Greek armor in Trojan War good for 11-hour battle, study finds
Greek Bronze Age body armor was robust enough to shield a Mycenaean soldier in battle 3,500 years ago for 11 hours, according to a new study, reported in Live Science.
The study recruited volunteer marines from the Hellenic Armed Forces, who fought for 11 hours in replicas of a suit of armor found in 1960 by archaeologists in Dendra, near what was once the ancient Greek city of Mycenae. They based the combat on Homer’s epic account of the Trojan War in “The Iliad.”
The results of the study were published last Wednesday in the journal PLOS One.
Archaeologists have debated for decades whether the armor, which included a boar’s tusk helmet and a set of bronze plates, was durable enough for battle.
The volunteers followed diets comparable to what a Mycenaean soldier would have had in anticipation of battle, including bread, beef, goat cheese, green olives, onions, and red wine.
