New Late Roman Helmet from the Fernpass, Austria

[Olaf]

Sorry to ressurect this topic, but I just found this "beautifull" Bieberwier helmet in Prof Miks book about te Koblenz finds.
Matt, are you still planning to reconstruct this helmet?
If so, would you leave the brow band undamaged or would you include the strange cutouts of the find?
I would love to see some pictures of it when you have it finished.

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Or perhaps I am being a bit liberal with my memory. I'll have to check the pics when I get home....

Ermmmm... a little bit liberal, yeah.....

Crocodile armour

:lol: Yeah, a little, especially from that angle...my photo was was from front and through glass....imagination and memory do th rest!

[Medicus matt]

Matt, are you still planning to reconstruct this helmet?
If so, would you leave the brow band undamaged or would you include the strange cutouts of the find?
I would love to see some pictures of it when you have it finished.

The brow band is a puzzle. Given the remarkable state of preservation, some if not all of the 'cut-outs' must be intentional. The question is, how much? Is it a random pattern rather than a regular one? It's a mystery that wasn't resolved by being able to see the helmet close up.

The reconstruction is on hold until I get more information from Gerald Grabherr at Innsbruck.

[M. Val. Naso]

Old thread reviving!

I would really like our armoursmith to make a Biberwier. I'm getting quite bored with my Intercisa

Has new information surfaced since 2009? I think we (the smith and me) could make a close to perfect repro given Matt's superb photoshoot of the helmet.

[Medicus matt]

You can buy mine if you like?

[Medicus matt]

The only extra information that I was able to glean from Herr Gerald Grabherr is this picture of the helmet before reconstruction:-

[attachment=7083]Helmteil.jpg[/attachment]

[Virilis]

This helmet is really an enigma. What is interesting, it seems that the wide & flat nasal guard seems to be a precursor for the later viking and norman spangenhelms. Am I right?

[markusaurelius]

If I was a betting man I'd guess that the helmet was modified or added to at later date. So the original helmet could have been the more traditional Ridge helmet of the period, and then at some point perhaps even post Roman it was modified for a new user. The additions seem crude in comparison to other quite standardized ridge helmets of the period.

[Virilis]

Markus, the bowl of the helmet is made of one piece and the ridge is added only for decoration or to imitate a generic late roman ridge helmet. Strange indeed!

[markusaurelius]

Wow interesring indeed

[Urselius]

The Anglo-Saxon Sutton Hoo helmet had a single-piece skull with an added, purely decorative, ridge.

The nasal is close to that of the helmet of St. Wenceslaus in construction, but in most western European nasal helmets (c. 950-1250) The nasal is either an extension of the skull, or is integral with a full external browband.