New Late Roman Helmet from the Fernpass, Austria

[Medicus matt]

Here's the photobucket link to the pics of the Biberwier/Fernpass...

[url:1jfo9d7l]http://s418.photobucket.com/albums/pp263/medicusmatt/[/url]

For an all iron helmet, the preservation is remarkable. From what I could gather, it was found by the side of the Via Claudia Augusta, presumably in the ditch by the side of the road, buried under dry material from the road itself.
It's got to be a loss/discard; the square of fabric remnant you can see on the back of the helmet is from it's carry-bag...just like you'd carry a motorbike helmet in!

It's damned odd. If you can make a one piece bowl (which it is..raised from one piece), why make the cheekpieces like that? Why the random decoration on the borw band (that's not corrosion causing that patterning).

The smoothness of the dome must be an indicator that it was highly polished..you don't get that degree of smoothness on beaten iron without a lot of planishing and polishing. It must have shone as though it was sheathed in silver, which was probably the whole point.

It's as though someone said "I like those ridge helm thingies, the silver shiny ones. You, Smithy Armourmaker, make me something like that please".

I'll load up some other photos from the museum, the roman theater, the Drusus memorial and the ship museum later.

All in all, a fantastic trip.