Piece of helmet from British Musuem -- myArmoury.com

Arek Przybylok

Hi. I found this photo from exhibition from British Musuem. Do you know what is this small bronze/gold eye? A piece of helmet? Maybe you know something more?

Paul Mortimer · Posted: Wed 02 Apr, 2014 6:49 am Post subject:

It is an eye piece from Gevninge near Ljere in Denmark. It is thought to be one of a pair from a helmet and it is gilded copper-alloy. It is almost certainly pre-Viking and was found in what is thought to be ritual circumstances, in other words it may have been given to the gods.

Mark Moore · Posted: Wed 02 Apr, 2014 7:32 am Post subject:

That axe head looks worth recreating....hint...hint...Owen B. ....Anyone? Wink

............McM

Bruno Giordan · Posted: Wed 02 Apr, 2014 11:12 am Post subject:

What are my eyes seeing? A conical helmet that i had never seen before! is anyone aware of the origin of this conical?

Mark Griffin · Posted: Wed 02 Apr, 2014 11:26 am Post subject:

Its a repro. No idea what its based on

And not a very good one imho, got a weird surface like a melted candle

Dominic P. · Posted: Wed 02 Apr, 2014 11:30 am Post subject:

Hi Thank you for sharing the pic. Two questions though. Do you have any information on where the Nasal Helm is from and when saying that the Eye piece is earlier do you mean Vendel Period or earlier still? I look forward to eventually seeing this exhibition myself Big Grin

Mark Griffin · Posted: Wed 02 Apr, 2014 11:30 am Post subject:

as for the eyebrow, from the catalog:

partially gilt copper alloy, late iron age/viking age, Gevininge, Zealand, Denmark.
Roskilde 1994 A124xl

Mark Griffin · Posted: Wed 02 Apr, 2014 11:37 am Post subject:

The skull section is wonderful (in a bad kind of way). I'm doing demos for the exhibition and people still don't believe its been done by a weapon.

Marcin P. Kaczmarek · Posted: Thu 03 Apr, 2014 4:29 am Post subject:

Paul Mortimer · Posted: Thu 03 Apr, 2014 5:41 am Post subject:

The eyepiece's closest parallels are from the Vendel Period - nothing like it has ever been found from a later context. It is a metal detector find, so had little context and the area has not yet been fully excavated. although the area is thought to be a settlement site. (Christensen, 2002 Kongens mand – guld og hjelm fra Gevninge in J. Pind, A.N. Jørgensen, L.
Jørgensen, B. Storgård, P.O. Rindel & J. Ilkjær, eds. Drik – og du vil leve skønt. Copenhagen:
National Museum of Denmark, pp. 41-5..).

Matthew Bunker · Posted: Thu 03 Apr, 2014 2:01 pm Post subject:

A couple of clearer pics for you....

L. Mitchell · Posted: Fri 11 Aug, 2017 3:11 pm Post subject:

Nothing like replying to a thread three years after the fact, but there's now a Wikipedia page on the Gevninge fragment which contains most of the published information on it. There's also a relatively new (2015) book by Tom Christensen (Lejre bag myten: de arkæologiske udgravninger), but it is unfortunately only in Danish.

Christensen dates Gevninge to 500–1000 AD, which accounts for the fragment being dated to either the late Iron Age or the Viking Age. Paul is right, however, that dating the piece based on its stylistic characteristics suggests a tighter date (550–700 AD per his paper).

It is interesting that the fragment has three holes, presumably attachment points, on both its top and its bottom. This suggests a slightly more elaborate helmet than that sketched by Christensen (2002, see attachment). It could, for example, fit onto something such as the nose/eye guards on the Vendel I (picture) or Valsgärde 5 (picture attached) helmets.