SL-2 helmet
| Object | |
|---|---|
| Proper name: | Negau helmet A |
| Classification: | helmet |
| Archaeological type: | Negau helmet, Slovenian type, variant Vače |
| Material: | bronze |
| Size: | length: 28 cm, width: 26 cm, height: 18 cm, thickness: 1 mm |
| Condition: | complete, damaged |
| Archaeological culture: | La Tène A |
| Date: | second half of 5th–beginning of 4th century BC |
| Date derived from: | typology |
|
| |
| Site: | Ženjak (Benedikt, Slovenia) |
| Field name: | Obrat |
| Archaeological context: | hoard |
| Coordinates (approx.): | 46° 35' 36.56" N, 15° 53' 19.68" E |
| Find date: | autumn 1811 |
| Find circumstances: | coincidence |
| Current location: | Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien – Antikensammlung (on exhibition) |
| Inventory Nr.: | VI 1659 |
|
| |
| Inscriptions: | |
Images
 Details of object SL-2 helmet.
|
Commentary
First mentioned in Hormayr 1823: 143. Examined by TIR on 10th January 2014.
Images in Mommsen 1853: Taf. I, 12A (drawing = Marstrander 1925: 38), Steinbüchl Steiermärkische Zeitschrift 7 1826: 48-60 Taf. III, Reinecke 1950: Taf. 11 (photo), Egg 1986: Taf. 243 (photos) and the image database of Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien.
Bronze Negau helmet of the Slovenian type, variant Vače. Domed bowl, with median ridge and small flanged rim, cylindrical base. Blackish green to dark green and brown patina on the exterior, corroded light green to brown beige on the interior. All surfaces show traces of corrosion. On the back side a section of the brim is broken. The lining plate is completely missing. All around the bowl above the chamfer stamped decoration in form of a row of spiral eyes. Cf. Egg 1986: 227 (no. 324).
The four inscriptions are all situated close together at the front of the helmet (chamfer and brim). Apart from the inscriptions, the helmet bears two marks: at the back on the chamfer, a chevron 
(height 1.1 cm) is embossed with a pointed tool, with the left hasta made up of 18, the right, slightly crooked, of about 21 indentations; on the rim on the right side as the helmet is worn, embossed 
(height 0.6 cm), possibly a manufacturer's mark (cf. Reinecke 1950: 132; Nedoma 1995: 19).
The helmet can be attributed to the variant Vače (subtype with spiral-eye decoration) based on its dimensions and the decoration on the bowl despite the missing lining place and typical tube-shaped bails. The area of production cannot be precisely determined, but is likely closer to the Alpine region than the find place. For typology, distribution and the dating to the mid-5th–early 4th century see Egg 1986: 68, 78–82 and Urban & Nedoma 2002: 52–56.
The Negau helmet A (thus called since Marstrander 1925 was found as part of the Ženjak helmet hoard. Mommsen 1853: 208 (no. 12) quotes from a communication from Joseph Bergmann of the Antikensammlung, saying that twenty helmets were found by the farmer Georg Slascheg in the first days of 1812 after clearing a plot of woodland; seventeen of the helmets went to the Antikensammlung, which passed on five to the Johanneum Graz.
Reinecke 1942: 132, No. 1, pl. 11; Nedoma 1995: 16–20, fig. 1–8
Bibliography
| Egg 1986 | Markus Egg, Italische Helme. Studien zu den ältereisenzeitlichen Helmen Italiens und der Alpen. Teil 1: Text, Teil 2: Tafeln, Mainz: Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum 1986. |
|---|---|
| Egg 1988 | Markus Egg, "Italische Helme mit Krempe", in: Angelo Bottini, Markus Egg, Friedrich-Wilhelm von Hase, Hermann Pflug, Ulrich Schaaff, Peter Schauer, Götz Waurick (Eds), Antike Helme. Sammlung Lipperheide und andere Bestände des Antikenmuseums Berlin [= Monographien Band 14], Mainz: Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum 1988, 222–270. |
| Gabrovec 1966 | Stane Gabrovec, "Chronologie der Negauerhelme", in: Massimo Pallottino, Renato Peroni, Mariarosa Corona, Virginia Corona (eds), Atti del VI Congresso Internazionale delle Scienze Preistoriche e protostoriche. Roma 29 agosto - 3 settembre 1962. Vol III: Comunicazioni Sezioni V-VIII, Roma: 1966, 114–120. |
| Hormayr 1823 | Joseph Freiherr von Hormayr, Wien, seine Geschicke und seine Denkwürdigkeiten, Wien: Franz Härter 1823. |
| Marstrander 1925 | Carl Johan Sverdrup Marstrander, "Les inscriptions des casques de Negau, Styrie", Symbolae Osloensis 3 (1925), 37–64. |
