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An Early Corinthian Helmet in the Museum of the British School at Athens

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 September 2013

Abstract

The Corinthian Helmet Catalogue No. B2, of a popular seventh-century design, is described and classified. It is dated to the first half of the seventh century, and placed in Snodgrass's second group.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1987

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References

Acknowledgements. I am most grateful to the authorities of the British School at Athens for allowing me to study and publish this helmet, and notably to Mr Mervyn Popham, Dr Hector Catling, and Professor Anthony Snodgrass for advice on the content and form of the paper, though they are not to blame for any faults remaining in it. Through the kindness of Dr Kenneth Wardle of the University of Birmingham, Mr G. H. Norrie supplied the photographs used here, at very short notice. Professor Brian Shefton, Drs G. Heres, K. Kunisch, and W.-D. Niemeier, the Directors and staff of the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities, The British Museum, and those of the Department of Archaeology, The Art Gallery and Museum, Kelvingrove, Glasgow, the authorities of the Burrell Collection, Glasgow, and Messrs. Forman of Piccadilly Ltd. all very generously enabled me to study comparative material. Dr C. Weiss and Professor Anthony Snodgrass kindly allowed me to present drawings based on ones of their own. To the others who have helped me and are mentioned in the notes I am no less grateful.

Abbreviations

The following are employed in addition to those in standard use:

AAG Snodgrass, A. M., Arms and Armour of the Greeks (Thames and Hudson 1967)Google Scholar

BM (With four-figure inventory nos.) H. B. Walters, Catalogue of the Bronzes (Greek, Raman and Etruscan) in the British Museum (1899)

BM (With date of acquisition) British Museum, Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities Accessions Catalogue

EGAW Snodgrass, A. M., Early Greek Armour and Weapons (Edinburgh U.P. 1964)Google Scholar

FD v Fouilles de Delphes v: Perdrizet, P., Monuments figurés; petits bronzes etc. (École française d'Athènes 1908)Google Scholar

GH Kukahn, E., Der griechische Helm (Marburg-an-der-Lahn 1936)Google Scholar

LCM Liverpool Classical Monthly

RGZM Römisch-germanisches Zentralmuseum Mainz, Jahrbuch

The following are referred to by short title in the text or notes.

Boardman, J., Athenian Red Figure Vases: the Archaic Period (Thames and Hudson 1975)Google Scholar

C. M. Kraay, Greek Coins (with photographs by M. Hirmer. Thames and Hudson 1966)

Payne, H. G. G., Perachora. The Sanctuaries of Hera Akraia and Limenia I (Oxford 1940)Google Scholar

Pritchett, W. K., The Greek State at War, ii (Berkeley, University of California Pr. 1974)Google Scholar

1 Snodgrass, A. M., JHS 85 (1965) 110–22CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Salmon, J., JHS 97 (1977) 84101CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Cartledge, P. A., JHS 97 (1977) 1127CrossRefGoogle Scholar; A. H. Jackson, op. cit. n. 27 below.

2 Cf. Ol. ber. 6 130–2 no. B1679 figs. 100–1; holes in nape.

3 Cf. the important comments of Weiss, C., California Studies in Classical Antiquity 10 (1977) 195207.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4 Foster, P., Greek Arms and Armour, Greek Museum of the University of Newcastle upon Tyne (1978)Google Scholar; Shefton, B. B., AR 16 (19691970) 53–4 item 2 fig. 2.Google Scholar

5 E.g. GH Katalog nos. 2, 3, 8, 20, 21(a), 21(b), 29 including no. 2 = BM 1920 3–31.1 GH pl. i, 1–2 and no. 29 = Berlin Inv. No. Lipperheide 5 GH pl. i, 4.

6 Square cut: Münzen u. Medaillen AG Basel Auktion 51 (1975) 96 no. 213.

7 Wide-set holes:

(a) Eighth c. (late) AR 10 (1963–4) 52–4 no. 12 fig. 6.

(b) Seventh c. (early) Ol. ber. 3 108 B1499 Pls. 38–9; EGAW 22 ff. C4.

(c) c. 680–660? Ol. ber. 1 52 B58 pl. 8; EGAW 22 ft. C2; FIG. 1, 2.

Close-set holes:

(d) c. 650–600 FD v 100–1 no. 501 figs. 349 and 349a (5 mm apart); GH Katalog no. 70.

(e) c. 650–600 Scott, J. G., Scottish Art Review xii, 2 (1969) 28–9Google Scholar; I wish to thank Helen Adamson, Keeper, Mrs Buchanan, and Mr Philip Lankester of the Department of Archaeology, The Art Gallery and Museum, Kelvingrove, Glasgow, for enabling me to study this.

(f) Early sixth c. Ol. ber. 10 109–10 pl. 12; Goring, E., JHS 105 (1985) 266 no. 5 pl. viiid.Google Scholar

8 Thin-walled early helmets: GH Katalog nos. 2, 3, 8 (thicker at face, as ours), 17 (similar), 21(b), 22.

9 Some earlier helmets anticipate this, such as GH no. 2 (see n. 5 above) but being earlier it has holes on centres 1 cm apart even over the eyes, (e) in n. 7 above has closer holes at the nose.

