Armor must protect its wearer, but it also must be flexible and allow for movement -- especially during combat. How did medieval armors solve this engineering paradox? At the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Curator-in-Charge of the Arms and Armor department Pierre Terjanian shows Adam some of the ingenious hacks armorers were able to engineer centuries ago.
The MET's Arms and Armor Department: www.metmuseum.org/about-the-m...
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Intro bumper by Abe Dieckman
Thanks for watching!
The MET's Arms and Armor Department: www.metmuseum.org/about-the-met/collection-areas/arms-and-armor Adam Savage Meets Real Armored Gauntlets: kzhead.info/sun/aJ1mabSkeV98ZJE/bejne.html Adam Savage Meets Real Ancient Swords: kzhead.info/sun/qq6yoKymqneka6c/bejne.html
Adam should try going to Bicolline
We often look back on history as a more primitive time, but this type of problem solving and craft really highlights how ingenious problem solving is nothing new.
Yeah! As Tod Culter says, “medieval people weren’t stupid!” - they may not have had access to the level of science and technology we have today, but they were smart, clever and ingenious people nonetheless, and came up with solutions that can astound and surprise us even today.
WTH are you guys talking about? we are physically indistinguishable from our ancestors from +100 000 years ago, a few hundred years is nothing. Only a complete moron would think there was any significant anatomic difference....not sure what's the point in creating/holding up that strawman....
they had the same brain as we have today. Karens, woke cultists excluded
My favorite are the automata! Historical clock makers were wizards!
@@altergreenhorn And they used it better than many in 2023, this time will be known as The dumb ages.
To be completely fair, it took them 50 years to get actual *confirmation* that it is what this piece was for.
I'm an armor and medieval enthusiast, I literally guessed what that piece was for once i saw that little front part that connects to the bottom of a codpiece. also, it was kind of obvious when you realize that most animals are not able to move their limbs in as many ways as us humans, i can't think a single animal that humanity has put armor on at one point that can rotate their rear limbs to the same degree as us people.
Good to know because im no amor enthusiast, only German with some history knowledge and was able to solve that with my first thought when the piece was presented. It would have been easy now to leave the fact out of sight, that believing in something is for churches and that in science actual evidence is needed to confirm the assumption.
@@MarMonkey2606yes but you have to remember they can’t just say it’s a crotch piece without a legit explanation, they had to research every possibility so they can say with 100% certainty
I realy see a neck peice
My favorite part about tested is that they are willing to produce in depth content about niche items and concepts that would be typically overlooked by other media sources. Not to mention Adams credibility as a mythbuster gets him unprecedented access to so many inteligent people and places.
That armor in that book is insane because most plate armor was designed to have the gaps protected with mail. However that plate armor doesnt require any mail to be worn. The evolution from full mail in the 13th century to full plate in the 15th century is an underated journey of technological developments.
I believer that type of plate without any mail is 16th century.
It was probably pretty bad for the mail industry, though.
@@vigilantcosmicpenguin8721 It was probably the same shops making plate armor that had made mail before. Just like companies today have to keep up with their competition so did shops back then.
First, this was for foot combat, you cannot ride a horse in this. Also, this required a perfect fit of all the pieces, a blow that bent a piece could render the articulation useless. I suspect this was vs swords only, since they are light weapons.
@@ronin1648 No, the armor was used for polearm fighting specifically. We actually have full sets with the weapons they're meant to fight with, and without exception these are impact weapons like warhammers, maces, and poleaxes. You actually got it right in your second sentence. The most common way the combatants won a fight was by disabling the opponent's joints.
I love the fact that they spent years trying to work out what the ‘mystery’ piece is for and Adam worked it out in 2 minutes… Myth Busted!
while its super impressive adam did correctly infer its use, these historian's jobs is to know for certain that was what it was used for which is why it took 50 years to say for certain that it could have been a crotch piece which is why they showed us the earlier theory about horse armor. Adam couldnt have known 100% without the historian elaborating on it especially without the other photos.
