Cleveland Museum of Art

Hauberk

Date

1400s

Medium

riveted steel rings

Culture

European, 15th century

Department

Medieval Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

A hauberk is a mail shirt that generally reached to the knee and was the predominant form of metal body defense throughout Europe until about 1350. Knights wore mail over a padded undergarment known as an aketon and would have been supplemented by a metal helmet and a shield. After the development of full plate armor, mail continued to be a linking element or accessory well into the 1500s. A hauberk might include as many as a quarter million steel rings.

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