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A Late Roman Helmet from Burgh Castle

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2011

Stephen Johnson
Stephen Johnson
Affiliation:
Department of the Environment, Savile Row, London
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Extract

Excavation took place at Burgh Castle between 1958 and 1961 to examine areas inside the Roman fort thought to have been damaged by the plough. Since the death of Charles Green, who directed this work, responsibility for the preparation of a final report has been assumed by the present writer, and the task of examining the finds from the excavation is well under way.

Type
Articles
Information
Britannia , Volume 11 , November 1980 , pp. 303 - 312
Copyright
Copyright © Stephen Johnson 1980. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

1 The pottery is a varied and extensive group, mainly colour-coated vessels from the Hadham Kilns, and including one large two-handled flagon with a face-mask applied to the neck in bright orange colour-coated ware. The pottery is in the excavators' bags 459 and 460. All the finds, including the helmet, will have Norwich Castle Museum as their final destination.

2 This tentative suggestion was first made by Mr A. Gregory, then Assistant Keeper at Norwich Castle Museum, who examined the ‘cauldron fragments’. Further work was done mainly by the author and Mrs S. Heaser, of the Ancient Monuments Illustrators' office, who also provided the drawings. The fragments were submitted to the Department of Medieval Antiquities at the British Museum, where after examination John Cherry and Angela Evans confirmed the identification as a helmet.

3 This decorative eye was supposed to have an apotropaic function. It occurs on all four of the helmets from Intercisa, and the jewel-studded helmet from Berkasovo has a pair of large oval stones which performed the same superstitious function. See Klumbach, , Spätrömische Gardehelme (München 1973), 103 f. and 15 f.Google Scholar respectively. The apotropaic eye also appears on a helmet in a coin-portrait of Valentinian.

4 See Klumbach, H., Spätrömische Gardehelme (München 1973)Google Scholar, a full collection of most of the surviving late Roman helmets, on all these quoted examples. The sketch drawings are based on photographs from this book.

5 Conçesti Helmet: Klumbach, op. cit. (note 3), 91 f. and Tafeln 32–37. (Further bibliography ad loc).

6 Berkasovo I: Klumbach op. cit. (note 3), 15 f., Tafeln 1–5. See also Mirhana Manojlovic – Manrianski, , Kasnorimski Slemovi iz Berkasovo (Novi Sad 1964)Google Scholar, in Croatian with a French parallel text.

7 Dér-el-Medineh: Dittmann, K., ‘Ein eiserner Spangenhelm in Kairo’, Germania xxiv (1940), 54 f.Google Scholar

8 Deurne: Klumbach, op. cit. (note 3), 51 f., Tafeln 19–29 (photographs of all the finds, not just the helmet).

9 For the helmet from Planig, see Kessler, P. T., Mainzer Zeitschrift xxxv (1940), 4 f. and Taf. I.Google Scholar On the Spangenhelm there is a large literature. For plates of the majority of the known examples, see R. Henning, Der Helm von Baldenheim (1907), or J. W. Gröbbels, Der Reihengräberfeld von Gammertingen (1905). Sketch drawings are provided in Kessler, loc. cit. Abb. 11, p. 10. Of importance are two main articles: Ebert, M., ‘Die frühmittelälterlichen Spangenhelme von Baldenheimer Typus’, Praehistorische Zeitschrift i (1909), 65 f.Google Scholar, and J. Werner, ‘Zur Herkunft der frühmittelälterlichen Spangenhelme’, ibid xxxiv (1950), 178 f.

10 J. Werner, loc. cit. (note 9), 193.

11 See, for example Simpson, C. J., Britannia vii (1976), 192 f.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

12 The ‘Spangenhelme’ from Gültingen and Planig were deposited c. A.D. 500, and the Gammertingen example, which is not remarkably dissimilar, was deposited in the first half of the seventh century. Werner, loc. cit. (note 9), 182.

13 St. Vid helmets: List, C., ‘Die Spangenhelme von Vid’, Jahrbuch der Zentralkommission für Kunst und historische Denkmäler i (1903), 251 f.Google Scholar See also Gröbbels, op. cit. (note 9).

14 Baye, De, Mémoires de la Société Nalionale des Antiquaires de France xix (1909), 173 f., plate on p. 175.Google Scholar

15 Behrens, G., Mainzer Zeitschrift xiv (1919), 6.Google Scholar

16 Werner, op. cit. (note 9), 192.

17 See note 5 for bibliography.

18 See note 6.

19 See note 7.

20 Ebert, M., ‘Ein Spangenhelm aus Ägypten’, Praehislorische Zeitschrift i (1909), 163 f.Google Scholar

21 See note 8.

22 Werner, op. cit. (note 9), 193.

23 In common with other ‘Saxon Shore’ forts, there is little distinctively military metalwork from Burgh Castle. See, however, Sherlock, D., Proc. Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History xxxiv pt. 2 (1978), 141 f.Google Scholar, for a ‘martiobarbulus’, recently found at the site. Within the finds from the 1958–61 excavations, there is only a plain buckle-plate from a typical late Roman belt-fitting and the present helmet fragments which qualify unequivocally as military panoply. Two ‘francisca-heads’ which might be of late Roman date, but of uncertain context, were also discovered. Full publication forthcoming.

24 A helmet which appears to be a close parallel (at least from his sketch of it) appears in Russell Robinson, The Armour of Imperial Rome (1976), 93, fig. 123. This is a drawing of a portrayal of a helmet worn by one of the cavalrymen forming part of Galerius's oriental bodyguard, found on the Arch of Galerius at Salonica, erected between 297 and 311. Photographs of the same piece of sculpture (as e.g. D. E. Strong, Roman Imperial Sculpture (1961), pl. 134, or idem, Roman Art (Penguin, 1976), pl. 101) fail to show the ribbed structure as clearly as Robinson's sketch portrays it.

25 Notitia Dignitatum, Occ. XXVIII, 17: Praepositus equitum stablesianorum Gariannonensium, Gariannono.