Wednesday, July 10, 2024
A Greek Helmet
Juan Antonio Martín Ruiz and Juan Ramón García Carretero, "Greek Armament from the South of the Iberian
Peninsula during the 1st Millennium BC," Athens Journal of History 4.4 (2018) 279-294 (at 281-282, footnote omitted):
Newer› ‹Older
A few years later, in 1939, another helmet was found on the west bank of the mouth of the Guadalete River, specifically in a place called La Corta, nowadays displayed in the Archaeological Museum of Jerez de la Frontera. It was classified under the Stufe II type which was dated in the beginning of the 7th century BC and was considered to have been made in Greece itself, particularly in the Peloponnese. Taking into consideration the still preserved rings, it must have been covered with an eye-catching plume as usual in this type of pieces. We can appreciate a series of perforations intended either to be hung on a wall or, as seems more acceptable, to sew a fur lining to make it more comfortable to wear and reduce as far as possible the impact on the warrior's head in case the helmet received a blow during the fight. An interesting fact is the presence of a larger hole on its right side that initially was interpreted as evidence of a wound caused by a weapon that ended the life of its possessor, but we would most likely associate it to a ritual disablement before being thrown to water.