Dendra panoply The Dendra panoply or Dendra armour is an example of Mycenean - era full - body armour ( " panoply " ) made of bronze plates uncovered in the village of Dendra in the Argolid , Greece . Description . Several elements of body armour ( body cuirass , shoulder guards , breast plates and lower protection plates ) from the late Mycenaean period have been found at Thebes , some bronze bands have been also found at Mycenae and Phaistos . Bronze scales were found at Mycenae and Troy ; scale armour , the oldest form of metal body armour , was used widely throughout the eastern Mediterranean and the Near East . In May 1960 Swedish archaeologists discovered the earliest example of a beaten bronze cuirass at Dendra , dated to the end of the fifteenth century BCE . It forms part of the Late Helladic ( LHIIIa ) Dendra Panoply , which consists of fifteen separate pieces of bronze sheet , held together with leather thongs , that encased the wearer from neck to knees . The panoply includes both greave s and lower arm - guards . The arm - guard is unique but greaves , probably made of linen , are often depicted in late Mycenaean art . The few bronze examples that have been found only covered the shins and may have been worn over linen ones , as much for show of status Diane Fortenberry has suggested , as for protection . Although we have only this one complete panoply to date , armor of similar type appears as an ideogram on Linear B tablets from Knossos ( Sc series ) , Pylos ( Sh series ) and Tiryns ( Si series ) . The panoply ’ s cuirass consists of two pieces , for the chest and back . These are joined on the left side by a hinge . There is a bronze loop on the right side of the front - plate and a similar loop on each shoulder . Large shoulder - guards fit over the cuirass . Two triangular plates are attached to the shoulder - guards and gave protection to the wearer ’ s armpits when his arms were in the raised position . There is also a deep neck - guard . The Linear B ideogram depicting armour of this type makes the neck - guard clearly discernible , and protection by a high bronze collar was a typical feature of Near Eastern body armour . Three pairs of curved plates hang from the waist to protect the groin and the thighs . All these pieces are made of beaten bronze sheet and are backed with leather and loosely fastened by ox - hide thongs to allow some degree of movement . The complete panoply thus forms a cumbersome tubular suit of armour , which fully protects the neck and torso , and extends down to the knees . It appears that lower arm - guards and a set of greaves further protected the warrior , all made of bronze , as fragments of these were also found in the grave at Dendra . Slivers of boars ’ tusks were also discovered , which once made up a boars ’ - tusk helmet . The figures on the Warrior Vase ( Mycenae , ca 1200 BC , National Archaeological Museum , Athens ) are wearing body armour . However this armour is different . It may be either an embossed waist - length leather corslet with a fringed leather apron that reaches to mid - thigh and possible shoulder - guards , very much like that worn by the Peoples of the Sea depicted on the mortuary temple of Ramesses III ( died c . 1155 BC ) at Medinet Habu , Lower Egypt , or , alternatively , the body armour may be a ‘ bell ’ corselet of beaten bronze sheet , a type also found in central Europe at that time .