Italic D: First or second century?

[Peroni]

I have a picture of the 'Batavian' cut-down helmet from Krefeld, but not a detailed close-up of the Imperial type. I cannot see the 'eyes' in this picture. But look closely at the bottom right corner of the picture and you can see a drawing of the components including the eyes the temple and a tabula ansata (presumably for the carrying handle area).

It looks a little like poor Celer's vandalised helmet! (Are you certain it was Vandals Celer and not Goths?)

From the Burg Linn museum website..

Thanks Jens, not impolite at all. So in short, there are eagles, temples, moons, birds, mice, and now eyes, on helmets. What else is there on infantry helmets, as appliques not embossment, anyone?

Jim, you forgot the loaf of bread that goes with the mouse!

Regards,

[FlaviusCrispus]

Thanks Peroni, Celer, Jho— excellent stuff! An Italic D variant with eyes on the forehead instead of eagles? Wow, someone should let Deepeeka know about this!

I did a web search on Gelduba and came up with a passage dating the battle to December AD 69, at the onset of the Batavian Revolt under Civilis. So if the helmets date to that battle, that would seem to nail down the Italic D as a mid-first century helmet. But... (and there alsways seems to be a "but")... there was also this notation:

The wooden fort had at least three occupation phases until it was rebuilt out of stone in the mid-second century. It offered accommodation to a squadron of cavalry (the cohors II Varcinorum equitata), which was still there in the third century....In 256/257, the Franks destroyed Gelduba. A mass grave has been excavated in an underground temple of Mithras. Immediately, the fort was rebuilt and turned into a castle, which continued to be in use until the Franks again destroyed the site in 275. In ca. 295 the site was reoccupied by Roman soldiers, and although there was a crisis in 353-355, the settlement survived more or less intact until the Franks took over the area at the beginning of the fifth century.

So it would seem to remain possible that one or more of the helmets dates to a later phase of the fortress. And if other "cut down" infantry helmets worn by cavalry are thought to be third century in date...

Hopefully, there's more about the Krefeld helmets in the new edition of Roman Military Equipment.

[Matthew Amt]

Avete!

Not to drag this too far off-topic, but is there actual visible evidence that certain helmets have been "cut down", i.e., had neckguards or other parts deliberately removed by the user? Are there chisel marks? Or could the neckguards simply be lost due to corrosion? I have no inherent objection to modifications, just curious about what has actually been found versus what is being theorized.

Thanks!

Matthew

[Praefectusclassis]

I have a feeling I have photos of those helmets when they were on an exhibit here in Nijmegen. I'll have to look.
--edit--

Yes! Some are already on the site, I may have more, these looks suspiciously alike the above:


Krefeld 1
Krefeld 2
Krefeld 3

[Peroni]

Excellent photo's Jasper, thanks!

Not to drag this too far off-topic, but is there actual visible evidence that certain helmets have been "cut down", i.e., had neckguards or other parts deliberately removed by the user?

I posted something along these lines already...
Other than basic Roman military finds there have been two archaeological finds of Roman helmets, both imperial Gallic/Weisenau type, in a cut down version, with the cheekguards and neckguard removed. One was found at the Kopsplateau, Nijmegen and one just across the border at Gelduba, modern Krefeld, Germany. The circumstantial evidence of the Krefeld find points to the loss of this helmet in 69AD during the Batavian revolt, during an attack by the forces of the Batavian commander Julius Civilis on the troops under the Roman commanders Dillius Vocula and Marcus Hordionius Flaccus.

Thanks to good conservation, remains of an animal pelt (marten) a leather band and some feathers were preserved. The find spot, the shape and decoration support make it likely that the user was not a Roman by origin. It appears plausible that this was a helmet from one of the Batavian auxiliary regiments, which were then in revolt against the Romans. Though the helmet from the Kopsplateau is at least half a century older in date, it strongly resembles the one from Gelduba; the covering however has not been preserved or was lacking.

The suggestion has been made that the helmet from the plateau also belonged to a Batavian who would have been stationed at the base around 10-20AD. He may have been part of the Batavian auxiliaries participating in the 16AD expedition of Germanicus in German territory on the other side of the Rhine. The Batavian chieftain Chariovalda led the infantry and cavalry units during this campaign. The helmet bowl was of an imperial Gallic type helmet with its neckguard and cheek pieces removed by its user. The helmet is rather dented, but the recess for the ear is clearly visible. The Krefeld helmet and my own reconstruction of what the helmet may have looked like can be seen here....



Regards,

[Celer]

Salve Jasper,

Thanks again for the photos. I am hoping to get another copy of the Krefeldt helmet made, maybe by modding the new Depeeka Itallic 'D'.

Vale

Celer.

[jho]

Great photos. This is the scetch I made of the reconstruction offered in the Museum. One of the eyes and one of the temples were actually well preserved so that the reconstruction is pretty certain.

The helmets and other finds were actually published in Carnuntum-Jahrbuch 2005 (proceedings of ROMEC 14) so anybody who was present at ROMEC 14 may have additional information. They were found in a ditch of a temporary fortification, not the later fort, so dating appears fairly certain. Note, however, that in the same Carnuntum-Jahrbuch, the fame of being the place of the battle at Gelduba is also claimed for Asciburgium.

For what it is worth, I also include scetches of the Ain Gimidi and Wiesbaden helmets for comparison. I have photos of those in books but no decent scanning equipment. Maybe somebody has taken photos of them also.

The Wiesbaden helmet strikes me as particularly interesting in its mixture of "Gallic" (embossed brows) and italic (applied lunulae) styles.

Oops - it seems I can only add one attachment a time so I will do this in three installments.

[jho]

next one

[jho]

next one

[Praefectusclassis]

Hi Jens
If you convert your tif-files to jpg, they can be more easily displayed in people's browsers.

[jho]

I am afraid that I do not have the slightest idea how to do that.

[Praefectusclassis]

And then you get something like this (Wiesbaden is twice the same pic?):