The Maile Shirt in European Tradition
The hauberk is a shirt of maile, commonly known as chain mail. Usually reaching to the mid thigh it had sleeves of varying length. A shorter version was referred to as a haubergeon but either terms are applicable to a wide assortment of variants found around the world used by most iron using cultures.European maile was created by interlocking riveted rings of mild steel. In the western tradition it was fabricated using the 4 in 1 pattern. History attributes the Celts as the originators of chain mail as documented by the Romans when they expanded their empire north into Europe. The Romans adopted their version of maile armor called the lorica hamata that remained in active use with the legions and auxiliaries for at least six hundred years. It was the empire that spread the use of maile throughout the Mediterranean basin and central Asia. The earliest surviving example of maile was found in present day Romania and was dated to the 4th/5th century BC. It is a t