Editing Chain mail (section)

==History==
[[File:Gaul warrior Vacheres 2.jpg|thumb|upright|right|The [[Vachères]] warrior, 1st century BC, a statue depicting a Romanized Gaulish warrior wearing mail and a Celtic [[torc]] around his neck, bearing a [[Celtic warfare|Celtic-style]] [[shield]].<ref>Ashton, Kasey. "[http://www.unc.edu/celtic/catalogue/themselves/celtsthemselves.html The Celts Themselves]." [[University of North Carolina]]. Accessed 4 November 2018.</ref>]]
[[File:Thueros affresco.jpg|thumb|upright|Fresco of an [[Kingdom of Macedon|ancient Macedonian Greek]] soldier (''[[thorakitai|thorakites]]'') wearing mail armour and bearing a ''[[thureos]]'' shield]]

The earliest examples of surviving mail were found in the [[Carpathian Basin]] at a burial in Horný Jatov, Slovakia dated in the 3rd century BC, and in a chieftain's burial located in [[Ciumești]], [[Romania]].<ref name="urlCeltic Chainmail | Brendan Mac Gonagle - Academia.edu">{{cite journal |url=https://www.academia.edu/3891226 |title=Celtic Chainmail &#124; Brendan Mac Gonagle - Academia.edu |journal=Balkancelts |last1=Gonagle |first1=Brendan Mac }}</ref><ref name="urlCeltic chainmail – Balkan Celts">{{cite web |url=https://balkancelts.wordpress.com/tag/celtic-chainmail/ |title=Celtic chainmail – Balkan Celts |date=8 July 2013 }}</ref><ref>Rusu, M., "Das Keltische Fürstengrab von Ciumeşti in Rumänien", Germania 50, 1969, pp. 267–269</ref> Its invention is commonly credited to the [[Celts]],<ref name="books.google.com">[https://books.google.com/books?id=HscIwvtkq2UC&dq=laminar+armor&pg=PA79 ''The ancient world'', Richard A. Gabriel, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2007 P.79] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160501212748/https://books.google.com/books?id=HscIwvtkq2UC&pg=PA79&dq=laminar+armor&hl=en&ei=nOMGTqrNNfGv0AGWpbi6Cw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CDYQ6AEwAg |date=2016-05-01 }}</ref> but there are examples of [[Etruscan military history|Etruscan]] pattern mail dating from at least the 4th century BC.<ref>Oriental Armour, H. Russell Robinson, 1967 Walker and Co., New York, pp. 11-12</ref><ref>Catalogue of the Exhibition of Ancient Helmets and Examples of Mail, William Burgess & Baron De Cosson</ref><ref>Stone, G.C. (1934): [[A Glossary of the Construction, Decoration and Use of Arms And Armor in All Countries and in All Times]], Dover Publications, New York</ref> Mail may have been inspired by the much earlier [[scale armour]].<ref>Philip Sidnell, [https://books.google.com/books?id=l4KYsLl0sVIC&pg=PA159 ''Warhorse: Cavalry in Ancient Warfare''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160506015307/https://books.google.com/books?id=l4KYsLl0sVIC&pg=PA159 |date=2016-05-06 }}, Continuum International Publishing Group, 2006 {{ISBN|1-85285-374-3}}, p.159</ref><ref>Robert E. Krebs, Carolyn A. Krebs, [https://books.google.com/books?id=0H0fjBeseVEC&pg=PA309 ''Groundbreaking Scientific Experiments, Inventions, and Discoveries of the Ancient World''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160512032201/https://books.google.com/books?id=0H0fjBeseVEC&pg=PA309 |date=2016-05-12 }}, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2003 {{ISBN|0-313-31342-3}}, p.309</ref> Mail spread to North Africa, West Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, India, Tibet, South East Asia, and Japan.

[[Histories (Herodotus)|Herodotus]] wrote that the ancient Persians wore scale armour, but mail is also distinctly mentioned in the [[Avesta]], the holy scripture of the [[Zoroastrianism|Zoroastrian]] religion that was written in the 6th century AD.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i11HAQAAMAAJ|title=Notes on Turquois in the East|last=Laufer|first=Berthold|date=1914-01-01|language=en|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171223060132/https://books.google.com/books?id=i11HAQAAMAAJ|archive-date=2017-12-23}}</ref>

Mail continues to be used in the 21st century as a component of stab-resistant [[personal armor|body armour]], cut-resistant gloves for butchers and woodworkers, [[shark]]-resistant [[wetsuit|wet-suit]]s for defense against shark bites, and a number of other applications.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Neptunic Sharksuit |url=https://neptunic.com/products/sharksuits |access-date=2024-07-26 |website=Neptunic |language=en}}</ref>