Lamellar armour in East Roman and Germanic Europe

[Duncan Head]

Raffaele D'Amato's recent Osprey on The Goths includes a colour painting of a Goth in lamellar armour, based on finds from Kranj in Slovenia. I was led by that picture to look up the Kranj armours online.

Gleaming in armour is a short piece on a museum exhibition of the Kranj armours back in 2016.

There is a lot of information in an article by D'Amato and Veronika Pflaum (pdf link) on the Kranj armours and various other lamellar finds and depictions from the 6th century and thereabouts. The authors conclude that though it is difficult to be certain who used these particular armours, the find is probably connected with the East Roman restoration of control in the region with the fall of the Ostrogothic kingdom; the armours were probably made in Roman territory and worn either by East Roman troops or Langobard foederatii. Very interesting stuff.