African chain mail shirt

[colin henshaw]

Thanks again to estcrh for his detailed and informative responses regarding a possible place and date range of manufacture for the hauberk. I will soon take some more close-up images of the rivets that I hope will help with identification.

From memory, I think I have stored away an old copy of the journal "Sudan Notes and Records", with an article about the making of chain mail at Omdurman. I will see if I can find it.

To try to move forward with the African part of the hauberk's origins ... that it was used in Africa (no doubt a trade item), I think is indicated by the attached collar, which is of typical African leather work. At the moment I feel this is most likely to be Northern Nigeria/Cameroon but I guess Sudan or elsewhere in Africa should also be considered. From the images and examples I have seen, Sudanese hauberks appear to be a bit longer and without a leather collar. But I could be wrong here... can anyone help out on these matters ?

The Pitt Rivers Museum has a good collection of chain mail from around the world, here is an image of a Hausa hauberk from Kano (Nigeria), they have. Note the similar stitching to mine at the top edge of the collar, and the use of leather thongs.

Any further information certainly would be appreciated...

[estcrh]

Originally Posted by colin henshaw

Thanks again to estcrh for his detailed and informative responses regarding a possible place and date range of manufacture for the hauberk. I will soon take some more close-up images of the rivets that I hope will help with identification.

Colin, if you can take good, detailed images like the one close up that would be great, just from the inside this time, if you could pull back a little bit this time and include a few more links that would be helpful. On these old hauberks you often run into repairs, these links were added at a later date and often did not match the originals, this throws off the identification. It is good to have images from a few scattered areas.