Imperial Gallic G 4 (Mainz)

[jho]

Folkert,

Thank you and laus for posting this.

I strongly support the view that the helmet most likely dates from the 1st century BC/AD. It appears to be of the Weisenau/Guttmann type and within that group would appear to date rather early in view of the decoration of the lower rim which appears to be similar to the decoration of certain Montefortino and Mannheim helmets.

I do not believe that the accompanying information is mixed up. The factual information appears to fit the helmet (strong Celtic influence etc.). The helmet is from a private collection ("Sammlung Kofler") and apparently unprovenanced ("Southern Italy") and was therefore simply dated on stylistical grounds. Such datings are often far off.

It is a pity that all Weisenau/Guttmann helmets appear to come from private collections without proper context dating (the Guttmann helmets, the Carnuntum helmet, the Frankfurt helmet). But they are very similar to dated Celtic/Germanic helmets (Kessel/Lith, Pologne, Reka, Thür/Germany and also the several Agen type helmets) and therefore can at least hoped to be genuine.