this post was submitted on 05 Mar 2025
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Historical Artifacts

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Just a community for everyone to share artifacts, reconstructions, or replicas for the historically-inclined to admire!

Generally, an artifact should be 100+ years old, but this is a flexible requirement if you find something rare and suitably linked to an era of history, not a strict rule. Anything over 100 is fair game regardless of rarity.

Generally speaking, ruins should go to [email protected]

Illustrations of the past should go to [email protected]

Photos of the past should go to [email protected]

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[–] Dr_Fetus_Jackson 7 points 1 day ago (3 children)

So you can be stabbed in the toes, knees, fingers, or nose.... how 'bout no!?!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 hours ago

Conaidering that you won't stand stiff and upright as an unmoving target, but rather bent in the knees like you see modern fighters, as well as moving around, hitting the knees or feet is gonna be a lot harder. You'd have to bend down to reach for them, putting your own head and neck deeper within the enemy's reach.

The fingers are also hard to hit (but not impossible), but mostly they're hard to armor if you want to retain flexibility. The same goes for the face: You need to be able to see what's happening and what the enemy is doing. Armoring either would probably bring more drawbacks than protections.

That's not to say there are no ways to armor these parts, but they might not have been invented at the time or simply too complex and expensive to make. If they found that a ton of people died with chopped-off fingers, they'd find a way to armor those. If they never bothered, it probably won't have been worth the cost.

If you're interested in the decisions that go into selecting armor, I recommend this blog entry by an ancient historian as well as the follow-up where he uses the logic laid out in the first post to be pedantic about pop culture examples. The blog is, after all, named "A Collection Of Unmitigated Pedantry" (and I can really recommend it in general).

[–] modeler 13 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It's suggested that the term "Achilles' heel", meaning a seemingly insignificant point of fatal weakness, comes from exactly your observation of the Dendra Panoply, an armour of exactly the same period as Achilles and the Trojan War.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 hours ago

thanks for the link

The panoply has been the subject of extensive academic study and experimental research. While many scholars have discussed its functionality,[10] significant experimental investigations have also been conducted. In 1988, Diana Wardle,[11] using a replica crafted by students at the Bournville College of Art, Birmingham (now part of Birmingham City University), made initial findings regarding its practical use. In 2012, professor Barry Molloy,[12] utilizing a different replica, contributed important insights into the kinematics of the armor. In 2018, archaeologist Spyros Bakas,[13] through a meticulous reconstruction of the panoply, provided crucial information on its distinctive features and the anatomy of its components, while also addressing the operational capabilities of the warrior. Most recently, in 2024, researchers from the University of Thessaly, led by professor Andreas Flouris, using Wardle's 1980s replica, added new conclusions on the ergonomics and kinematics of the warrior wearing the armor, showing that "[a] group of special armed-forces personnel wearing a replica of the Dendra armour were able to complete an 11-hour simulated Late Bronze Age combat protocol that we developed from a series of studies based on the available evidence".[2] This research indicates that the armour was perfectly suited to use in battle, not simply ceremonial as originally assumed.

[–] AnUnusualRelic 2 points 21 hours ago

Modern armour has similar drawbacks.