July 2022

Even though we usually imagine the Late Roman legionary wearing a ridge helmet – maybe an Intercisa type, maybe adorned with a metallic crest-, reality was far more complex.

Among other types of helmets used alongside ridge helmets, there is a particular kind of helmet which was widely used, also before and after Late antiquity: the spangenhelm.

One of the most famous spangenhelme is for sure the so called “type Leiden”.

Despite its name, deriving from the place is exhibited today (in the Netherlands), this iron spangenhelm (also classified as “strut helmet” by Christian Miks) comes from Egypt. Its datation, due the context and to the execution of the excavations, is broadly given between the 4th and the 6th century AD.

It’s also difficult to give a datation only due to the shape of the helmet, since it presents strong resemblances both with specimen usually dated to the 4th century (e.g. St.Vid-Narona V) and to ones surely dated to the 6th-7th century (like the spangenhelm from Jerusalem).

No one of these specimen sported a neckguard, so we opted not to mount one. Also, the same reasoning was applied for the nasal guard. Recent studies suggested its presence, due to the shape of the front part of the helmet. However, the majority (if not all) the other spangenhelm of the same type did not have one, so in the end we decided not to apply the nasal guard.

Our replica of the Leiden helmet. Click here now if you want to know more.

The most difficult part of this reconstruction was posed for sure by the leather components, which in the original helmet was almost entirely missing.
Almost: in fact, the helmet still sported at least what remained of the inner lining. So we started from there, and we decided to apply it to the skull by sewing it to the lower rim of the skull itself – the holes almost surely served this purpose.
We applied the same reasoning also to the cheekpieces, which we have lined. We also applied a felt padding to them, for a better protection and wearability.

To optimize the comfort of the wearer, we added a felt cap to be worn underneath the helmet, also basing ourselves on written sources which testifiy the presence of such a padding (e.g. Ammianus Marcellinus).

Our replica of the Leiden helmet. Click here now if you want to know more.

Finally, in the original helmet any trace of fastening (studs, rivets, rings) seem to be missing.
So we decided to realize a totally organic fastening, directly fixed to the other leather components of the helmet: it’s in fact sewn to the inner lining and it goes through the padding of the cheeckpieces, also to guarantee their stable closing.

Our replica of the Leiden helmet. Click here now if you want to know more.

To reenact a Late Roman soldier without necessarily using a ridge helmet, our spangenhelm is the perfect choice.
Click here now to have more details and informations.

“They [the legio linteata] were provided with resplendent armour and plumed helmets to distinguish them from the others.”
[Ab Urbe Condita X, 38]

Samnites, like other peoples from the ancient world, were often accustomed to embellish their most prestigious military pieces by many means: gildening, silvering, plumes, crests.

Such a case were the Samnite warriors from the battle of Aquilonia in 293 a.C., and the famous legio linteata in particular. They were warriors bound by a sacred and terrible oath to Jupiter: if they would have retreated, or if they didn’t kill anyone who would retreat, they would be cursed by the god.

The richness of their equipment was not so impressive to their adversaries, the Romans. In fact the consul Lucius Papirius Cursor, according to Livy (X, 39), said that Samnite panoplies, according to him, “served for idle pageantry rather than for practical use. Plumes did not inflict wounds, their painted and gilded shields would be penetrated by the Roman javelin.”

Even though even Romans were accustomed to decorate their military equipment, this practice seems to have been a Samnite peculiar characteristic. In fact Papirius, in the same speech, also said that “A Samnite army all in gold and silver had once been annihilated by his father”.

And indee, also the other warriors in Aquilonia sports weapons and armours that, even though distinguishable from those of the legio linteata, were nothing less in splendour.
Livy (X, 38) reports that non only Samnites, in their effort for war, “had taken the same care and pains to adorn their soldiery with all the wealth of splendour as they had done on the occasion of the elder Papirius’ victory”, but also that the rest of the Samnite army “were not inferior to the linen legion either in their personal appearance or soldierly qualities or in the excellence of their equipment”.

Here below, we want to present you two replicas – limited edition, only one piece per product available – of Samnite helmets. Not only one of them sports a high crest and two huge feathers, but both of them are gilded (24k gildening).

If you want to have more details about these two pieces, click now here and here or respectively on the pictures below.

Read also “Their arms bright and in good order”: care and wealth of weaponry in the Roman army

We recently realized, on request by one of our customers, the reconstruction of a pair of Celtic trousers referred to the 3rd century BC.
An apparently easy task…but that actually required a lot of research.

In fact, which kind of trousers did the Celts actually use?

