Helmets are some of the most famous military artifacts. Having appeared at the dawn of civilization, they almost never completely fell out of use, constantly improving and developing.
Ur standard of war. Sumer. Around 2600 BC Sumerian warriors (second row from left) in leather helmets with chin straps
Fresco in honor of Megacle. Acropolis of Athens. VI century BC. Hoplite in an Attic bronze helmet with a characteristic crest
But, perhaps, helmets reached their greatest flourishing in the Middle Ages and in the early modern times - there were dozens of types of them. It is to this interesting historical period that this article is devoted. All helmets, photographs of which are presented in the article, are genuine artifacts of their time, most of them are museum pieces. If there is information about the weight, it is indicated in the description.
Rice. 1. Spangenhelm. Northern Europe. VI century
Spangenhelm, from him. Spangenhelm - The "rivet helmet" was a popular European battle helmet of the Early Middle Ages. Spangenhelm, unlike nasal, is a segmental helmet made of metal strips that form the structure of the helmet. The strips are riveted by three to six steel or bronze plates. The structure has a tapered design. Spangenhelm could include a nose guard or a half mask protecting the upper face and, very rarely, a full face mask. Earlier spangenhelms often include flaps for cheek protection made of metal or leather. Initially, spangenhelm-type helmets appeared in Central Asia, more precisely in Ancient Persia, from where, during the decline of the Roman Empire, they penetrated into Europe along the southern route along the Black Sea.
Rice. 2. Spangenhelm. Middle Asia. VIII century
It was in such helmets that warriors from the nomadic tribes of the Eurasian steppes, such as the Sarmatians, who were recruited into the service of the crumbling Roman Empire, appeared in Europe in the 5th century. By the 6th century, it was already the most common helmet in Europe, including among the Germans, as well as everywhere in the Middle East.
Rice. 3. Wendel helmet. Scandinavia. VII century
The helmet remained in use until at least the 9th century. Spangenhelm was a helmet with effective protection that was relatively easy to manufacture. However, the weakness of the design due to segmentation eventually led to its displacement in the 9th century by all-metal nasal helmets.
Rice. 4. Nasal helmet. France. The beginning of the XIII century.
Nasal helmet (in the Russian tradition, the Norman helmet), from the English. Nasal Helm - "nose helmet" or "nose helmet" - a type of battle helmet used from the Early to High Middle Ages. It is a further development of the earlier Spangenhelm. The nasal helmet is domed or raised pointed center, with a single prominent metal plate that extends down the nose. The plate provides additional face protection.
Rice. 5. One-piece forged nasal helmet. Moravia. XI century
The nasal helmet appears throughout Europe at the end of the 9th century. It is becoming the predominant form of head protection, replacing the previous Spangenhelms and Wendel-style helmets. It, or rather one of its earliest versions - vasgard, became the most popular form of head protection at that time. The nasal helmet began to lose popularity in the late 12th century, giving way to helmets that provided better face protection. Although the nasal helmet had finally lost its popularity among the higher class of knights by the middle of the 13th century, they were still widespread among archers, for whom a wide field of view was extremely important.
Rice. 6. Norman in a nasal helmet. Amateur reconstruction. Photo from Abbey Medieval Festival
Rice. 7. Topfhelm. Nuremberg. The beginning of the XIV century.
Great helmet (from the English Great Helm) or topfhelm, from it. Topfhelm - "pot helmet", is the most common Western European knight helmet of the High Middle Ages. In Spain, topfhelms were called Yelmo de Zaragoza - "Sarago's helmet", where they first appeared among the knights on the Iberian Peninsula. It arose at the end of the XII century, during the era of the Crusades, and remained in use until the XIV century. They were massively used by knights and extremely rarely by heavy infantry from about 1220 to 1340. In its simplest form, the great helmet is a flat-topped cylinder that completely covers the head and has only very narrow slits for the eyes and small holes for breathing. Later versions of the grand helmet received a more curved design towards the top to better deflect and reduce the impact of impacts. This later version, with a more conical top, is known as the "Sugarloaf Helm" or Kübelhelm, from it. Kubelhelm - "bucket helmet".
Rice. 8. Kübelhelm. England. Around 1370
Although the big helmet offered better protection than previous helmets such as the nasal and spangenhelm, it had a big drawback: the wearer's very limited field of vision and very poor ventilation, which, due to the lack of a visor, could not be corrected. Knights wore a felt comforter under a large helmet, and could also wear a tight-fitting steel cap (helmet) known as a cervelier. A chainmail aventail could also be attached to the large helmet to protect the wearer's neck, throat and shoulders. Gradually, the cervelier evolved from its early form into a separate helmet, the bascinet, and replaced the great helmet on the battlefield. The great helmet gradually fell out of use during the XIV century, however, even after that it was used for a long time in tournaments. At the tournaments, his new heavy version of shtehhelm appeared, from him. Stechhelm - "toad's head" helmet.
