Quote Originally Posted by antisocialmunky View Post
The suit is unique and surprisingly intact for being in the ground since before the Greek Dark age.

However, it seems to have been well known enough to allegedly have ideograms of it from two sites:

Knossos


Pylos


So it was known during the period it was supposedly used but no one has any ideas of what its exact purpose was. So its kinda a LS type situation where it existed and there are representations and permutations of it but its still kinda a unicorn.

http://www.salimbeti.com/micenei/armour1.htm
Yes, as shown in the Linear B ideograms, such heavy panoplies were not uncommon, it is just that, as one so often finds elsewhere with armour, very little has survived. We are incredibly lucky to have a complete example of such a panoply.

Quote Originally Posted by Ludens View Post
I am pretty sure I read that it was unique and its function unclear, but I don't have the source with me. I'll get back to it in a couple of days. Mycenaean chariots are presumably no more wobbly than any solid-tire vehicle made for traversing unflattened ground. Still, keeping your balance on them would take some effort.
Sure, it would take some effort, just like fighting on horseback without stirrups and with only a basic saddle in a heavy panoply. That doesn't mean it wasn't done, or wasn't commonplace.

Any source stating that the nature or the purpose of this armour is unclear is not very informative. It's obvious from examining other parallels that such armour would be worn by a charioteer, who had the benefit of not having to run around on the battlefield; who would be rich enough to afford it; and who, not holding a shield, would need the benefit of a heavy panoply for maximum protection. Besides, I am curious to hear what these sources state could be other uses for such armour; heavy infantrymen? Or do they take the usual cop-out and declare it "ritual armour"?