An Armour from a finery?-a late medieval couter from Ogrodzieniec Castle in the Krakow-Czestochowa Jura

The paper deals with a couter of a late fourteenth to early fifteenth century date which was found in Ogrodzieniec Castle, Zawiercie District, Poland (now in the collection of the Upper Silesian Museum in Bytom, MG 7755). The find survived in a vestigial condition, but it was still possible to propose some typological analogies to it. Metallographic examinations demonstrated that the artefact had been manufactured from almost carbon-free iron with a high content of phosphorus. An analysis of slag inclusions in the find suggests that the couter may have been made from refined blast furnace iron. It may thus be an early example of the application of indirect process iron in the manufacture of plate armour.