Restored Hallaton cavalry helmet going on display

[Melvadius]

Following its discovery the Hallaton Cavalry Helmet has had nine years of conservation work and as this BBC article announces is finally going onto permanent display at Harborough Museum, in Market Harborough, Leicestershire, from 28 January alongside other finds from the site.

 

What has been hailed as one of the most significant recent UK Iron Age finds is going on display after a nine-year conservation project.

 

The decorated Roman cavalry helmet was discovered at a site in Leicestershire.

 

Experts said its date, close to the Roman invasion of 43 AD, meant it could be evidence of Celtic tribes serving with the Roman army.

 

The artefact, which was found in fragments, has been restored by a team at the British Museum.

 

Dr Jeremy Hill, from the museum, said: "You can't underestimate the shock and surprise this had when it was first found - Hallaton really transforms our understanding of the Roman conquest of Britain."

 

...continued

 

More on the Hallaton Treasure can be read here

 

I posted a related article a few months back on the site but to keep things together there is also an interesting report on the conservation of the helmet dating from Dec 2010 here.

[DecimusCaesar]

It's an interesting find with a curious backstory involving its burial. It does seem to me that it was buried as a trophy taken by a native tribesman during the conquest, considering its ritualised burial with the dogs. Ever since I've read Raffaele D'Amato's Arms & Armour of Imperial Rome I've been somewhat sceptical of the labelling of helmets like this as cavalry helmets. Just because they are heavily decorated doesn't necessarily mean it belonged to a cavalryman. There seems to be too many decoarted helmets and facemasks recovered by archaeologists for them all to belong to cavalrymen or the Hippika Gymnasia. Cavalry formed a very small part of the Roman army during the Principate, and the Hippika Gymnasia an even smaller part.