| Guisborough Helmet | |
| Material: | Bronze (copper alloy) |
| Size: | 240mm high |
| Created: | 3rd century AD |
| Period: | Roman Empire |
| Discovered: | By workers employed by the Cleveland Railway Company in 1864 |
| Place: | Guisborough, North Yorkshire |
| Location: | Room 49, British Museum, London |
| Id: | P&EE 1878 9-10 1 |
The Guisborough Helmet is a Roman cavalry bronze helmet found in 1864 near Guisborough in the North Riding of Yorkshire, England. It was originally fitted with a pair of protective cheek-pieces, which have not survived; the holes by which they were attached can be seen in front of the helmet's ear guards. It is lavishly decorated with incised, punched and embossed figures, indicating that it was probably used for displays or cavalry tournaments, though it may well have been intended to be worn in battle as well. The helmet was found in what appears to have been a carefully arranged deposition in a bed of gravel, distant from any known Roman sites. After it was recovered during road works it was donated to the British Museum in London, where it was restored and is currently on display.[1]
The helmet was made from bronze, a copper alloy, in the 3rd century AD. Its brow band is engraved and embossed with representations of shrines (aediculae) housing the deities Victory, Mars and Minerva, all of whom were associated with war. Prancing horsemen are depicted between the figures. The brow band has three diadem-like peaks bordered by writhing snakes whose heads meet at the centre, forming an arch above the central figure of Mars. Two bosses stand out at the rear of the helmet, at the centre of embossed flowers. The sides and top of the helmet are embossed with feathers and a feather-like pattern.[2] [3] The design is similar to others found in Worthing, Norfolk and Chalon-sur-Saône in France.[4] Despite its relative thinness and lavish decoration, it is thought that such helmets would have been used in battle as well as in parades or hippika gymnasia (cavalry tournaments).[5]
The helmet remains something of an enigma. It was buried in a compressed and folded state in complete isolation from any other objects of the same period and at some remove from any known Roman sites; how and why it came to be deposited remains unknown.[6] There is no closely associated fort or fortress in the vicinity. However, the Dutch historian Johan Nicolay has identified a "lifecycle" for Roman military equipment in which ex-soldiers took items home with them as a reminder of their service and occasionally disposed of them away from garrison sites, for instance by votive deposition or burial with the dead.[7] Another Roman cavalry helmet, known as the Crosby Garrett Helmet, was discovered in Cumbria in May 2010 in a broadly similar context – away from any known settlements but folded before burial – suggesting that it may have been a votive offering or loot that had been hidden for safe-keeping.[8]
The helmet was discovered on 19 August 1864 at Barnaby Grange Farm, about 2 miles west of Guisborough town centre. It was found buried deep in a bed of gravel during road works carried out for the Cleveland Railway Company.[9] John Christopher Atkinson described the circumstances of its discovery in an article for The Gentleman's Magazine in September 1864:
No other artefacts were found at the site and the bones appeared to have no connection with the helmet. They had apparently been deposited naturally by the prehistoric stream that had laid down the gravel bed. Atkinson noted that the artefact was in a strikingly good condition despite its obvious antiquity and the damage done to it:
He commented that the find appeared to have been "deliberately buried in a hole dug for the purpose, just where it was found; and the unbattered, and even unscratched condition of its entire visible surface seems amply to confirm the inference." Its crushed condition meant that it was not initially recognisable as a helmet, though its ornamentation was clearly visible. Atkinson described the outer decoration:
It was at first incorrectly identified as a breastplate of unknown origin (Atkinson thought it to be of "Oriental workmanship") and age. Thomas Richmond, a local historian, erroneously assigned it in 1868 to "a late Celtic, or early Anglo-Saxon period".[10]
In 1878, Frederick B. Greenwood, who owned the land on which the helmet had been found, presented it to the British Museum. It was restored at the museum by Robert Cooper Ready, resulting in the discovery that it was in fact a Roman helmet.[11] It is currently on display in the British Museum's Roman Britain section in Room 49. Similar helmets have been found elsewhere in Europe; the closest continental parallel is a helmet found in the River Saône at Chalon-sur-Saône in France in the 1860s.[12] The Guisborough Helmet represents a distinct form of cavalry helmet, dubbed the "Guisborough type", which can be distinguished by three peaked scallops on the brow band.