In Europe, the use of trousers was introduced by the Celtic populations, who probably assumed the use of this garment through contacts with the peoples of the Eurasian area, classically called “Scythians”, around the sixth century BC.

Tracing the origins of trousers is not easy: as it is a perishable material, there are very few archaeological finds. To decipher the iconography is not so easy: since the abdomen area is generally not clearly visible, it is not possible to distinguish real trousers from the use of leggings combined with the thong.

However, we can try to trace their appearance and diffusion at least in outline through the few known finds.

The invention of the trousers is connected to horse riding, to cover and protect the lower part of the abdomen, the groins and the genital area. The solution was the creation of a single garment out of thong with leggings. As separate garments they were used since very ancient times (the clothing of the natural mummy of Ötzi, the Iceman, are well known). It is therefore logical to expect that the appearance of this garment is to be found where the first traces of the horse’s domestication and its use as a mount are found: the Asian continental lands.

At the present time the oldest known, published and reliably dated artifact seems to be two garments from the Yanghai Necropolis, in the Xinjiang region, north-western China, where the Tocharian language (an Indo-European language extinct for about a millennium) was spoken in ancient times.

In fact, although other examples of trousers of very ancient dating are known in the literature, these two finds of trousers (tombs M157 and M21) have recently been carefully dated and studied in detail, thus providing certain and solid reference points from which to trace birth and evolution of trousers.

The trousers of tomb M157 are dated to radiocarbon between the thirteenth and the beginning of the eleventh century BC, while those of tomb M21 are dated between the eleventh and tenth centuries BC.

Both are made by inserting a cross element in the crotch, to join together the two cylindrical parts for the legs.

These are, in the current state of knowledge, among the oldest (certainly the best documented) examples of known trousers, and probably very close to the first appearance of this garment: the older grave goods of Xinjiang contain different garments, but not trousers.

The grave goods of tombs M157 and M21 refer to warriors on horseback, armed with axe and bow.

The trousers are made of wool, rather snug and specifically designed for use on horseback: the central insert allows for an extreme spread of the legs, much higher than what is necessary for the usual movements, but useful in the position of the rider.

This first model seems to be later joined by another type, in which the central insert is in the shape of a lozenge or rhombus, which then appears triangular, once folded in two between the front and back of the garment. This type is documented by another find from the same region, but coming from the necropolis of Zaghunluq, near Cherchen (from which comes a famous mummy, wearing dark red trousers), which seems to be datable with some reliability (after a first attribution to the 11th century BC) to the period between the 9th and 4th centuries BC

Subsequent finds from the Scythian context (Pazyryk culture, datable between the 5th and 3rd centuries BC) from the Altai Mountains, show the same model, with a rhomboid-shaped crotch insert. In particular, the finds of Altai Scythian trousers can be dated between the fifth and first half of the fourth century BC. and are comparable to those found at Zaghunluq.

Subsequently, different models are developed, including an example of the 1st-2nd century AD from Germany (Marx-Etzel), made in a single rectangular piece of cloth and the best-known examples from Thorsbjerg and Damendorf, (around I-IV century AD) in which the junction of the two parts for the legs is solved with more complex systems and with more parts of fabric. But the model with a rhombus forking seems to persist over time, with examples from the Hun period (4th-5th century) and later.

Trousers from Marx-Etzel

Hunnish trousers

Our reconstruction of Celtic trousers

Following our research, and considering that archaeological specimens referred to the specific context we were interested in are missing, we chose for an interpolative shape between the most ancient models, based on the evolution that seemed to go on for this piece of clothing.

So we opted for the model having the lozenge-shaped insert, since it was apparently more recent than the first models with the cross-shaped insert, and since it was a very persistent and spread model, even after the period we were interested in (Hunnish trousers), and probably more ancient than the more elaborate models from Thorsberg and Damendorf.

How much were Corinthian helmets with cut outs for ears really a thing?

Nowadays they seem to be pretty overlooked by reenactors, but actually there’s a good bunch of examples of this kind of helmet, both from archaeological finds and from artifacts.

Let’s see some example.

Probably the most famous one, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Arts, 5th century BC.

A 5th century specimen from Bastar, in modern Albania

One of the pieces from the Axel Guttman collection (probably a Corinthian modified into a Chalcidian helmet)

And finally, a really interesting piece: a depiction on a pottery fragment from the Princeton University Museum.

One of the replicas we have in stock, based on these specimens, has cut outs for the ears.
We know, it’s not actually a new model…but maybe is time to give it again a new chance!

Click here or on the picture below to know more.