Vietnamese armour

Vietnam has a long history of armour making that spanned more than two millennia. However due to the lack of records and budget for archaeological studies, the evidence has been scarce.

Bronze Age and Iron Age (prehistoric to 2nd century AD)
Complete absence of native history records and lack of details in Chinese records of the same eras have made tracking the development of armour in Bronze Age and Iron Age Vietnam every difficult. Instead, physical evidence has been the only source for studying of ancient Vietnamese armour.

The most common type of armour found in Northern Vietnam is mirror armour, which practically is a square or rectangular metal or wooden plate fastened to the warrior's chest. This type of armour could provide minimal protection against slashing and glancing blows. For limbs protection, there are bronze vambraces and greaves, sometimes shaped like multiple rings coiled around the wearer's forearms and legs although they were cast as single pieces. Most vambraces and greaves have small tintinnabulums attached to them. This is a feature seen also in later eras' armours.





Less common is lamellar armour, consists of small metal scales fastened together to provide protection and flexibility at the same time. Full set of lamellar armour has not yet been found but individual scales were discovered in sizable quantity. Each scale has only 2 holes for a piece of string to go through, suggesting that the method of construction may have been different from Chinese and Korean counterparts.

It is not yet understood whether lamellar and mirror armours were used in conjunction or worn separately.

Middle Age and Pre-modern age (200 BC to 19th century)
Contrary to antiquity era, physical evidence of Middle Age and Pre-modern Vietnamese armours found by far is extremely rare. The knowledge of their existence is acquired solely through depictions in historical texts and arts.