Article - Rare armor unearthed at site of 17th-century fort in Maryland

Article – Rare armor unearthed at site of 17th-century fort in Maryland

by Michael E. Ruane, Rare armor unearthed at site of 17th-century fort in Maryland

The slab of metal came out of the ground dirty and corroded after more than 300 years in the soil of rural Maryland.

It was slightly concave, about the size of a cafeteria tray, and didn’t look like much. But the archaeologists at Historic St. Mary’s City thought they knew what it might be. And an X-ray — which saw through the surface grit — proved them right.

What they found late last year was a rare piece of 17th-century armor called a tasset, which was designed to hang from a breastplate and protect one of the wearer’s thighs during battle.

It had been brought by the first European colonists who arrived in the mid-1600s to establish one of the earliest settlements in what would become the United States.

“The X-ray, everybody went nuts over that,” said Travis Parno, director of research and collections at Historic St. Mary’s City, this month. “… It really just brought the whole thing to life.”

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