10 Ol. ber. 7 77–116 with pls. 21–55; EGAW 20–8; pls. 6, 13, 33, 36; GH 27–9 and 32–4, with most of Katalog nos. 44–91 and pls. ii, 3–6 and iii, 2–6; rims and faces often thicker than ours.

11 Later helmets with lacing holes: FIG. 1, 5; n. 7 above, (d)−(ƒ). Pins in rim e.g. Hassel, F. J., RGZM 10 (1963) 190–1, pls. 27–9.Google Scholar Pins or rivets are rarely found in earlier Corinthian helmets and they presumably became commoner around the later seventh century when the middle phase of Illyrian helmets widely adopted studs in rim decoration. Cf. Ol ber. 6 pp. 137–8.

12 Headbands: AAG pl. 45; cap: J. Boardman, Athenian Red Figure Vases: The Archaic Period pl. 50.1; cap or neckflap: C. Kraay, Greek Coins 340 f. pl. 153 no. 485. In BM no. 2827 of c.550–525 pins and lacing holes are found together as if the latter alone held in the lining.

13 Probable overlap: FD v pl. i, 7 = EGAW pl. 8a; cf. also the Samian vase in n. 25 below. As a postgraduate I benefited from discussion of this general question with the late Mr J. K. Brock.

14 Snodgrass' Group 2: EGAW 22–7; GH 24–9 and 34. For early Corinthian helmets, Tölle-Kastenbein, R., Antike Welt 5, 3 (1974) 2130 is of special interest.Google Scholar

15 Macmillan Painter: J. Salmon, JHS loc. cit. n. 1 above; ‘Myros’ and other advanced Corinthian types: EGAW 22–7; Ol. ber. 6 138 esp. n. 33; GH 28–9 and 32–4 esp. Katalog no. 76 pl. iii, 2.

16 Ol. ber. 152 no. B55 pl. 7; EGAW 22–8; GH Katalog no. 2; the more sophisticated Kelvingrove helmet (e) in n. 7 above is 2.5 mm thick at the top of the crown without top-heaviness.

17 Bevel of ‘Myros’ helmets: e.g. Ol. ber. 7 pl. 43; closer-set holes over eyes cf. n. 8 above. Staggered holes at nose bridge: EGAW pl. 12; contrast the Oxford helmet (a) in n. 7 above with symmetrical holes at bridge. Ol. ber. 10 109–10 pl. 12; (ƒ) in n. 7 above.

18 Later cheek-guards acute: AAG pls. 37, 42, 47, 49.

19 EGAW 22–4 esp. 24 C2 (= Ol. ber. 1 52 no. B58 pl. 8 (here FIG. 1, 2); Weiss, op. cit. in n. 3 above 200 fig. 1d) and C5 cf. n. 2 above; Weiss, ibid. 201 fig. 2a.

20 EGAW 26 f. and pl. 15a–b.

21 In a similar way the basic shape of the Volkswagen car remained the same for decades.

22 Jeffery, L. H., Local Scripts of Archaic Greece (Oxford 1961) 191 and 202 no.Google Scholar 64 and 93 and 95 no. 11, respectively Comstock, M. and Vermeule, C., Greek Etruscan and Roman Bronzes in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts (Boston 1971) 408 no. 583 (the helmet is seventh century)Google Scholar and Polemon vi 1956/7 3 f. fig. 1 with Ol. ber. 8 98 n. 27; now also A. M. Snodgrass, in F. G. Maier, Alt-Paphos auf Cypern (Von Zabern, Mainz 1984) 45–9.

23 BCH 90 (1966) 782 fig. 13. Information on date by letter from L. H. Jeffery, to whom I am most grateful.

24 R. Meiggs and D. M. Lewis, Greek Historical Inscriptions no. 14. 9–12 suggests an adequate panoply cost 30 Attic drachmas c. 500 BC, surely a substantial sum if no longer quite the equivalent of 30 first-class sheep or six oxen as in Solon's time, see Plutarch, Solon 23.

25 EGAW 26–8 dated after 675 by Ol. ber. 7 76 n. 27.

26 EGAW 22–7 no. C8; cf. sea-raiders in the West Mediterranean before 700 BC. Thucydides vi 4.

27 LCM 8.2 (1983) 22–7; nail-holes in nape-guards: e.g. Ol. ber. 7.78–80 nos. 3, 11, 14 pls. 22, 28, 34; wooden posts Ol. ber. 3 10f. and 5 11 with pl. 1.

28 W. K. Pritchett, The Greek State at War II ch. 13 esp. 253–8.

29 AAG pp. 48f.; e.g. Ol. ber. 3 10f. 8 25f.

30 Bent cheek- and nose-guards; LCM ibid. 27 Appendix; nape-guards e.g. Ol. ber. 8 123–4 nos. 37 and 41 Pls. 58 and 62, and 161 nos. iii, 1 and 2 pls. 88 and 90.

31 LCM ibid. 22f.; other armour p.g. Snodgrass AAG pl. 21; weapons e.g. Payne, H., Perachora i, 190 and pl. 86.28.Google Scholar

32 For the somewhat analogous melting down of decayed vessels in precious metals on Delos BCH 6 (1882) 91–4; of scrap bronze including armour damaged in fires in the Temple of Poseidon at Isthmia cf. the important study of Rostoker, W. and Gebhard, E. R., Hesperia 49 (1980) 347–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar