendra armour suit \u2013 one of the oldest complete suits of metal armour from Europe\u2019s Bronze Age<\/a> \u2013 was indeed suitable for battle. Some scholars have argued that it was merely a ceremonial outfit for the Mycenaean civilisation<\/a> that once dominated mainland Greece and the Aegean Sea\u2019s islands.<\/p>\n Andreas Flouris<\/a> at the University of Thessaly in Greece and his colleagues recruited modern Greece\u2019s Hellenic Marines to wear 23-kilogram Dendra armour replicas as each participant walked, ran, rode on a replica chariot and performed combat moves involving a sword, spear, bow and arrow and even a stone.<\/p>\n These activities followed Homer\u2019s descriptions of heavily armoured elite warriors, surrounded by bands of followers, roaming the battlefield, periodically attacking the enemy and retreating to safety behind the main battle lines to rest and eat, says co-author Ken Wardle<\/a> at the University of Birmingham in the UK.<\/p>\n \n