Classical Kevlar: Reconstructing Ancient Greek Body Armor

History professor Gregory Aldrete leads the [url=https://www.uwgb.edu/aldreteg/Linothorax.html]Linothorax Project[/url], an ongoing effort to reconstruct and study a widely used a type of ancient body armor created by laminating together layers of linen. Despite being documented in ancient literary texts and visual images, the linothorax remains something of a mystery: due to the perishable nature of its material, no examples have survived. Aldrete's group has not only reconstructed several of these armors used by the armies of Alexander the Great and others, it has also tested the linothorax's effectiveness as a type of battlefield protection. Gregory Aldrete is the Frankenthal Professor of History and Humanistic Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. He is coauthor of the recently published Reconstructing Ancient Linen Body Armor: Unraveling the Linothorax Mystery.