A Bearded Face-Mask Helmet from the Collection of the National Museum in Belgrade. An Example of Mutual Influences of Armament Traditions at the Roman Frontier

Abstract

The paper deals with a unique face-mask helmet, found in 1854 and stored in the National Museum in Belgrade, showing cultural exchange. On the one hand, this exemplar was made with great skill in the Roman style. But on the other hand, the bearded helmet from the National Museum in Belgrade is unusual due to the fact that its design and appearance enable us to recognise a combination of several armament traditions: The bottom edge is bent in the form of a hem and has a lot of holes intended either for attaching a lining or suspending a neck protection in the form of a lamellar or scale aventail, which is not typical of Roman helmets and applied in the Roman army only by soldiers of the eastern auxiliary units. A similar line of holes on the edge can be observed on another unusual helmet, found in Bryastovets / BG. The existence of these elements on Roman parade helmets is direct evidence that the owner of the helmet could be an eastern auxiliary warrior, because scale aventails had been part of some Sarmatian helmets of the 1st and 2nd centuries AD.