Were Late Roman Ridge Helmets Really lined in Leather?

[Robert Vermaat]

First of all, your picture of the Deurne helmet is misleading. It was the misguided opinion of the reconstruction teamback in 1910 that the missing cheeck plate was supposed to be full of rivets. The plate itself is still missing, so this reconstruction is completely fancyful and can't used in evidence here.
Furthermore, the 'other' plate had only holes.

Can you clarify here then. Is that right cheek piece a complete reconstruction? Why would the reconstruction team only complete one cheek piece fill it with rivets, and then leave the other one empty? That doesn't make sense.

Yes, it's a complete reconstruction - as I said, there never was an original to begin with. The reconstructor thought that the rivets 'belonged' there, although he probably never saw any such helmet before (by 1910, not many had been found).

at least a few to remain in place. But not even on very well-preserved helmets such as the Berkasovo I and II - not a single rivet along the cheekline.

Well not on the photo of the Berkasovo helmet attached in my original post. Again as you can see, there is a lone single cheek rivet remaining, and that helmet still has its original iron core attached.

True, the Berkasovo I also has one in roughly that spot on both cheek plates, but a mm away from a 'lining hole' - I think that's the rivet for the chin strap. It's not 'in' a lining hole, but next to it. It's also present on both cheek plates of the Berkasovo II (also a mm from a 'lining hole' - image attached), on the Nogara cheek plates (attached) and on the Christies helmet (which interestingly has no lining holes) there are two holes in that exact spot. Too much of a coincidence - I think these rivets are still there because they were the only ones present. No rivets on cheek or neck plates remain except for those in that spot.

Some rivets are modern! Watch out for that, some have been attached to keep the remains in place..

This I can understand as clearly the Intercisa helmet photo I attached has modern rivets for the neck and cheek pieces to hold them in place. However again how do you explain the two rivets on the Augsburg helmet that you can clearly see along the side/base of the helmet? No conservationist is simply going to attach two randomly place rivets.. Those rivets again clearly look original.

I don't think they are original. They seem quite flat-domed - in other pictures that I have of those helmets, they seem to hold the remains together. But if I'm mistaken, they cannot be lining holes anyway (since these are on the cheek and neck plates), since in this case they are on the base ring - I believe these are the rivets attaching the bowl pieces to the base ring or even better - they are the rivets for the neck plate attachment. The Augst helmet (image below) has rivets in exactly the same spot.

Leather works and is "well-fitting reconstruction", but I'm just more curious what the archeology says, and what I'm saying is again even on the limited photos I could drum up, you can clearly see rivets along the cheek pieces, and helmet bases.

I'll have a look in the book about the Koblenz helmets.