03-02-2015, 12:20 AM
It's not bad at all; a companion work to this couple's book on Roman Body Armour, also published by the same people. It will se you back £25.00. The only real problem is that it's incomplete. They list around 300 helmets, which is way below the 800 or so that I know of, and considerably fewer than appear in Hans' listings (where he also includes fragments of helmets). On p.18 they state that the book contains: "a full gazetteer of all known Roman helmets" (my italics). Well, it doesn't. They list around 90 Montefortino helmets, for example, whereas I know of over 300.
They do address the thorny question of typology and nomenclature, discussing Robinson's and the so-called 'Continental' system at some length. To that end, they have included a set of tables that list the various characteristics of the different types (which Robinson in his 1975 work doesn't exactly - you have to dig into the text to find them). It would have been nice for them to have included some attempt to come up with a better way of describing these helmets. Maybe that's impossible, but it would have been worth a try. In particular, it would have been worth looking at the (contemporaneous) Montefortino D/E and Coolus D/E types to try and see if there is really any real difference between them.
Their book covers all the various types, from the Montefortino to the late Roman patterns (Berkasovo, Intercisa, etc). It also takes a short look at the helmet types that preceded the Montefortino type.
It' is, I think, a useful volume to have on your shelf.
Mike Thomas
(Caratacus)
They do address the thorny question of typology and nomenclature, discussing Robinson's and the so-called 'Continental' system at some length. To that end, they have included a set of tables that list the various characteristics of the different types (which Robinson in his 1975 work doesn't exactly - you have to dig into the text to find them). It would have been nice for them to have included some attempt to come up with a better way of describing these helmets. Maybe that's impossible, but it would have been worth a try. In particular, it would have been worth looking at the (contemporaneous) Montefortino D/E and Coolus D/E types to try and see if there is really any real difference between them.
Their book covers all the various types, from the Montefortino to the late Roman patterns (Berkasovo, Intercisa, etc). It also takes a short look at the helmet types that preceded the Montefortino type.
It' is, I think, a useful volume to have on your shelf.
Mike Thomas
(Caratacus)
visne scire quod credam? credo orbes volantes exstare.
