Varro records that the invention of the shirt of mail of interlocking rings belongs to Celtic armourers, although doubtless its use was very restricted. A small number of pieces is known, including Ciumesti and Kirkburn, as well as representations at Pergamon and Vacheres. Mail shirts protected the torso to below the waist and often had broad shoulder straps with decorative rosettes; the shoulder pieces must not only have provided additional protection but also helped to spread the weight that a warrior would have to bear in the field. The use of mail clearly ran counter to traditions of disregard for body armour and the pride in nakedness noted by Diodorus Siculus: ‘Some of them have iron breast plates wrought in chain, while others are satisfied with the arms nature has given them and fight naked’ {History V.30.3). The sculpture from Entremont has been interpreted as showing either mail shirts with shoulder and pectoral decoration or leather body armour with bronze rosettes and figural decoration (Benoit 1955). A delightful small bronze figure from Gutenberg (Liechtenstein) wears what is more certainly a leather cuirasse with well-marked shoulder pieces and a fringed hem. Such model figures as that from Saint-Maur-en-Chaussee (Oise) and Gutenberg were clearly figures of warrior gods, but there is no reason to think that the representation of the tunics is not accurate. Only the Gundestrup Cauldron offers more detailed representation with the foot soldiers and carnyx-blowers wearing long-sleeved singlets and tight trousers akin to cycling shorts and the horsemen have waist-length tunics of similar material (Klindt-Jensen 1961).
World History
