A Roman iron helmet, Trajanic period, early 2nd century A.D.Helmet of the Weisenau type with a hemispherical calotte, which extends downwards in the back half to a depth of approx. 3.5 cm and there has four horizontal ribs pressed from the inside out. Below this is the wide neck guard, which is pulled slightly downwards at an angle. This has another rib, also pressed from the inside outwards, near the calotte, followed by two consecutive arches in the left and right halves of the neck guard. Two shallow cutouts for the upper edges of the ears in the calotte directly in front of the transition to the neck guard. The ear cutouts and the calotte's part that was lowered at the back, had rivet holes on the edge, which were used to attach fittings to protect the ears and had edge strips around the ear cutout that stood vertically from the calotte. Some bronze rivets are still preserved in the rivet holes (three on each side). The third hole on the front also served to attach a broad flat bronze band around the lower edge of the front half of the calotte. A small part of this bronze band ornamented with point punches from the inside is still preserved on the left side of the helmet. Above the forehead in the left and right halves of the calotte are the wing-like curved ribs typical of this helmet type, four on top of each other. In ancient times, the helmet was also provided with two massive, crossed iron bars, which were connected to the calotte at the flattened ends by iron rivets. One cross bar is placed over the ends of the "wing decoration" above the forehead. Due to corresponding finds such bars have been interpreted as an innovation during the time of the Dacian Wars in order to protect the calotte against specific weapon effects (among other things, the Dacian falx, a long, sickle-like sword, was brought into play; it was able to break through the calotte with its curved, pointed end). Numerous helmets were retrofitted with this device during the Dacian campaigns. The helmet also has a bronze rivet in the middle of the four segments of the calotte created by the cross bars and in the front ends of the neck guard. These were probably used to attach bronze fittings, as found in later variants of the Weisenau type helmets. The fittings themselves are no longer preserved. A loop made of iron band in the middle of the outer edge of the neck guard was probably used to hang the helmet, similar to carrying handles that are known from other helmets.In front of the ear cutouts, two iron sheet loops that tapered upwards were fastened with two rivets on the inside, of which only the left one has been preserved. There is also an axle in this, around which the front and rear ends of a cheek guard were once flanged to form a hinge with the sheet metal loop.The helmet can be compared well with specimens from Hebron and Theilenhofen (among others), which have similar characteristics. It is doubtful whether the helmet ever had a horizontal forehead bar, as is typical of earlier examples of this type of helmet. Like the Theilenhofen helmet, it probably only had a bronze, flat headband, especially since the longitudinal bar on the helmet presented here is drawn far down at the front, close to the forehead (in the case of the helmet from Hebron with a horizontal forehead bar, the longitudinal bar ends significantly earlier in the upper part of the calotte, but also on the Theilenhofen helmet without such a bar).Very well preserved Roman helmet from the early 2nd century A.D. with many interesting technical features. The cross bars, which are still somewhat improvised here, are at the beginning of a development that ultimately leads to the serially produced Niederbieber type helmets with massive, much higher cross bars.Apart from the missing cheek guards, an excellently preserved and professionally restored iron helmet with only minimal completions.Length 33 cm, maximum width 23 cm, height approx. 25 cm.Provenance: German private collection. Taken over from the father's property in the 80sCondition: II -