@@Tojeaux_the need to protect the *_family jewels_* is eternal LoL
Correction: Adam worked it out in 19 seconds
I love how the curator just didn't address it.
@@Tojeaux_ I agree with what you said a 100%. But an other factor is also the differences between how some groups of people look at things. Like a historian is trying to put a story of history that is factually sound so if you have an object that may support and inform about something that we have little information about, like horse armour, its very tempting to look in that direction. While Adam as a maker and problem solver looks at it from a more technical perspective. what could this piece achieve with the function it has? neither approach is necessarily better than the other. for instance you could find an object that would do great at a specific function but was actually used for something else. in which case historians have a better chance of getting the answer because they are building a story with context. the thing to learn from this I think is to get a diverse group of people looking at a problem. they have all different insights and that will make the chance of getting the right answer greater! edit: spelling
Military: Unknown piece of metal from a downed UFO. Adam: It's an Alien Codpiece !
Shortly after this was filmed, the conservators realized it was actually armor for the crotch of a horse.
It is amazing what smiths and armourers were capable of that long ago. The quality of the craftsmanship from the 14 and 1500s, that's just astonishing. Thank you Tested, myself and a lot of other folks love this armour content. It's so fascinating to see what people were capable of back in the day, so much storytelling and problem-solving on display.
And so much of that knowledge has been lost to time. We've had to re-learn a lot of it.....
you ever heard of a soldier called "The Iron Fist"?
A lot of it is patience. A breast plate would take half a year for a single man, if not more. Today, we make a reproduction breastplate (out of thicker metal, no less) in less than a week. Everything took longer back then, it was dealt with
The precision. Its amazing what you can do when you get your eye in; but that comes fairly quickly; the control, the practice, the combination of strength & finnese in craft motions. That takes longer. I was stunned by that rotating cuff; that tight & smooth motion was completely beyond what I thought possible by hand & by eye, and before standardisation of measures. I was a shoe repairer (no accreditation, so not a cobbler) before I became unable to work; we regularly work to fractions of MMs grinding soles back, thinning the edges of leather, etc. But that's still nowhere near accurate enough...
@@ckm-mkc Had to think back to a docu about medieval Japanese sword making and how they passed their knowledge to the next generation, fascinating.
I love when Adam makes videos going places and talking to experts. It kinda feels like a field trip
Me too! I love them!
We're one old school bus away from having Mr. Frizzle
This series is really interesting thanks Adam and the Tested team.
So glad you think so! Thanks for telling us!
+
Yesterday that was armor technology and today that is HVAC ductwork.
I was looking at the upper arm piece and at the same time looking at the 8" 45 degree elbow duct sitting on my workbench.
I absolutely love these videos at the MET Armourer's. Is truly fascinating seeing the pieces and the insightful conversation about them 😊
So glad you're enjoying them!
The rotating vambrace is something we need more affordable in HEMA. currently there is either too much room in the vambrace or a gap right before the elbow.
I've been doing some character design of knights as of late (inspired by Elden Ring, Dark Souls, GoT, etc) and mobility in armor has been one aspect that I began looking into for making those designs. This video is great and I really appreciate it.
Absolutely incredible. I hope that this series continues because Adam brings that excitement and the MET has people with incredible depth of intimate knowledge. Love this so much!
More videos to come!
The Arms and Armor exhibit at the Met is my favorite museum exhibit on Earth, so awesome to see some behind the scenes on these pieces!
Took 50 years to figure out, but Adam guessed it right in seconds.
It took 50 years to *verify* the idea. But I agree, Adam was really fast to suggest the correct answer.
The technology required to turn a human into a tank seems even more daunting than creating a tank. It is quite amazing and to think that someone would have to go into combat wearing some of these pieces that were quite expensive is also mind boggling.