Rice. 9. Knight in topfhelm. Amateur reconstruction. Photo from Abbey Medieval Festival
Rice. 10. Stehhelm. Northern Italy. Weight 8, 77 kg. Around 1475-1500
Rice. 11. Stehhelm. England or Flanders. Weight 7, 4 kg. Around 1410-1450
Rice. 12. Composite armor with shtehhelm for the tournaments of the King of Spain Philip I the Handsome. The beginning of the XVI century.
Rice. 13. Open type bascinet. Weight 1, 8 kg. Around 1370-1400
The earliest versions of the bascinet of the early 14th century did not have any visors and were worn under topfhelms. During fierce hand-to-hand combat, knights often discarded the great helmet, as it obstructed breathing and had poor visibility. Thus, having an additional smaller helmet underneath the larger one was a real advantage in hand-to-hand combat. By the middle of the 14th century, most of the knights abandoned the grand helmet in favor of the bascinet. Bascinets, for the most part of the open type, were actively used by the infantry. The earliest bascinets were still open and may even have a nasal plate. However, they quickly had visors, mostly conical in shape, for better ventilation. They began to be called hundsgugel, from him. Hundsgugel - "dog's face", as well as "pork snout" (from English Pig Faced). The second type was the klapvisor - a visor with a less extended forward shape, attached with a single rod in front to the forehead and fixed with straps on the sides, which was the most common in Germany.
Rice. 14. Bascinet with a visor hundsgugel. Germany. Around 1375-1400
Rice. 15. Bascinet with a visor klapvisor. Germany. Around 1420-1430
Rice. 16. Bascinet with a raised visor klapvisor. Germany. Around 1420-1430
Earlier versions sometimes had a chain mail aventail to protect the wearer's neck, throat and shoulders, while later versions (from the early 15th century) often protected the neck with a separate plate - a plate necklace. Bascinets almost always have small holes around the edges of the helmet. These holes were used to attach the padding to the inside of the helmet. Wearing a bascinet no longer requires a separate comforter like a large helmet. The upholstery was made of linen or linen and stuffed with a mixture of wool and horsehair. Chin straps were not used to fix the helmet on the head at that time. The bascinet with and without a visor (often knights carried with them several interchangeable visors - one for spear collision, the other for hand-to-hand combat) was the most common helmet worn in Europe throughout the 14th century and at the beginning of the 15th century, including almost the entire Hundred Years War. … In Germany, at the beginning of the 15th century, a more convex version of the bascinet appeared with large plates to better protect the throat. The visor and the helmet itself acquired a rounded shape with many holes. Such helmets were called grand bascinets, which were used by knights in tournaments until they developed into closed helmets by the end of the 15th century.
Rice. 17. Grand Bascinet. Perhaps England. Around 1510
Rice. 18. Composite chain-plate combat armor with bascinet hundskugel of the end of the XIV-first half of the XV century. Museum reconstruction
Rice. 19. Salad open type. Italy or Spain. Weight 1, 51 kg. Around 1470-1490
Salad or celata was a battle helmet that replaced the bascinet in Northern Europe and Hungary in the middle of the 15th century. Most of the richer knights wore salads with extended front plates that protected the lower face, jaw and neck, called bevors.
Rice. 20. Closed salad. Germany. Weight 3, 62 kg. Around 1490
Bevor can be made from a single plate or formed from several plates around the neck and chin. Bevor, as a rule, was worn along with the salade, and later with some Burgundy helmets (bourguignots), in which the bevor was already built into the helmet itself, essentially becoming a visor. In both cases, the two pieces of armor were combined to provide protection for the entire head and neck. Most of the salads did not need any ventilation holes, since there was a natural gap between the helmet itself and the bevor, just near the mouth and nose of the wearer. Distinctive features of salads are the rounded shape and the strongly protruding back of the helmet, which has become more and more elongated over time. It could be a monolithic structure with a helmet, or it could be attached separately and consist of several plates. The visor of some salads was movable - you could raise and lower it if necessary. It was actively used until the 30s of the 16th century. both knights and infantry, especially in Germany, when they were replaced by burgundy and closed helmets.
Rice. 21. Salad with visor and bevor. Southern Germany. Weight 3.79 kg. Around 1480-1490
The design of the salads contrasted with the Italian variety of battle helmets, the barbutes, which were popular in Italy at the same time.
Rice. 22 and 23. Barbut. Brescia. Weight 2, 21 kg. Around 1470-1480
Italian masters took the classic Greek helmets, which were sometimes accidentally found in ancient ruins on the territory of Italy, as an example when creating it. A distinctive feature of barbutes, as a rule, is the open part of the helmet for the eyes and mouth, formed in the shape of the letters "T" or "Y". Has not taken away. The existence of barbutes was limited to the 15th century.
To be continued.
