Pioneer Helmet
Pioneer Helmet | |
---|---|
Material | Iron |
Created | 7th century |
Discovered | 1997 Wollaston, Northamptonshire, United Kingdom 52°15′20″N 0°42′14″W / 52.25553°N 0.70387°W |
Discovered by | Ian Meadows |
Present location | Royal Armouries Museum, Leeds |
The Pioneer Helmet (also known as the Wollaston Helmet or Northamptonshire Helmet) is an
The sparsely decorated nature of the helmet, a utilitarian iron fighting piece, belies its rarity. It is one of just six Anglo-Saxon helmets yet discovered, joined by finds from Benty Grange (1848), Sutton Hoo (1939), Coppergate (1982), Shorwell (2004) and Staffordshire (2009); its basic form is nearly identical to that of the richer Coppergate helmet found in York. Like these, the Pioneer Helmet is an example of the "crested helmets" that flourished in England and Scandinavia from the sixth through eleventh centuries.
The distinctive feature of the helmet is the boar mounted atop its
The helmet was named after Pioneer Aggregates UK Ltd, who funded its excavation and conservation. It was unveiled at the
Description
The
The cap of the helmet was constructed from twelve individual components riveted together.[5] The basic form was created by four pieces: a brow band joined by a nose-to-nape band, and, on either side, a lateral band reaching from the side of the brow band to the top of the nose-to-nape band.[5] Cutouts at the front of the brow and nose-to-nape bands functioned as eye-holes, and a 5 mm (0.20 in) wide strip of metal was riveted along the edge of the openings, perhaps to provide balance or decoration.[6] Four subtriangular infill plates were riveted inside to cover the resulting holes.[7] Finally, three narrow C-sectioned strips were added to provide additional strength, one each running the length of the nose-to-nape and lateral bands.[5] The nasal is not a separate component, but rather is a continuation of the nose-to-nape bands.[6]
Atop the helmet was set the boar.[8] It was affixed to the C-sectioned nose-to-nape strip, and was forged from a single rod of iron.[8] Its back was bent downwards to form the hind legs, while the front of the rod was split, one part bent to form the forelegs, the other part continuing forward to form the boar's snout.[8] Beyond very minor details—the snout was made to be slightly triangular, the hind was somewhat flattened, and slight grooves in the forelegs suggested individual limbs—the boar was not decorated.[8][9]
Beneath the cap hung two cheek guards.[10] The sinister cheek guard, which is all that remains other than minor fragments of the dexter, was 110 mm (4.3 in) long and 86 mm (3.4 in) wide at the top.[10] It was curved inward both laterally and longitudinally other than the upper rear edge which was bent outwards, either intentionally to improve the articulation of the joint, or by damage incurred during use.[11] Two strips of metal were then bent in half, with one folded around the brow band and one around the cheek guard, and attached by a single rivet through each.[8] These encased a narrow loop of wire which held the cheek guards to the cap.[8] A single rivet was also attached to the middle of the guard, probably to facilitate the attachment of leather strips used to draw tight the cheek guards.[8][12]
The form of neck protection on the helmet, if any, is unclear.[5] The bottom of the back of the helmet is largely missing,[13] although the portion that survives appears to have at least two perforations.[5] These would most likely have been used to attach a neck guard, perhaps like the one made of camail on the Coppergate helmet, yet no such remains were found.[5] A series of unexplained iron rods found near the helmet could theoretically have been used as stiffeners for an organic neck guard, such as one made of leather, but such an arrangement has no known parallels; it is instead thought that the rods were more likely belt stiffeners.[14][15]
Discovery
The helmet was discovered over Easter in March 1997 in Wollaston, near Wellingborough, Northamptonshire.[16][17] Excavations in the area had taken place for years on behalf of various aggregate companies before the land was exploited for gravel, and had uncovered an extensive network of Iron Age and Roman farms.[17][18] The evidence for post-Roman habitation, however, had been limited to two fragments of a brooch, and two separate collections of pottery, when metal detector surveying discovered a copper alloy hanging bowl and a millefiori-decorated mount in what turned out to be a grave.[19][20] The hanging bowl was detected by Steve Critchley, working alongside the archaeologist Ian Meadows.[20][21] Meadows immediately recognised the bowl for what it was, and began an excavation.[20][21]
The grave was in the shape of an elongated oval 2.8 m (9.2 ft) long and 1.3 m (4.3 ft) wide, and may have originally been a
The helmet lay next to where the left hip of the body would have rested.
