Roman helmets: Imperial Gallic/Italic and Ridge - comparisons and sources

[Nathan Ross]

I would want to see a metal analysis, as far as I know theres nothing further known about it....

I don't know if you saw this interesting post about that helmet - a little more information, and even an X-ray!

But yes, we'll probably never know for sure when or where it comes from...

romans abandoned progressively the ballista, for what read for a progressive decay of the organization.

They didn't abandon torsion artillery (if at all?) for some considerable time after the introduction of composite helmets!

As for 'progressive decay', the late 4th century ruling in the Theodosian Code instructing the Antioch armoury fabricae to cover a greater proportion of helmets with bronze and gold sheeting suggests both a wealthy state and a very high degree of organisation.

As I said before (in my opinion!), the late Romans didn't somehow forget how to make old style single-bowl helmets, and did not lack money or expertise, therefore the new pattern composite helmets must have been as good if not better than the old ones!

For the thickness, any source?

Sadly not really - I just picked it up somewhere in 16+ years of RAT posts!

There is this thread here, about thickness and weight, weight being possibly a better comparison as most helmets are corroded to some extent. But we might compare the 1426 grams of the composite 'Christies' helmet mentioned above with the Coolus at 864 grams, the bronze Niederbieber at 576 grams (albeit incomplete) or the 'imperial Gallic' at 1225 grams - however there's the Niedermormter at 1730 grams to contend with, and the early Montefortino at 2204 grams!

I can't find any accurate weights for original intercisa helmets - does anyone know?

greater thickness could be required because the ridge helmet is easier to break (rivets)

Now again this is opinion, as I'm no helmet expert or structural engineer, but I woud expect a riveted multi-part construction would give better stress resistance than a single sheet of metal. The force of impact would be transmitted to the rivets, which would break individually before the helmet bowl itself was ruptured. Rivets, and even sections of bowl, could be repaired or replaced without discarding the entire helmet.

This is indeed the sort of thing that some accurate testing would prove or disprove!