Full Plate armor was state of the art technology in its time. It was equivalent to buying a tank today in terms of cost.
I really love the MET Armory episodes. Great people great objects. Love their knowledge and Adam's appreciation of the armor and arms as well as his knowledge.
More videos to come! We LOVE filming there.
I bet a lot of that stuff was plundered by US troops in germany.
this is BY FAR my favorite series on youtube right now. Awesome stuff
Thank you Pierre for sharing this and thank you Adam for bring it to us. Ancient solutions to contemporary problems - amazing!
i love seeing Adams pure love for the things medieval makers made it makes me happy
Adam is doing some field research to make his own armor
Finally, somebody giving full plate the credit it deserves. It doesn't make you a turtle, it makes you a lobster. Lobsters are pretty flexible wherever they need to flex.
I love all things metal and combat oriented. This whole video was heaven for me. Thank you.
In five hundred years, a display of our contemporary armor won't be nearly as impressive. " Here's the kevlar. Here's the plate carrier. This is the plate "
"Doesn't look like much, but this was used to stop chunks of weaponized metal going faster than the speed of sound from perforating whatever poor sod was wearing it."
“In the early 2000’s, personal armour was heavy and rigid, so they had to make trade offs, and cover only the vital organs with these rigid plates. A side benefit was the soft carriers made to hold the plates could then be used as load bearing equipment. Can you imagine there was a time soldiers went into combat without personal energy shields? Seems downright irresponsible these days. But we have to remember what they had to work with at that time.
These pieces are exquisite, the engineering and artistry from half a millennium ago.
the way these were made is impressive, just imagine how hard it would be to take down someone wearing this armor without the use of guns
We just time traveled , amazing story!
This degree of craftsmanship is astonishing. Nothing like what one would expect.
Hey Adam! Definitely a "Kid in the Candy Store" experience for you whenever you go to the MET! Thanks for sharing! 🥰 That Crotch piece for an adolescent would be like buying a pair of limited edition, ridiculously priced basketball ball shoes that they'll outgrow in 6 months! 😁😬🙄🤑 Mike in San Diego. 🌞🎸🚀🖖
I absolutely love these videos from the met!
A lot of people have the misconception that knights in plate armor couldn't move around a lot. (Probably from images of knights being hoisted onto their horses with a crane. That's jousting armor, and that's kind of a special case.) This shows just how important flexibility was to the wearer. if you couldn't move, you couldn't fight, and if you couldn't fight, you died!
As a writer this stuff is so goddamn helpful for describing armor in fights
I love that you're putting in the research to make your book more realistic, good luck!
Never underestimate engineers that work with their hands.
This is actually going to help me with some worbla armor I am making right now for DragonCon. Amazing stuff!
Just watched the whole damn thing (Met playlist) again. Please make more of these videos, it's so fascinating!
We’re dying to go back!
Now we see how long it takes for Adam to try to make his own articulated armor
Just Love this MET series
Amazing craftsmanship!
Absolutely incredible, really goes to show you how unbelievably intelligent and creative we have been for so many centuries.
All of that pre industrial is insane
Striking at the legs of calvary horses was a common attack for infantrymen, so I could see something like that for horse armor.
"It took from 1927 to 1974 to figure this out" he showed it to Adam and he figured it out in about 5 seconds that it was for the crotch.
It's probably more of a complex process than it looks from a 14 minute video. An engineer would look at it and figure out how they would use it, and a historian has to confirm it and double check it within the historical context.
@@alexanderthegreat6682 @alexanderthegreat6682 agreed, but they still went down a rabbit hole of effort and time thinking it was for a horse. The point is Adam's first assessment was accurate. Likely the result of his vast experience with spacesuit replica and body armor including apprenticing with armourer Terry English.
