Face mask or face guard in late roman period

[Kai]

The picture and the text in question:


[attachment=7126]mask.jpg[/attachment]

"A single source may perhaps indicate Byzantine use of masked helmets: the Liber de Ceremoniis mentions, in addition to the 80 kassidia issued for the crew of a dhrómon, ten ‘kassidia avtoproposopa’ – perhaps intended for the protokarávoi and proreis officers. During excavations of the Great Palace in 1953, on the marble floor of one room were found nine iron masks, about 7in (18cm) long, with holes for the eyes but not for the mouth, and with small pairs of fastening holes at the top and in the middle of each side. The fact that they were all of iron, had no mouth holes, were found together, and were very close in number to those mentioned in De Cerimoniis for the issue to a warship’s officers, might suggest that they were battle masks for attachment to helmets. Their shape recalls the mask visors of helmets still visible on the fragmentary 5th-century Columns of Theodosius and Arcadius, and also that of the 7th-century Sutton Hoo helmet from Britain, which shows Late Roman influence. Intriguingly, the passage from Constantine Porphyrogenitus’s book also suggests that the kassidia avtoprosopa were supplied to Siphonatores – the operators of the main Greek Fire projecting machine or katakorax." (D'Amato, Byzantine Imperial Guardsman, pp.52-53)