Illyrian helmets
truly stand out and are immediately recognizable. Their particularity is the rectangular
opening for the face and two parallel ridges on the top of the crown for the
crest.
They may be
found all over the Balkan but also in Macedonia
and Greece
proper and evolved from the 8th to the 3rd century BC.
The earliest version had a low crown and lacked a neck guard. It was soon
followed by a helmet with a more pronounced back guard, the typical horizontal
ribs, and a decorative edge around the face often using a series of studs. The
most recent model showed elongated cheek pieces and a simple decoration around
the edges.
An
early example is in the Museum of Olympia, Greece wh ich dates from the end of the 7th century/beginning 6th century BC. It clearly shows the framing studs. The horizontal ribs are already more
pronounced than those shown in my previous post, A rare Illyrian Helmet.
The Archaeological Museum in Athens has two beautiful specimens from the 6th century BC. One is this helmet from Pengaion, 550-500 BC
The other is the very telling Funerary Mask (see top picture) from 530-510 BC, which is missing the horizontal slit for the crest between the ridges. It is framing the face of the deceased covered in gold foil.
As expected, the
The Illyrian
helmets are in the news after excavations of the burial mounds on the Peljesac Peninsula
in Croatia .
Several tombs from the 4th century BC yielded well-preserved
Illyrian helmets that have been dated to the 6th century BC.
The eastern Adriatic coast looks very promising since at least a dozen helmets were found in Dalmatia, and even more in
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