OT Armorgrabbing Greeks and Trojans

Thanks Ed and Karl, that makes good sense. I suppose if the guy is rich already he'll have followers who would appreciate some good armor as part of their plunder.

Re; riveted mail rings, yeah, that's some serious fine work. I figure it wasn't so hard for 8-year old kids to do, they got some good eyesight and coordination.

I sure am glad I wasn't born in the old days, either Classical Greece or Medievel Europe.. It's all very interesting, but seeing it from the distance I do is enough for me..

John

Remember, the Greeks and Trojans were wearing Bronze armor, not steel, and using bronze blades. Bronze was (and is) a very expensive metal because it used the exotic metal Tin as part of it's makeup. Only sources were a small amount in Turkey and major deposits in Ireland, Wales, and southern Britain. Even in Greek times, the Phoenicians were exporting Tin from the British Isles, which was a heck of voyage for ships not much bigger than a normal day sailer these days. The hunt for tin is thought to be what drove the development of commercial trading in Western Europe.

Those Homeric heroes were wearing the worth of 10 healthy slaves or a good sized farm on their backs. If they could claim one of those, the average foot soldier was set for life.

Even more recently scavenging battles was a major source of wealth. The steel scavenged from Waterloo was the basis of new industrial production in Belgium (not to mention the "scrap metal" German weaponry that was the basis of Israel's war for independence).

That helps a lot.. I wasn't considering the value of the metal itself, just the added value of turning it into armor.

John