Iberian Helmets

[hispano]

Hi thersites, hola Fernando,

Yes, it is the possible helmet published by Vilaseca, Solé and Mañé (La Necrópolis de Can Canyis. Banyeres, Tarragona. Trabajos de Prehistoria VIII, 1963, pages 59-69). Nothing strange in that, because in this publication it was identified as a helmet, I went to see it to the El Vendrell museum (Tarragona) in the year 2004, where I was kindly met by Gemma Sabater and she showed me the rests of the helmet which had been recently restored.

I took some detailed pictures which could serve me to recreate it, but as you can see in them and despite the restoration it is still in a very bad state. However they completed the edge's iron reinforcement oval, so that now you can see that it has the dimensions and shape of a head, and riveted perpendicularly to this iron L-shaped reinforcement are the bronze cap plates, ritually crashed.

We talked with Gemma back then that you had seen the rests before they were restored, more than 5 years ago then, and that you commented the possibility of it being, now I remember it, a shield boss or a breastplate (guard-cuori, discos-coraza)... or any other thing because the rests couldn't tell much. It didn't shock me because there are some breastplates with technically very similar reinforcements in the edge.

I still thik that it is a similar helmet to the ones from Soria province, divided in four pieces with embossed moldings and external and/or internal metal reinforcemnt strips. In this case in particular in Vilaseca's picture can clearly be seen that in the iron edge and in the clearance of the rivets that put together the iron and bronze there is space left for a thick leader lining which helps complete the helmet's protection, because like in the ones from Soria the bronze sheet is very thin (less than a milimeter).

Un cordial saludo