10-07-2011, 10:31 PM
The last issue of Hesperia has an amazing set of info on the construction of a crest from a Crete helmet of about 500 BCE. The crest was found int he current excavations on Crete. it had elements of horsehair and of some thread, probably linen. After the article was published, the lead author, Prof Hagist, was kind enough to share some other photos with me. I cannot reproduce them, so I'll have to ask your trust.
I chose NOT to build the crest at Crete,as it was integral to the helmet and not what I was putting on mine. But the clues it offered allowed me, I think, to have a go at somehtign that has puzzled a lot of us for a long time.
How was the crest constructed?
There is some evidence for wooden crest boxes-- (or perhaps wooden crests!) but most of them seem to have been horsehair, and the evidence is pretty unambiguous--they were removable and SOFT. that is, they were NOT made by glueing hair bundles into drilled wooden holes.
Three years ago, I was looking ata horsehair roach in the Smithsonian, worn by a Lakota Sioux warrior. And I saw it.
Well, I saw most of it. But I still couldn't see how we got the multiple levels of colour and the top layer of "checkerboard" shown in so much vase art. But the Cretan crest had all the solutions. I turned it into a J crest. All my repousse is from armour at Olympia...the rest I'll tell in pictures.
I chose NOT to build the crest at Crete,as it was integral to the helmet and not what I was putting on mine. But the clues it offered allowed me, I think, to have a go at somehtign that has puzzled a lot of us for a long time.
How was the crest constructed?
There is some evidence for wooden crest boxes-- (or perhaps wooden crests!) but most of them seem to have been horsehair, and the evidence is pretty unambiguous--they were removable and SOFT. that is, they were NOT made by glueing hair bundles into drilled wooden holes.
Three years ago, I was looking ata horsehair roach in the Smithsonian, worn by a Lakota Sioux warrior. And I saw it.
Well, I saw most of it. But I still couldn't see how we got the multiple levels of colour and the top layer of "checkerboard" shown in so much vase art. But the Cretan crest had all the solutions. I turned it into a J crest. All my repousse is from armour at Olympia...the rest I'll tell in pictures.
Qui plus fait, miex vault.
