«Тахиййат»: Сборник статей в честь Н. Н. Дьякова

m 110 n David Nicolle periods. Nevertheless the almost certain representation of hardened leather lamellar armour on immediately pre-Islamic wall paintings from Piandjikent and elsewhere in Transoxania, as well as the continued representation of simi- lar armours in a more stylized manner throughout the early Islamic centuries and the reappearance of comparable protections in the highly detailed art of Mongol- Īl-Khānid Iran and Iraq, surely suggest a high degree of technologi- cal continuity. Archaeological Evidence As yet the archaeological evidence is sparce, but nevertheless of paramount importance. Organic material such as hardened leather does not survive as eas- ily as some other materials used in the manufacture of armour, at least under most conditions, but the Islamic world does possess certain advantages in this respect. Extremely dry conditions assist the preservation of leather, as does the extreme cold of certain parts of Central Asia where leather armour was, it seems, similarly important. In fact it is probably the lack of planned archaeo- logical interest in medieval Islamic sites, together with a lack of both interest in and an ability to recognize fragments of leather armour, which accounts for the current paucity of Islamic archaeological evidence. Fig. 35. Lacquered, hardened leather or rawhide lamellae from a cuirass, probably Tibet- an, from the fort of Miran, Chinese Turkestan, c. 750–860 AD ( Royal Armouries, Leeds; Thom Richardson photograph )