Laminar armour only of a breast-plate. While laminar armour was made from hardened seal leather and often knee long, or even longer. However late lamellar armour made from metal (iron or steel or even brass) and could be as long as laminar armour. Both lamellar and laminar armour usually were worn with a high collar (protecting neck and head) integral with one or two laminar pauldrons (used rather as shield than ordinary pauldron). This collar and its pauldrons usually were made from leather and wood. Usually at least one part of an armour (a pauldron) was laminar, but sometimes a pauldron was
Lamellar armour Avars, other steppe peoples, as well as migratory groups such as the Longobards as it was simple to create and maintain. Lamellar helmets were also employed by Migration Era and Early Medieval peoples. Lamellar is pictured in many historical sources on Byzantine warriors, especially heavy cavalry. It is thought that it was worn to create a more deflective surface to the rider's armour, thus allowing blades to skim over, rather than strike and pierce. Recent studies by Timothy Dawson of the University of New England, Australia, suggest that Byzantine lamellar armour was significantly superior to mail armour. Lamellar armour has