Editor's note: Cold Weapons Research Institute's Weapon Spectrum's "From the Excavated Cultural Relics to the Pre-Qin Armor: You Western Zhou Gao Fu Shuai, just wear this level of armor?" After the publication, some readers said, no! The Western Zhou Dynasty is not so dick silk, has not recently unearthed a bronze plate armor? Quite rich and handsome. This article will talk about this set of armor. If you have seen "Troy" or "Spartan Three Hundred Warriors" and other Greek-themed movies, most of them will notice that a special form of armor of the ancient Greeks, that is, the bronze breastplate commonly known as muscle armor, the biggest feature of this breastplate is that the surface is designed with a pattern similar to human muscles, which looks very sexy.
In addition to the pattern, the biggest feature of this muscle breastplate is that his carapace is a whole metal plate, rather than a piece of nail pieces concatenated together, which looks very advanced. As we all know, one of the most advanced armor plates in human history is that one of the characteristics is the use of a whole metal plate to make breastplates. For a long time, many Chinese netizens looked at the Greek muscle armor that was salivating out, no way, we didn't!
▲ Greek breastplate tiara Look at the early Chinese armor, take the Western Zhou Dynasty as an example, there are probably several types: First, the breastplate made of small nail pieces. For example, a breastplate excavated from Chang'an Pudu Village in Shaanxi Province, made of 42 rectangular bronze armor pieces, is a flexible rectangular plate, tied with a rope in the front chest position; the second is the leather armor that installs bronze reinforcement components. For example, in the tombs of the Western Zhou And Shang Zhou Dynasties, many bronze parts of the round bubble type or other shapes have been excavated, which are generally called armor bubbles, and experts believe that these parts are installed on leather armor to enhance the protective power of the armor. Leather armor is generally made of raw cowhide, cowhide is a very strong material, but also the preferred material for most countries to make leather armor, but it is clear that its strength can not make the Western Zhou people satisfied, so they finally chose to install some bronze pieces, bronze plates and other parts on the cowhide armor, how much protection is enhanced, it is not easy to say, because from the physical point of view, many armor bubbles are actually very thin, but then again, there is no stronger than none, armor bubbles are definitely much stronger than light cowhide.
▲ Most of the bronze breastplates or parts excavated from the Shigu Mountain West Zhou Tomb are relatively small, the reason is very simple, if you can make a large, then there is no need to make leather armor, is it not beautiful to directly make bronze armor? However, there are special cases for everything, the Shandong Dong'an Chema Pit has unearthed some bronze armor pieces of the Western Zhou, which are also installed on leather armor, one of which is particularly large, which may be a few points wider than the human chest, and the appearance is also very fierce, it is a large beast head, according to expert analysis, this large beast head is installed on the chest area. Along with the head of this beast, there are also two large circular armor bubbles, which experts speculate should be used in the back part. The third kind, of course, is that there is no bronze reinforcement of the leather armor, although there is no Western Zhou period leather armor excavated, but the Shang Dynasty leather armor and Spring and Autumn leather armor have been excavated, and the written records also said that the Western Zhou people used leather armor, so we boldly say that the Western Zhou people used leather armor, that is still not a big problem.
▲ Baoji Bronze Museum Western Zhou Jia bubble these kinds of armor, to say that it is good to use is not good, it is not easy to say, after all, no one recovered to take a knife to cut it to try, but these kinds of armor is obviously not good-looking. You look at the Greeks, and then look at our side, and when you compare this, you come out. In addition to the so-so of the Yamato-an, which is still mighty, the rest of the ones are really not very good to look at. However, the times are evolving, and archaeology is constantly making new discoveries. Bronze breastplates and tiara excavated from the Shanxi Zhou cemetery in Baoji, Shaanxi, break this argument. Baoji is known as the land of bronzes, excavated tens of thousands of bronzes, because Baoji in the Western Zhou Period belonged to the hinterland of the Zhou people's rule area, so the study of Western Zhou bronzes, it is inseparable from this place.
▲ Shigushan Shinjia On June 22, 2012, villagers in Shizuitu Village of ShiguShan found bronzes while digging the foundation, and the villagers immediately reported to the cultural relics department. After excavations by the archaeological team, a total of three tombs were opened. One of the tombs unearthed a piece of tibia (calf carapace) and two pieces of breastplate fragments, the largest of which is a fragment of breastplate fragments up to 40 cm long, from the restored photos, this breastplate is roughly similar to foreign breastplate, but the waist has a waist, at the same time, because the Zhou people are more introverted, so of course it is impossible to also play a muscle pattern on the surface of the breastplate, but cast a circle of clouds on the edge of the breastplate. Compared with the breastplate, the tibia is more plain, and the surface is smooth and unstretched, which is similar to the Greek tibia. The edges of both the breastplate and tibia are punched with some fine holes, probably used to wear ropes. These two pieces of armor are the only excavated specimens of plate-like breastplates and tibia in the Western Zhou Dynasty, which are of great significance. However, due to the fact that there are too many cultural relics unearthed from the Shigu Mountain West Zhou Tomb, it takes a long time to sort out, so no one has yet studied these two pieces of armor in depth.
▲ The animal face armor ornament hidden by the Institute of History and Language of the Academia Sinica, excavated from the xincun site in Junxian County, Henan Province, said a thousand ways and ten thousand, who is the owner of this breastplate and shin armor? This is a big head, ShiguShan this cemetery has three tombs, after research, is the Jiang Rong clan hu clan cemetery, you ask the surname of Jiang which Jiang? Ginger of The Tooth of The Ginger! Needless to say, Jiang Ziya, as everyone knows, is the taishi of Ji Fa, the king of Zhou Wu, the first monarch of the State of Qi. But what many people don't know is that Jiang Ziya's daughter Yi Jiang is still the queen of King Wu of Zhou. Yi Jiang was an important political figure in the early Western Zhou Dynasty, and it is mostly recorded in history books. Tomb No. 3 of Shigu Mountain, after research, is a member of the Yijiang clan, and Tomb No. 1 is the funerary tomb of Tomb No. 3, and the owner of the tomb may be the guard officer of the owner of Tomb No. 3.
Judging from the funerary items of Tomb No. 3, the status of this clan member is not low, but what is the specific identity, then we have no way of knowing. However, the breastplate and tibia made of such a large bronze plate are relatively difficult to process, and should be a rare thing in the Western Zhou Dynasty. According to common sense, only the guards of the queen's close relatives are worthy of such a thing. The owner of Tomb No. 3 is presumed to be a woman, so will she be Yi Jiang's sister? I'm afraid only God knows. But what is certain is that when this woman traveled, the armor worn by the general of the guards must have been one of the most dazzling scenery at that time.
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