Rare Roman helmet and face-mask discovered cumbria

[alienbeing]

Rare Roman helmet and face-mask discovered in cumbria

A Roman bronze helmet complete with face-mask - thought to be one of only three of its kind to be found in Britain - has been discovered by a metal detector enthusiast in Cumbria.





The helmet, with its enigmatic and virtually intact features, would have been worn, possibly with colourful streamers attached to the object, as a mark of excellence by Roman soldiers at cavalry sport parades.

Described as a ''hugely important discovery'', it is now expected to fetch £300,000 at Christie's Antiquities auction in London.

The Crosby Garrett Helmet has been named after the hamlet in Cumbria where it was found in a field in May by the treasure hunter, who wants to remain anonymous.

The helmet has a never-seen-before griffin crest, which, with the object's hair, would have been a golden bronze colour, contrasting with the polished white-metal surface of the face mask.

Christie's described the find as an ''extraordinary example of Roman metalwork at its zenith''.

The auction house's London head of antiquities, Georgiana Aitken, said: ''This helmet is the discovery of a lifetime for a metal detectorist.

''When it was initially brought to Christie's and I examined it at first-hand, I saw this extraordinary face from the past staring back at me and I could scarcely believe my eyes.

''This is a hugely important discovery and we expect considerable interest at both the public preview and at the auction where it is sure to generate great excitement from museums and collectors alike.''

Arrian of Nicomedia, a Roman provincial governor under Hadrian, suggested, in an appendix to his military series Ars Tactica, that Romans wore the helmets as a mark of rank or excellence in horsemanship.

The Ronan cavalrymen were divided into two teams that took turns to attack and defend during the events, which accompanied religious festivals and were also put on for the benefit of visiting officials.

The mask is thought to have been worn with an elaborately painted shield, embroidered tunic, thigh-guards and greaves.

The helmet is one of only three of its kind discovered in Britain since records began 250 years ago.

The only other two helmets that have been discovered complete with face-masks are the Ribchester Helmet, found in 1796 and now in the British Museum, and the Newstead Helmet, found some time around 1905 and now at the Museum of Antiquities in Edinburgh.

The helmet will go on sale in the Antiquities auction at Christie's South Kensington on October 7.

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/8000018/Rare-Roman-helmet-and-face-mask-discovered.html

[brillbilly]

it looks like one iv seen but from mesopotamia.........nice metel work

[theshee]

I read this earlier, lucky bugger for finding it! Its still in great condition, a fab find.

[alienbeing]

Roman helmet sells for £2m

Metal detectorist who found it in Crosby Garrett, Cumbria, now a millionaire as UK museum priced out by anonymous buyer



In just three minutes at a Christie's auction, the most hauntingly beautiful face to emerge from the British soil in more than a century slid out of the grasp of the museum desperate to acquire it when the Roman helmet was sold to an anonymous telephone bidder for £2m – dramatically higher than the highest pre-sale estimate of £300,000.

The man who found it last May, using a metal detector on farmland on the outskirts of the Cumbrian hamlet of Crosby Garrett, a currently unemployed graduate in his early 20s from the north-east, will share the price with the landowner, but is now a millionaire.

Tullie House museum in Carlisle managed to stay in the bidding up to £1.7m, a staggering sum for a small museum raised in gifts and grant promises through frantic fundraising in the last month. Three more bids of £100,000 each lost it the treasure.

"I'm still shaking," Andrew Mackay, senior curator at the museum, said moments later. "Cumbria has had a few bad knocks recently, and this fundraising campaign was a good news story for the area, so this is a real blow. People will be terribly disappointed – we had thousands of pounds coming in every day, and children literally emptying their piggy banks.

"We are now very, very anxious to talk to the buyer to see where we go next."

The stunning Roman cavalry helmet, dating from the late first or early second century AD, a piece of public swagger for parades and festivals never meant to be worn in combat, is only the third ever found complete in Britain, the first since 1905, and by far the most beautiful.

It has transfixed thousands of visitors in the past week, when it went on display for the first time at Christie's in South Kensington. People have stood gazing into the dreamy youthful face, the mouth slightly parted, the eyes with their delicate cut-out pupils. Christie's sources report that, uniquely, many viewers had asked where they could donate to the campaign to keep it in a British museum.

Christie's could not reveal whether the buyer is British or overseas – a Californian phone bidder, presumed to be the Getty museum, dropped out at £800,000 – but the museum's best hope is that it is either a UK buyer willing to loan, or if it has been bought overseas that the government will impose an export bar to allow time to raise the money to match the sale price.

www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2010/oct/07/roman-helmet-sold-two-million

[Naught]

A little off topic but I have a roman coin from 160 ad. It is sweet