A paper on Achaemenid scale armour from Egypt

[Duncan Head]

The latest (October 2025) edition of ARTA, the online journal of achemenet.com, includes a paper (in French) on the scale armour from the Palace of Apries in Memphis, Egypt. Excavated by Flinders Petrie in 1909, the disarticulated armour scales of this find are generally dated to the late Saitic or the Achaemenid period. The authors concentrate on Achaemenid parallels and context here. They suggest that all the scales may belong to one armour and venture a tentative reconstruction.

See http://www.achemenet.com/fr/news/

[Adrian Nayler]

Interesting Duncan, thanks for posting it. I wonder if it will eventually go on display at the Petrie Museum? It has to be twenty five years since I visited and I don't recall seeing any scale armour on display then. Also good to see a photo of the reconstructed cuirass from Idalion, now in Stockholm, and the find from Gordion, neither of which I knew about.

[Duncan Head]

No idea if the Petrie Museum will display their armour scales, but they have posted about it - https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/museums/2020/03/06/specimen-of-the-week-392-hide-of-the-dragon-achaemenid-scale-armour/#more-55713

Liverpool Museum's share of the scales from the same site - https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/artifact/armour-scales

The Idalion armour - https://collections.smvk.se/carlotta-mhm/web/object/3205317

The Gordion armour fragment - https://www.penn.museum/sites/expedition/scale-armor-from-gordion/

[Adrian Nayler]

Thank you for the further links Duncan. They are all very interesting finds. If I may I shall add one more link to the scale armour finds from Sardis between 2012 and 2016. Like buses, new finds seem to be coming along one after another following a long wait. 

https://sardisexpedition.org/en/essays/kst-cahill-kst-2016

I've been exploring the Stockholm museum's online catalogue (the Carlotta link). They have a lot of material and if you like early Cyrus you'll find much of interest. The online catalogue is easy to search for those of us in the anglophone world. Unlike many overseas museum databases, the Swedes have chosen to catalogue it in English, so you don't need to phrase your search terms in Swedish!

Not related to the Achaemenids nor to scale armour but I found this lovely ostracon from Deir el-Medina with a drawing of an Egyptian chariot of 19th to 20th Dynasty date.

https://collections.smvk.se/carlotta-mhm/web/object/3006090

[Duncan Head]

Thanks, Adrian. The Sardis iron scale armour is an interesting companion to the iron helmet found in earlier years.