[Márk György Kis]

Hi there!

Recently I got into an argument, when was the Yasenovo helmet used? The literature has a firm understanding of 9-10th centuries, but a russian guy told me (without sources, just looking at Golden Horde helmets and telling me that other finds in the grave ar from the 13-14th centuries), that it is much later.

Due to obscurity of russian sources (hard to source them), does anyone have some new info?

Thanks!

[Boris Bedrosov]

Well, the Yasenovo helmet is found in Bulgaria, not in Russia.
Thus, the Russian sources have nothing in common with this finding, as hasn't the Golden Horde.

The helmet itself has been excavated more than 50 years ago by Nikola Mavrodinov, who first signed 9th - 10th C as most likely period.
The same period is attributed by Valery Yotov in his "Arms and Armour from the First Bulgarian Empire 7th - 11th C", page 119 (ISBN 954-15-0113-3 or 954-427-547-9) - BTW your picture is from that book. David Nicolle also suggests same period for this helmet in his article "Byzantine and Islamic Arms and Armour. Evidence for Mutual Influence"

Hope that helps!

[Márk György Kis]

Boris, that helped immensely, I am really grateful.

Do you happen to know the Mavrodinov book, where he published the find?

[Boris Bedrosov]

[Márk György Kis]