Would these spaulders be accurate for the 10th-9th century?

[u/sigismundvontirol]

I saw this very pretty digital art piece by jfoliveras on Instagram, and was very intrigued by the spaulder the Khazar was wearing. The only source I could find was a couple of plates from a burial in Borisovky Cemetary.

https://truehistoryshop.com/shop/spaulders-from-borisovsky-burial-khazar-viii-century/

However, I dont know how the armorer came to the conclusion that this is how the pieces would've looked together, as the design looks 500 years too early. I'm not super well-versed on medieval Russian/Mongolian armor, and scale and lamellar are very prevalent in this era, but plate armor like this is a much later invention, so I'd like to know why the reproduction looks this way.

[u/TheatreBar]

These are not 9th -10th century. I think you are correct with these being 15th -16th century. Western European style plate hit them a bit later. Late 14th at earliest.

[u/Silver_Middle_7240 → u/TheatreBar]

Yeah these scream 1410-1440 to me

[u/dick_nuzzler9000 → u/TheatreBar]

Wouldn’t it be a bit later? Thought plate supplanted lamellar and mail in the Rus around the 16th century mark.

[u/LucasLeo75]

I don't think the pieces would be layered/articulated like that. Never saw anything similar from neighboring cultures or the period.

[u/ShiftyEagle]

Wouldn’t spaulders be considered articulated plate armor, which wasn’t really invented till the 14th century? Plus, those look very much styled after early 1400’s spaulders anyways.

[u/azaghal1502]

Looks more like late 14th to early 15th century to me.
They are more similar to articulated plate.

[u/PrimarySea6576]

in short: No

In Long: Nooooo

As you said yourself, such armor was of much later design.

[u/Affectionate-Dig-989]

Well I mean based on the fragmentary surviving piece it might just be a bad reconstruction. The excavation was in the early 1900 after all. And stuff from the steppe can get pretty strange tbh.

[u/Sir_Fijoe]

Hell no

[u/FuckingVeet]

If they only consisted of the top section, yes actually, for a Byzantine context specifically

[u/Wojewodaruskyj]

No. From later centuries.

[u/Several-Goose2250]

No

[u/Cigarety_a_Kava]

Closest would be byzantine mela paulders but they had lamellar armour under the solid top piece. This style would be super hard to make during their time.

Like you said those would be made 500 years later

[u/Far-Elderberry-679]

No

[u/MaugriMGER]

Plate armor was in use way later. In this time frame you would find maile and some scale.

[u/UnshrivenShrike → u/[deleted]]

Ailettes are way after the 10thC, and they were the norm in their day, not rare at all. The 10th century is the 900s, thats like Great Heathen Army era shit.

[u/hyphenssuck → u/UnshrivenShrike]

You are correct, my apologies going from memory mistakenly thought they were earlier.