Greek Helmets. with or without crests.... ??

[Gulan]

I subscribe to the wooden crest holders as well. They are easy to form, lightweight, easy to paint/decorate and easy to drill to create the holes needed for the horsehair tufts be inserted - as in our our modern paintbrush.

Other cultures besides, and before, the Greeks used the horsehair crests and seemingly not just for officers - unless it is always officers we see depicted upon pottery and bas reliefs? What about the transverse crests we see sometimes? They are generally assumed to have been for specific officers/leaders etc.

We see crests that sit on a stem. That crest would I guess have also been made of wood - but the stem itself a metal vertical support.

I think that crests may have originated as a desire to portray the warrior wearing one as horselike in his demeanour - strong, fast, sturdy - and like many other animals, attractive for a variety of cultural and religious reasons.

Yes, wooden are much more logical choice. But it does not mean they actually used it, get it. What else is there to proove it other than our assumption. Written source? MAterial source? We can not write history on our assumtions.

How can we know Greeks followed the same logics we do. After all it is obvious they didn't go for lightweight logics, or they would not invent the heaviest armor in existance. Also weight of panoplia is a bit exaggerated, so the bronze crest box is not so heavy as to be unusable or it would not exist as it does...I mean we have that kegel's piece with holder being the same piece as helmet and is much heavier than this one..Was it not used then, even though it survived. Just because it chalenges our logics today?!

Why do we assume Greeks always used the best possible option. Just because we do that today does not mean they did. I am sure we could find such faults in design and much better ways for construction in virtually every piece of panoplia. What would happen if we never excavated any armor from that era. We would reconstruct who knows what based solely on our logics...and pottery.