H.R.Robinson Helmet Typology

[drsrob]

Hai people!

I've been absent for a long time for several reasons, one being that I'm now working on my other interest: Dutch uniforms of the 19th century.

I noticed this threat however, because it's a subject on which I have pondered a lot in the previous time. This started with a discussion I had with a former member on the Imperial Italic type D.

As a result of this I deviced my own typology, on which I composed an article, that has remained unpublished. To quote from the start:

It is logical than that especially helmets have been extensively researched and typified. Two basic systems have found acceptance. Most continental researchers use a site nomenclature while the English speaking world follows the system developed by the late H. Russell Robinson. This system aims at classing the helmets into families, each family including helmets made according to a common pattern, showing it's development through time. So he extended the line of Montefortino and Coolus pattern helmets into imperial times and defined the Imperial Gallic helmet as a pattern derived from the Gallic Agen and Port helmets.
Unfortunately he is also guilty of inconsistency. While the legionary helmets were classed according to origin and put in chronological order, he grouped the auxiliary helmets according to use. This he did probably because he didn't fully understood the development of cavalry and cavalry sports helmets.
The problem with this is that once his conclusions with respect to use are questioned, the system fell apart. The 3rd century helmets he classed as cavalry are now considered to have been used by infantry as well (if not exclusively so).

In the article I argue that Robinson's Imperial Gallic, Imperial Italic and Auxiliary Cavalry are, with a few exceptions, all manifestations from a single basic pattern. For this pattern I deviced a new encompassing name: "Principal Infantry Helm", wherein "principal" has the dual meaning of "main" and "from the principate".