The remaining half of the helmet was broken into many pieces—between 100 and 200 overall—including some which were deposited within the helmet itself.
The Wollaston burial was on private land owned by Peter Gammidge and John Minney,
Typology
The Pioneer Helmet is dated to the late seventh century on the basis of the style of belt buckles found in the grave,
Iconography
The boar was an important symbol in prehistoric Europe, where, according to the archaeologist Jennifer Foster, it was "venerated, eulogised, hunted and eaten ... for millennia, until its virtual extinction in recent historical time."[66] Anglo-Saxon boar symbols follow a thousand years of similar iconography, coming after La Tène examples in the fourth century BC, Gaulish specimens three centuries later, and Roman boars in the fourth century AD.[67] They likely represent a fused tradition of European and Mediterranean cultures.[68] The boar is said to have been sacred to a mother goddess figure among linguistically Celtic communities in Iron Age Europe,[69] while the Roman historian Tacitus, writing around the first century AD, suggested that the Baltic Aesti wore boar symbols in battle to invoke her protection.[70][71]
Boar-crested helmets are depicted on the turn-of-the-millennium
Boar-crests in Beowulf
The boar-crested Pioneer Helmet recalls the Anglo-Saxon poem
Ad wæs geæfned, ond icge gold |
A funeral pyre was then prepared, |
—Old English text[93] | —English Translation[94] |
In another case, Hrothgar laments the death of Æschere, "my right-hand man when the ranks clashed and our boar-crests had to take a battering in the line of action"[95] (eaxlgestealla, ðonne we on orlege hafelan weredon, þonne hniton feþan, eoferas cnysedan[96]). Both instances likely refer to crests such as those on the Benty Grange and Pioneer Helmet,[84][85][89] or to the one found in Guilden Morden.[97][98] These three boars forge a link between the legendary warrior hero of poetry and reality, with each shedding light on the other.[98]
Notes
- ^ In the other two instances boars are referred to in the plural,[86] such as when Beowulf and his men leave their ship as "[b]oar-shapes flashed above their cheek-guards"[87] (eoforlic scionon ofer hleorbergan[88]). These references were perhaps made with the intention of recalling boars like those on the eyebrows of the Sutton Hoo helmet.[84][85][89][90][91]
References
- ^ Heaney 2000, p. 77.
- ^ Meadows 2004, p. 25.
- ^ a b Read 2006, p. 39.
- ^ Meadows 1996–1997, pp. 192–193.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Meadows 2004, p. 9.
- ^ a b Meadows 2004, pp. 9, 11.
- ^ Meadows 2004, pp. 9–10.
- ^ a b c d e f g Meadows 2004, p. 11.
- ^ a b c Read 2006, p. 40.
- ^ a b Meadows 2004, p. 10.
- ^ Meadows 2004, pp. 10–11.
- ^ Saraceni 1997.
- ^ Meadows 2004, pp. 9, 25.
- ^ Meadows 1998, p. 38.
- ^ a b Meadows 2004, pp. 6, 9.
- ^ Webster & Meadows 1997, p. 3.
- ^ a b c Meadows 2004, p. 1.
- ^ Meadows 1996.
- ^ Meadows 1997, pp. 391–392.
- ^ a b c Meadows 2004, pp. 1–2.
- ^ a b c d e Read 2006, p. 38.
