York helmet
| Coppergate Helmet | |
|---|---|
The Coppergate Helmet
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| Material | Iron, brass containing 85% copper |
| Created | 8th century |
| Discovered | 1982 York, North Yorkshire |
| Present location | Yorkshire Museum |
| Registration | YORCM : CA665 |
Coordinates: 53°57′39″N 1°04′59″W / 53.960934°N 1.083183°W
The Coppergate Helmet (also known as the York Helmet) is an eighth-century Anglo-Saxon helmet found in York. It was discovered in May 1982 during excavations for the Jorvik Viking Centre at the bottom of a pit that is thought to have once been a well.
The helmet is one of six Anglo-Saxon helmets known to have survived to the present day, and is by far the best preserved. It shares its basic form with the helmet found in Wollaston, Northamptonshire, and like the others—from Benty Grange, Sutton Hoo, Shorwell, and Staffordshire—is one of the "crested helmets" that flourished in England and Scandinavia from the sixth through to the eleventh centuries. It is now in the collections of the Yorkshire Museum.
The construction of the helmet is complex. Apart from the neck guard the basic form is shared by the contemporaneous Pioneer Helmet, a sparsely decorated fighting piece, and consists of four parts: an iron skull cap with brass edging and decorations, two iron cheek guards with brass edging, and camail protecting the neck.
The cap of the helmet has eight iron components. A brow band encircles the head; a nose-to-nape band extends from back to front, where it narrows and continues downwards as the nasal; two lateral bands each connect the side of the brow band to the top of the nose-to-nape band; and four subtriangular infill plates sit underneath the resulting holes. The eight pieces are riveted together. The brow band, 572 mm (22.5 in) long and 74 mm (2.9 in) to 87.4 mm (3.44 in) wide, is not entirely circular; a 69.8 mm (2.75 in) gap at the front is covered by the nose-to-nape band, which overlaps the brow band at the front and underlaps it at the back. Quadrant-shaped cutouts at the front, and rectangular cutouts at the sides, create eye-holes and attachment points for the cheek guard hinges. On the dexter side is a light and unexplained sketch of a rectangle with two lines in the shape of an 'X' connecting the corners. The nose-to-nape band is 492.8 mm (19.40 in) long and about 87.5 mm (3.44 in) wide, and is shaped at the front, possibly with a template before assembly, both to help facilitate the eye-holes and to continue down as the nasal. The two lateral bands, about 125 mm (4.9 in) long and 82 mm (3.2 in) wide, are riveted to the inside of the brow and nose-to-nape bands by three iron rivets on each end. The four infill plates are roughly triangular, but have their corners cut off to avoid overlapping the rivets holding the bands together. Their sizes vary considerably, likely because the edges are hidden from view. At the front the two infill plates are affixed underneath the bands by four rivets on either side and three at the bottom; at the back, five rivets on either side, and three at the bottom, hold each infill plate to the bands.
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