New Late Roman Helmet from the Fernpass, Austria

[Robert Vermaat]

Thanks to the very generous and very charming Dr Christian Miks I got to spend a very happy hour on Tuesday alone with the Biberwier/Fernpass helmet deep in the bowels of the RGZM and got to take lots of intimate, close up photos.

Good for you Matt. What do you make of it? Part seem clearly late Roman to me (ridge, gilded rivets, nasal), other parts seem totally outlandish and unrelated to anything I've seen before from the period (base ring, cheek plates). The cheek plates, indeed, look a bit like late Medieval armour or later even, I recall having seen those on 16th c.(?) cavalry helmets?

Any chance of this being a fake in your opinion?

377 photos taken before my camera's battery gave up. 8)

I'm surprised you did not take several sets of batteries! hock: