Not only is this extraordinary armor the best-preserved scale armor from antiquity, but it is also the single known example entirely of leather that survives from such an early period. It consists of a sleeveless garment made of fifty-six rows of hard scales, which are secured by rawhide laces to a soft leather lining. The armor reaches from the shoulders to the upper thighs, with a wide band at the waist wrapping around the torso and overlapping under the right arm. Straps to close it are on one side of the chest and at the small of the back.

Historically, scale armor, usually of bronze or iron, was among the most long-lived and widely used forms of protection. It first appeared in Egypt and the Near East about the middle of the second millennium B.C. and continued to be worn in Europe as late as the seventeenth century A.D. Based on the style and construction of the Museum's example, it seems most likely that the armor was made by one of the nomadic cultures of Eurasia—possibly the Scythians, who dominated the steppes from the sixth to the second century B.C.