A bipartite gypsum mould of Late Antiquity from North Africa for clay statuettes of a helmeted eastern rider

Abstract

Small clay statuettes of a rider could be produced from a bipartite gypsum mould with quarter spherical locks and lateral joining marks probably from northern or central Tunisia. The armour gives hints to the dating and origin of the helmeted rider, who is dressed in a chain-mail shirt and long  trousers and wears a narrow belt without ancillary straps, but with a large ring buckle. The unusual, tightly ribbed conical helmet with iron meshwork, which reaches down to the shoulders and leaves only a half-oval aperture for the face, differs considerably in the shape of the bowl and the aventail from Late Roman crested helmets, as well as from Early Byzantine riveted plate helmets of the Baldenheim-type and scale helmets of the Niederstotzingen-type. A date of the late 5th century or the first half of the 6th century seems probable. The Sassa - nid region beyond the Euphrates would be a possible provenience for the rider depicted. It is imaginable that the appearance and the armour corresponded to those eastern (barbarian) riders in the Byzantine
expeditionary army which under Belisarius conquered the Vandal Empire in the  year 533.