Coppergate Helmet
The Anglian Helmet from Coppergate, York
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| Material | Iron, brass containing 85% copper |
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| Created | 8th century |
| Discovered | 1982 Coppergate York |
| Present location | Yorkshire Museum |
Coordinates: 53°57′39″N 1°04′59″W / 53.960934°N 1.083183°W
The Coppergate Helmet (also known as York Helmet) is an 8th-century Anglo-Saxon helmet found in York. It is remarkably well preserved and, together with the Benty Grange, Pioneer, Shorwell, Sutton Hoo and Staffordshire helmets, is one of only six Anglo-Saxon helmets discovered to date.
Like many other helmets of Germanic Western and Northern Europe in the Early Middle Ages the construction of Coppergate helmet is derivative of Late Roman helmet types.
It has a rounded composite skull, the iron elements making up the skull are riveted together. Two deep cheek-pieces are attached to the skull by hinges. A mail curtain (camail) is attached to the lower rim of the helmet behind the cheek-pieces to defend the wearer's neck and an unusually large nose-guard (nasal) provided facial protection. The mail is remarkable in consisting of forge-welded links, rather than the far more common riveted links. It is richly decorated with brass ornamentation. On analysis, the helmet was found to be made of iron, with applied brass-work containing approximately 85 percent copper. Its basic construction is almost identical to another surviving Anglo-Saxon helmet, the Pioneer helmet. It is also very like the helmets depicted being worn by Anglo-Saxon Northumbrian cavalrymen on one of the Pictish Aberlemno Sculptured Stones, believed to depict the Battle of Dun Nechtain of 685.
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