ANTONINE TO SEVERAN PERIOD, CIRCA 150 A.D.

This dynamic skull section of a Roman cavalry helmet is formed of expertly-hammered sheet brass, once plated with tin, with the surface now oxidized to dark brown. The central arching crest, embossed with feathers along each side, terminates at the front in the bust of a goddess, perhaps Minerva, wearing a polos or helmet. The central crest is flanked by two similar smaller crests, each with a lion in relief along its outer edge, with its head positioned at the front of the crest. In the field between the crests are overlapping shields and a serpentine motif. The back features rectangular ornaments with stippling, and along the lower edges are naturalistic wavy strands of hair in relief.

Junkelmann (op. cit.) observes that this helmet is “characteristic of the fantastic eclecticism that prevailed in the design of cavalry helmets in the Antonine-Severan period, which often makes it difficult to assign fragments to a specific type.” Based on its shape, he speculates that the complete helmet did not include cheek-guards and was instead formed of three distinct parts: the skull section (as preserved here), a facial insert and a visor. For other helmets with a similar arrangement of crests flanked by lions, see the example from Theilenhofen, and another from Durostorum (figs. 61 and 179 in D’Amato and Negin, op. cit.). Junkelman (op. cit.) and others considered this to be of Pfrondorf Type, named for a helmet discovered in that German city and now in the Landesmuseum Württemberg, Stuttgart (see fig. 39 and pp. 59-61 in H. Born and Junkelmann, Römische Kampf- und Turnierrüstungen), but while there are some similarities, the Pfrondorf helmet differs in that its skull section was not equipped with crests.