- ^ Meadows 1996–1997, pp. 191, 193.
- ^ a b c d Meadows 2004, p. 2.
- ^ Meadows 2004, p. 18.
- ^ Meadows 2004, pp. 2, 16.
- ^ a b c Meadows 2004, pp. 2–3.
- ^ Meadows 2004, pp. 4–5.
- ^ Meadows 1996–1997, p. 191.
- ^ Meadows 1997, p. 392.
- ^ Meadows 2004, p. 7.
- ^ a b Meadows 2004, p. 16.
- ^ Meadows 2004, pp. 3, 11.
- ^ Meadows 2004, p. 3.
- ^ Meadows 2004, pp. 11–12, 25.
- ^ Grinsell 1961, pp. 476–478, 488–489.
- ^ Meadows 1997, p. 394.
- ^ Meadows 2004, pp. 24–27.
- ^ Meadows 2004, p. 24.
- ^ a b Meadows 2004, pp. 24–25.
- ^ Read 2006, pp. 39–40.
- ^ Meadows 2004, pp. 25–26.
- ^ Read 2006, pp. 40–41.
- ^ Meadows 2004, p. 26.
- ^ Read 2006, pp. 41–42.
- ^ Meadows 2004, p. 27.
- ^ Read 2006, p. 42.
- ^ Meadows 1997, p. 391.
- ^ Irwin 1997.
- ^ Hammond 1997.
- ^ a b Pioneer News 1997.
- ^ Meadows 1997, p. 395.
- ^ Companies House.
- ^ a b Meadows 1996–1997, p. 193.
- ^ Meadows 1996–1997, pp. 5–6.
- ^ Meadows 1997–1998, p. 4.
- ^ Butterworth et al. 2016, p. 41 n.27.
- ^ Steuer 1987, pp. 199–203, 230–231.
- ^ Tweddle 1992, pp. 1083, 1086.
- ^ Hood et al. 2012, p. 92.
- ^ Tweddle 1992, p. 1083.
- ^ Tweddle 1992, pp. 1083, 1086, 1125.
- ^ Steuer 1987, pp. 199–200.
- ^ Tweddle 1992, pp. 1086–1087.
- ^ Steuer 1987, pp. 190–198, 227–230.
- ^ Tweddle 1992, pp. 1082–1085, 1087.
- ^ Foster 1977b, p. 1.
- ^ a b Frank 2008, p. 78.
- ^ Frank 2008, p. 82.
- ^ a b c Foster 1977b, p. 5.
- ^ Tacitus 1868, p. 31.
- ^ Tacitus 1886, p. 25.
- ^ Foster 1977b, pp. 15, 19, 26.
- ^ a b Foster 1977b, p. 27.
- ^ Frank 2008, p. 80.
- ^ Frank 2008, p. 86.
- ^ Beowulf, ll. 303–306.
- ^ a b Chaney 1970, pp. 123–124.
- ^ Webster & Meadows 1997, pp. 3–4.
- ^ Beowulf, ll. 303–306, 1110–1112, 1286, 1327–1328, 1448–1454.
- ^ Hatto 1957a, pp. 155–156.
- ^ Speake 1980, p. 80.
- ^ Bateman 1861, p. 33.
- ^ Beowulf, ll. 1110–1112, 1286, 1327–1328.
- ^ a b c Cramp 1957, pp. 62–63.
- ^ a b c Davidson 1968, p. 354.
- ^ Beowulf, ll. 303–306, 1448–1454.
- ^ Heaney 2000, pp. 21–23.
- ^ Beowulf, ll. 303–304.
- ^ a b Chaney 1970, p. 123.
- ^ Bruce-Mitford 1972, p. 122.
- ^ Bruce-Mitford 1974, p. 200.
- ^ Cramp 1957, p. 63.
- ^ Beowulf, ll. 1107–1124.
- ^ Heaney 2000, pp. 75–79.
