Helmetsize compared to legionary headsize

[Uhrisa]

L.S.

This has kept me busy a lot lately. Maybey someone can shed a light on it. When i look at reanactors i see a lot of helmets that seem to big or to small compared to the heads that are wearing them. I can imagine that this would have been the case also in the legions expecting that very few helmets would have been custom made. Is there a study that compares legionary headsizes to the inner measurements of surviving helmets?

Regards

[Marcus Mummius]

Hi Maarten,

I've looked into that too some years ago. To my knowledge such a study was never undertaken. One of the major problems is the fact that most legionaries would have been cremated and no skull survives.

Roman skulls associated with their helmet will be a very scarce find to say the least. :wink:

Vale,

[Uhrisa]

Thanks for the reply Jef. I'm still interested in the inner dimensions of authentic roman helmets. Do you know if there is some database or if someone studied that? I havent been able to find a copy of "Römische Helme" by Marcus Junkelmann. I was hoping he would have dug in to the matter. Whenever i am visiting a museum here in Europe i check out the roman helmets (when they have them). Some seem very large and some seem rather small hence my original post.

Regards

[Crispvs]

Given that the Roman army seems to have had some sort of 'buyback' process which allowed them to retain equipment, as is ably demonstrated by the fact that some helmets have two or even three names punched or scratched into them, I suspect that a new recruit may have been sent to the custos armorum, who might then find a helmet which would fit the recruit from those already in stores, both new and second hand. This is only supposition of course and still tells us nothing about head sizes. Apparently some surviving helmets are very small. Celer might like to comment here.

Crispvs

[Uhrisa]

Hi Paul,

Yes i suspected that there was a sort of system to issue more or less fitting equipment to new recruits.

[Tarbicus]

I've looked into this before as well. If the average Roman stature was ca. 5% smaller than today's average European then head size also decreases (contrary to popular opinion which I equate to an urban myth or meme). I have one of the earlier DSC tinned Gallic A's and I can't help but feel it has the correct sizing for modern proportions. Just fill the helmet with plenty of padding as seen in actual found helmets. I also don't buy the "legionaries took what they were given" factoid any further than, if there were a pile of helmets, they would take the one that fitted best. Original sizes seem to be too small, IMHO, for the modern head as evidenced by the interminable rows that went on about sizing of helmets from Deepeeka et al where some wanted replicas of the original, including dimensions, but others wanted something that actually would fit. The same goes for armour and scuta sizes, again IMHO.