Quote Originally Posted by blitzkrieg80

I agree that those sparse literary accounts which are available cannot be relied on too heavily and that Tacitus used the 'iron-poor' half truth as a motif (and this is widely accepted) to make them seem more like noble savages. Desserx, you asked about non-Roman sources but unfortunately there really aren't any except archaeological which support Roman statements- BUT I must add that the material evidence is such a small sampling of the population that it can't possibly mean much by itself. It is most likely that armor was rare, because of the loanwork traffic, material evidence and Roman literary sources, but the Middle Ages can help enlighten more on this (even though the time is far off) because even in the Middle Ages, part-time levies (such as Ælfredes fyrd) didn't get nice gear- despite greater resources and technology.
Many thanks for the explanation Blitzkrieg80. It's well appreciated!