- ^ Heaney 2000, p. 93.
- ^ Beowulf, ll. 1326–1328.
- ^ Foster 1977a, p. 167.
- ^ a b Frank 2008, pp. 78–79.
Bibliography
- "Anglo-Saxon Helmet Restored". Pioneer News. No. 29. December 1997. p. 1.
- Bateman, Thomas (1861). Ten Years' Digging in Celtic and Saxon Grave Hills, in the Counties of Derby, Stafford, and York, from 1848 to 1858; with Notices of some Former Discoveries, Hitherto Unpublished, and Remarks on the Crania and Pottery from the Mounds. London: John Russell Smith. pp. 28–33.
- Beowulf. n.d.
- Old English quotations above use the Klaeber text, published as Klaeber, Friedrich (1922). Beowulf and The Fight at Finnsburg. Boston: D.C. Heath & Company.
- JSTOR 4423116.
- ISBN 0-575-01704-X.
- Butterworth, Jenni; Fregni, Giovanna; Fuller, Kayleigh & Greaves, Pieta (2016). "The Importance of Multidisciplinary Work Within Archaeological Conservation Projects: Assembly of the Staffordshire Hoard Die-Impressed Sheets". Journal of the Institute of Conservation. 39 (1).
- ISBN 0-520-01401-4.
- OCLC 421931242.
- doi:10.5284/1000320.
- Images on plate XIV
- ISBN 978-0-904531-74-9.
- ISBN 978-1-58044-110-0.
- JSTOR 1258576.
- Hammond, Norman (23 April 1997). "Experts Hail Discovery of Saxon War Chief's Armour". Home News. The Times. No. 65, 871. London. p. 6.
- ISBN 0-393-32097-9.
- Hood, Jamie; Ager, Barry; Williams, Craig; Harrington, Susan & Cartwright, Caroline (2012). "Investigating and Interpreting an Early-to-Mid Sixth-Century Frankish Style Helmet" (PDF). The British Museum Technical Research Bulletin. 6. British Museum: 83–95. ISBN 978-1-904982-80-7.
- Irwin, Aisling (23 April 1997). "'Beowulf' Treasure is Find of the Decade". The Daily Telegraph. No. 44, 118. London. p. 3.
- ISSN 0011-3212.
- ISSN 0305-4659.
- ISSN 0011-3212.
- ISSN 1357-6291.
- ISSN 0960-7552.
- Meadows, Ian (March 2004). "An Anglian Warrior Burial from Wollaston, Northamptonshire". Northamptonshire Archaeology Reports. 10 (110) (2010 digital ed.). Northamptonshire County Council.
- "Pioneer Aggregates (UK) Limited". Companies House. Archived from the original on 28 May 2024. Retrieved 28 May 2024.
- Read, Anthony (2006). "The Conservation of the Wollaston Anglian Helmet". In Smith, Robert Douglas (ed.). Make All Sure: The Conservation and Restoration of Arms and Armour. Leeds: Basiliscoe Press. pp. 38–43. ISBN 0-9551622-0-3.
- Saraceni, Jessica E. (November–December 1997). "Saxon Helmet Restored". Archaeology. 50 (6). Archaeological Institute of America.
- LCCN 79-41091.
- ISBN 3-7848-1617-7.
- Tacitus (1868). "Germany and its Tribes". The Agricola and Germania of Tacitus. Translated by Church, Alfred John & Brodribb, William Jackson. London: Macmillan.
- Tacitus (1886). "Germania". In Church, Alfred John & Brodribb, William Jackson (eds.). The Agricola and Germania of Tacitus: With a Revised Text, English Notes, and Maps. London: Macmillan.
- ISSN 0957-7718.
Further reading
- Atkins, Rob & Meadows, Ian (September 2019). "Who Wore the Wollaston Helmet?". Current Archaeology. XXX (354). Current Publishing: 28–35. ISSN 0011-3212.