# High medieval armor - is it made out of wrought iron or steel?



## Peregrine (Dec 31, 2017)

Title is accidentally misleading and I got three questions.

1) FIRST QUESTION

In 11th century AD for example, was the armor made of wrought iron or steel?

2) SECOND QUESTION

What was armor made of in Roman times when it comes to Roman legionaries with best equipment such as lorica segmentata or imperial helmets, did Romans have their armor made of wrought iron or steel?

3) THIRD QUESTION

What about the Gaulish barbarians, did they have inferior metallurgy compared to Romans?


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## Butterfly (Dec 31, 2017)

1) 11th century is the early medieval era, and is pretty much the Norman era. So it would have been chain mail hauberks made of iron, and other bits - like wrist guards - made of leather, iron helmets with that distinctive nose guard in place, wooden shields.

2) Iron, bronze, leather

3) No idea.

I believe steel armour was in use at a later period. I may be wrong.


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## CupofJoe (Dec 31, 2017)

The Gauls and the Celts were exceptional metal workers. They had chainmail before the Romans [I believe] and could make incredibly fine jewellery.
It was probably more to do with the scale that the Romans could bring to production that made the difference.


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## valiant12 (Dec 31, 2017)

> 3) THIRD QUESTION
> 
> What about the Gaulish barbarians, did they have inferior metallurgy compared to Romans?



I think it depends on the time period. Roman history is long and complex, and there are a lot of Celtic tribes.


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## Guy (Dec 31, 2017)

#1. Iron
#2. It depends. They mostly used iron, but there was still bronze body armor. It varied by period and what the individual unit could get.
#3. The Celts were excellent metal workers. Indeed, the Romans borrowed a lot of designs from them, including mail, their helmets, and swords. They got the design of the short infantry sword from Spanish Celts and the spatha from the Celtic long swords.


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## X Equestris (Jan 2, 2018)

CupofJoe said:


> The Gauls and the Celts were exceptional metal workers. They had chainmail before the Romans [I believe] and could make incredibly fine jewellery.
> It was probably more to do with the scale that the Romans could bring to production that made the difference.



Not only did they have it before the Romans, the Celts are commonly credited with inventing chain mail.


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## X Equestris (Jan 2, 2018)

To address the OP, as far as I can find 11th century mail was made of iron.  

When it comes to golden age legionnaires, lorica segmentata was soft iron on the inside and mild steel on the outside.  But armor changed a lot from Rome's beginnings as a city state to the fall of the Western Empire.   

Not really, by and large.


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