@@ckohlermnIt is true that it should be obvious for many even myself as to what it was used for but I think the reason this took so long was likely a combination of this probably not being their main focus of study and historians needing to nearly absolutely sure of what something is to prevent the issue of someone being lazy or ignorant and deciding on something with little to no evidence to back it up and calling it a day like what happened with the first dinosaur recreations where it was just a bunch of bones cobbled together into one creature. This could involve years of study and become increasingly more difficult with the age of the item and the lack of info on said item. Like as he says with the armorers being so secretive of their designs it’s likely that there were little documents of the time that said what armor pieces were what so it could have been rather difficult to find any physical proof to back it up.
@@alexanderthegreat6682 Could have been solved by visiting a riding school & observing an actual horse's movements or by asking someone who works with horses.
Thank you both. very cool.
Gotta run it through an enchantment table for better stats
There are so many degrees of freedom in these riveted plate armor pieces. Pretty insane
That was most fascinating. Medieval armoursmiths always amazed me, but the more I study this field, the better it gets. Would love to learn more about those fully-enclosing horse armours. However, I guess they were never very much of a thing.
Often more than you think! People love to say "oh but nobody could afford it", but this wasn't a time of conscription and state arsenals, rather one where society's elites raised their own forces and did much of their own fighting. They were *extremely* interested in shelling out for the finest equipment.
Adam, your love for armor and spacesuits are my favorite part of Tested.
Fantastic, keep it coming, I need my Met armor fix!
More to come!
It’s amazing someone didn’t immediately say..”that looks like it goes on someone’s hip” The articulation is exactly how the leg would move in relation to the pelvis.. and was my first thought when I saw it.. the horse theory made no sense based on its size…
I thought the same...maybe human centered thinking but, why would you not assume it fit into a human body somehow.
This is such good reference!!! What more can a fantasy artist ask for!!
I would love to know what those reference books are, the photography is fantastic
I love this, but more and longer closeups would be so, so, much better.
I'm definitely going to have to buy those books on armour!
Magnificent video, and history! Ingenuity is not inherent of new civilization.
I'm curious about Adams aluminum creations with these neatly moving parts and mechanisms!
Can you go into more detail on the inner arm and the armpit? More detailed drawings showing the articulation would be amazing 👌
Wow! That’s amazing! Had no idea stuff like that was done!
Took them 47 years to figure it out, but Adam guessed what it was when he first picked it up.
I'd love to see Adam and these armorers make a modern advanced version of a suit of armor.
That mystery piece looks like a pauldron designed to allow the arm some additional vertical rotation
excellent video
It's great that he was showing Adam how all this stuff was made. Too bad he didn't angle it towards the camera so everyone else could see.
Armor Historians for Decades: what is this object? It's an unsolvable mystery! Adam Bursting in Like the Kool Aid Man: IT'S FOR CROOOOTCH!
I am literally buying the reference book Pierre wrote and uses, The Last Knight, right now!
Fantastic series.
There is technology lost to time that we may never reproduce or understand. Ingenuity sometimes comes from the perfect person with the perfect perspective at the perfect moment. So many things were perfected through generations of craftsmen passing on knowledge without writing anything down or anything. Thousands of little quirks, processes, closely guarded secrets, unique and particular material, etc all sum up to a relic incapable of replication.
Please ask the Met to offer the "Making armor in Maximillian's time" poster on the wall available for sale.
Adam has the curious energy of a kid and it's wonderful haha
Be interesting to see a video like this regarding the Lorica Segmentata of the imperial romans or the comparable armour of the Persians that famously revealed their full armour during the defeat of Crassus.
10am here. can now go back to bed as I have now already learnt so much today :) thank you
I visited the Royal Armoury, Leeds UK in April and was singularly impressed by some of the first examples of wing nuts. All handmade, of course. Arty people rave about sculptures and paintings; these things are far more impressive, in my books.
