Auxillaries wearing animal skin covered helmets- help needed

[Peroni]

Paul wrote...

Looking at the figures on Trajan's Column vs the helmets that Peronis mentions above, there are a number of parallels:-
a/ No cheekguards
b/ Animal skin covers (surviving in one example)
c/ No neckguards

For a contemporary comparison, see Robinson, page 84. The remains of the 'Auxiliary Infantry C' helmet from Florence.

He suggests that it very much resembles the helmets depicted on the Column. I can see his point.

The helmet itself bares a great deal of similarities to the Krefeld-Gellep 'furry' helmet such as the neck guard, and cheek guards removed, and the punching of a series of holes for an applied (leather?) edging or lining.

[Caballo]

Peroni,

Have had a chance to look at the Robinson illustration, and I agree that here is a strong resemblance- Robinson also comments on the neckguard and cheekguards being cut away.The holes could also serve to hold a chinstrap (maybe integral to the leather edging?) as per Trajan's column- I would have thought that it would be unstable without one?
Here is an illustration from Osprey's Germanic Warrior of the Krefeld Gellep Roman helmet (probably) adapted by the Batavians- based on your reconstruction?

[Peroni]

There is a school of thought that this helmet was possibly modified in early medieval times, and that the holes were punched to support a helmet lining.

I'm not sure about this theory however.

[Crispvs]

"For a contemporary comparison"

Actually, given the shape of the crossed reinforcements, I would put the original production of the Florence helmet in the second half of the second century, given that the earliest datable reinforcements of that type of which I am aware are dated to the Antonine period. Still, I am quibbling somewhat here. The Florence helmet does seem to have been subject to the same modifications as the Krefeld Gellep helmet and the others you mentioned in your recent article, only (in all probability) later, indicating a possible continuance of practice.

Crispvs

[Peroni]

Crispvs wrote...

The Florence helmet does seem to have been subject to the same modifications as the Krefeld Gellep helmet and the others you mentioned in your recent article

Look out for the next edition of the IC, it will hopefully have Caballo's response, and part two of my article regarding the adaptation of cavalry helmets.

[petrinus]

or maybe in academic fever, we assume too much? no scholar myself with much to learn and a passion for it, but i will allow for artistic and individual freedoms however erronous or limited, but mayhaps we credit the armies of old with too much uniformity? i mean as a soldier today as much as we talk of a standard, no one on my team has the same gear, infact theres differences in helmets, vests, weapons, knives, as much uniformity as there is insisted, theres still alot of evident preferences and substitutions due to supply or lack there of, lol. rather rag tag band of rabel we are somedays, then ofcourse this army has been in decline and suffering from ridiculousness for a decade or more now!!!!

[L C Cinna]

maybe a stupid question but I don't know too much about the development of the "not so standard" helmets if you know what I mean.

The helmets on the picture somehow remind me of the Mannheim type helmets. Would it be possible that these are actually some later Mannheim models and that the Mannheims found and dated to Caesarian times maybe were equipment of whether antesignani or auxiliaries?