Laminar armour

Laminar armour (from Latin: lamina - layer) is an armour made from horizontal overlapping rows or bands of solid armour plates, as opposed to lamellar armour, which is made from individual armor scales laced together to form a solid-looking strip of armor. Prominent examples of such armour are lorica segmentata and certain versions of samurai armour.

Less known examples were present in Asia from Iran to Mongolia, including Central Asia. Laminar armor from animal skins has also been traditionally made and worn in the Arctic areas of what are now Siberia, Alaska and Canada.

In the 16th century laminar and lamellar armour was superseded by plated mail in the Middle East and Central Asia, remaining mainly in Mongolia. However, laminar armor did appear briefly in some form in Europe during the 16th to the 17th century with the main feature that distinguished it from other forms of laminar armor being the metal strips being fastened using sliding rivets. This was known as anima and was invented in Italy. Notable examples include the Earl of Pembroke's Armour and the armor worn by the Polish hussars. The technique was also used to armor the neck, upper limbs, and hips as seen in the Almain rivet and the zischagge.

Laminar cuirasses were manufactured in Japan as early as the 4th century.Tankō (laminar), worn by foot soldiers and keikō (lamellar), worn by horsemen were both pre-samurai types of early Japanese cuirass constructed from iron plates connected by leather thongs.

At the beginning of the Sengoku period Japanese armour typically had two versions - expensive and inexpensive. The difference was that expensive versions were made from hundreds or even thousands of individual leather and or iron scales laced together into armor strips (lamellar), this was a very time consuming process. The two most common types of scales which made up the Japanese lamellar armors were which were constructed from narrow or small scales, and which were constructed from wider scales.

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