Emily Chan
A man in northwest China was buried wearing intricately crafted armor about 2,500 years ago. Researchers unearthed the military garment at Yanghai cemetery, an archaeological site near the city of Turfan, which is located at the edge of the Taklamakan Desert.
In the early 1970s, local villagers discovered the ancient cemetery. Since 2003, archaeologists have excavated over 500 burials, including the grave with the rare leather armor.
It is clear that people used the cemetery consistently for almost 1,400 years. They were called the Cheshi people, and they lived in the Tarim Basin.
They did not leave behind any written records, but ancient Chinese historians noted that they used tents as shelter, practiced agriculture, and raised animals, such as sheep and cattle. They were also skilled archers and horseback riders.
The armor was found in the grave of a man who was about 30 years old at the time of his death. He was buried with a number of artifacts, including pottery, two horse bits made of wood and horn, and the skull of a sheep.
The armor consisted of 5,444 small leather scales and 140 larger scales that resembled the overlapping scales of a fish. It could also be quickly put on without help from anyone else. The research team considered it to be an early example of bionics, meaning that the technology was created by taking inspiration from nature.
“It is a light, highly efficient one-size-fits-all defensive garment for soldiers of a mass army,” said Patrick Wertmann, the lead researcher of the study from the Institute of Asian and Oriental Studies of the University of Zurich.
The leather scales were likely made of cow rawhide. They were arranged in horizontal rows and connected by leather laces. The scales offered better protection against blows, stabs, and shots from weapons. The armor would have weighed around 11 pounds.
A plant thorn stuck in the armor allowed the researchers to radiocarbon date it. The armor dates between 786 B.C. and 543 B.C., indicating that it is older than similar armor worn by 5th-century Persian soldiers.
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