So fascinating
Armor is such an interesting subject historically, because of how quickly each advancement becomes obsolete. The pieces shown here must be so close to the expansion of firearm use, specifically cannonry
Awesome! 👍
If they have any more mysteries, they should run them by Adam!! 😊😊
As someone who's used to watching people handle old textiles and books, watching them handle armor almost hurts on an instinctual level 😭 I have to keep reminding myself that these things are literally designed to take a beating lol
People think armor made people slow and clunky. This was not true. Properly fitted plate mail has remarkable little effect on your agility, you can see videos of people doing cartwheels in armor. The main downside to armor was it's effect on endurance. Carrying around dozens of kilos takes a bit of energy, especially over time.
Amazing story!
It took the museum 50 years to figure out what took Adam Savage 5 minutes. This is why we need professionals/ makers in the museum space. They know what they are looking at, sometimes better than an expert.
just wonderful
Props to Pierre for not Erroneously calling it "Chainmail" when it's just called Mail! 👏👏👍👍 I don't believe it was for a horse, to me it looks more like it's missing the other half which would be identical and it would be worn to cover the back of a humans Thigh and Buttocks area. To me the give away is the little "bulge", it looks like it would be where the testicles sit. Edit: I was correct it is not for a horse it's the back of the thigh crotch area. Lol
It takes years for those guys to figure out where that piece of armor goes... Adam comes in and figures it out in a few seconds lmao.
The first idea that entered my head was that the mystery piece belongs on the inner thigh Crazy how it took them so many years to figure it out
5:20 the sketch really says Wolfenbüttel - that's my hometown 😳. Nice
I'm going to save this just for reference for when I play D&D. Amor being stiff, my rear.
And to think, from these early designs you get things like JIM suits and space suits. Those early joints were the first attempts at very difficult things to make. And it's funny how modern equivalents are similar if better made. But it must be recognized that we have better machine tools and materials than these early armor smiths had.
Anybody else see that mystery piece and immediately think, "Obviously that's a right shoulder, it's just missing the connected arm and chest plates." ?
At 12:23, Adam mentions "the bills from Maximilian's clock maker for designing the shields" was that featured in another video or did he see that off camera? It sounds interesting.
Adam: please do an episode on the Antikythera mechanism 🙏🏻
Tony Stark Was Able To Build This In A Cave, With A Box Of Scraps...
As a man i love the idea of protecting this area with armor but thinking of how much horse riding you would do as a noble and those plates basically doing the same things as scissors next to the royal jewels may be the reason why some nobles couldn't have kids. They must have some heavy leather pantaloons that protected the jibbly bits from getting pinched through the clothes. Since all armor is made for a reason i wonder what would have happened to cause them to armor up down there, i can see arms, legs and hands since these are the main targets in sword and spear fighting, but looking at the leg armor and the waist piece i cant see a reason other then a guy playing dead on the battlefield, the king stepping over the guy and in that moment he stabs his crotch with a dagger he hid. All armor has an incident that causes it to be made but i wonder what happened for it to be made other then "the royal blood line must be saved"
Great video as always, although only one of the armor pieces was medieval, so maybe not the best title.
I had to chuckle when it popped into my head, "ass armor."
Looking at the armor and knowing what I know about ballistic armor feels weird, like, you can definitely see that this was stuff that was meant to protect against blades and blunt swung weapons, and things without much ability to penetrate, slow moving projectiles like from slings or weaker bows and maybe javelins. But when the crossbow came about I can see how it'd just completely render their thin plates moot when it comes to avoiding getting rocked, and then it further gets countered by the handgonne and later arquebus. As for making hard things fit over humans who vary in shape and size the only solution I can think of would be making stuff oversized and then taking off parts of it designed to be taken off to sort smaller sizes and strategic use of gambesons and basically full body undergarments meant to fill in the gaps inside the suit.
A knight barges in an armorer's workshop, grabbing and shaking the blacksmith my the neck of his shirt: "Protect my balls! Protect my balls! My taint too! I don't care how you do it, protect my balls!"
I am part of the group that fights jn armor next to The Met and they have told my group that we help them understanding their job better.