Beschreibung:

Greek Hoplite Helmet of Chalcidian Type 4th century BC A splendid Pontus Greek helmet with hinged cheek-pieces, the bowl forged in one piece, with small nose nose-guard, moulded band traced around the eye and ear perimeters; the crown showing the typical carinated edge of the category; possibly later cheek-pieces attached to the bowl, one hole visible on each protuberance of each cheek-piece, for the fastening of the chin strap. 870 grams, 29.5cm (11 5/8"). Fine condition, restored. Provenance Property of a European businessman; from his private Belgian collection formed in the 1990s; previously in a North American collection formed in Illinois in the 1980s; accompanied by an academic report by military specialist Dr Raffaele D'Amato; and a metallurgic analytical report, written by Metallurgist Dr. Brian Gilmour of the Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, University of Oxford. Literature See Rabinovich, B. Z., Trudy Otdela istorii pervobytnoi kul’tury Gosudarstvennogo Ermitazha (Works of the Department of history of prehistoric culture of the State Hermitage) I, 1941, pp.99-171; Chernenko, E. V. Skifskii dospekh (Scythian armour), Kiev, Naukova dumka (in Russian), 1968; Pflug, H., 'Chalkidische Helme' in: Antike Helme, RGZM Monographien 14. Mainz, 1988, 137-150; Connolly, P., Greece and Rome at war, London, 1981; Gorelik, M.V., Warriors of Eurasia, from the VIII century BC to the XVII century AD, Stockport, 1995; Chernenko, E.V., The Scythians 700-300 BC, Hong Kong, 1998; Shevchenko, N. F., Zaitsev, Yu. P., Mordvintseva V. I. in Vestnik drevnei istorii (Bulletin of Ancient History) (1), 2011, 115-152 (in Russian); Симоненко А. В., 'Шлемы сарматского времени из Восточной Европы' (Sarmatian Age Helmets from Eastern Europe), in Stratum Plus, n.4, 2014, pp.249-284. Footnotes This helmet is very similar to various examples found in the area of the Black Sea (Chernenko, 1998, p.10), Macedonia, Thrace, Continental Greece, South Italy. The Greek colonists of the Black Sea area, from which with all probability this piece comes from, fought the Scythians and the Meotians with their own panoply. In the graves of the Sarmatian aristocratic cavalry have been found various similar helmets. The helmet under consideration belongs, according to Symonenko, to the well known Chalcidian typology. The Chalcidian type was a derivation from the Corinthian type, appearing on the vase paintings in about 6th century BC. The presence of these helmets in the Scythian graves in Southern Eastern Europe is attested since the 4th century BC, but judging from the shape of the cheek-pieces this helmet could be paralleled to the one from the grave 3 of Mezmay cemetery,