Posted on 02/28/2012 9:07:41 PM PST by DogByte6RER
Found: Ancient Warrior's Helmet, Owner Unknown
A Greek bronze helmet, covered with gold leaf and decorated with snakes, lions and a peacock's tail (or palmette), has been discovered in the waters of Haifa Bay in Israel. But how this helmet ended up at the bottom of the bay is a mystery.
The helmet dates back around 2,600 years and likely belonged to a wealthy Greek mercenary who took part in a series of wars, immortalized in the Bible, which ravaged the region at that time. Archaeologists believe that he likely fought for an Egyptian pharaoh named Necho II.
Dredging discovery
The helmet was discovered accidentally in 2007 during commercial dredging operations in the harbor. After it was discovered, conservators with the Israel Antiquities Authority went to work cleaning it and archaeologists began to analyze it.
They discovered that it is very similar to another helmet found in the 1950s near the Italian island of Giglio, about 1,500 miles (2,300 kilometers) away. That helmet has been dated to around 2,600 years ago, something which helped the researchers arrive at a date for the Haifa Bay helmet.
"The gilding and figural ornaments make this one of the most ornate pieces of early Greek armor discovered," writes Jacob Sharvit, director of the Marine Archaeology Unit with the Israel Antiquities Authority, and John Hale, a professor at the University of Louisville, in a summary of their research being presented at the meeting.
This Greek warrior likely would have been a very wealthy individual, as few soldiers could afford such an ornate helmet. The researchers aren't sure where the helmet was made, though they suspect the warrior could be from one of the Greek colonies in Ionia, on the west coast of modern-day Turkey.
Greek warrior loses helmet
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
Snakes curl above the eyelids of the helmet, flanked by a peacock's tail (or palmette). CREDIT: Photo courtesy Israel Antiquities Authority, cropped by Owen Jarus.
Gods Graves Glyphs material ... ping
Were they expecting a nametag?
Perfect...Greece should claim ownership and auction it off. Maybe that will get them out of hock.
Looks like he got bonked on the (his) right side of the head. That might explain how it wound up in the drink.
IBTHT Pics arrive.
Hoping more likely - because then they could get 200 years of academic arguments out of it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negau_helmet
I’m always amazed that people would wear something so ornate into battle.
Then again, look at any pre-World War I military arm....
I bet this guy’s gunny was seriously PO’ed when he dropped his lid in the ocean.
“Looks like he got bonked on the (his) right side of the head. That might explain how it wound up in the drink.”
Lol, yep!
this would have been a prized possession. maybe the most expensive item a lot of these guys owned, so if they could write, yeah i’d say their name was carved inside it someplace.
using that as a field stool would be, uh, problematic..
not after “don’t ask, don’t tell”
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| GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach | |
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Thanks DogByte6RER, nice find. |
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Wow! fantastic example of metalsmith work
Those small helmets could well be armorer’s models made to display the maker’s craft.
An American Pickelhaube? Wow...who had those?
Specifically, I was thinking of the typical rifle or pistol issued before World War I really got into swing. Fit, finish and design that often rivaled the better sporting arms of the day. Some of that standard came back between the wars, but was never quite the same.
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