- Museum number
- 22496
- Description
-
Iron helmet: a conical helmet with pointed top, hammered out from one piece of iron. It is decorated with bronze inlay in the form of parallel lines around the base of the helmet. Between the two upper lines is a procession of officials or attendants which runs around the entire helmet. A further panel of bronze inlay at the front of the helmet shows the king with the crown prince and an attendant, framed by a bud-and-garland border. Around the base of the helmet is a series of holes, probably for the attachment of a lining. This helmet is restored from fragments.
- Production date
- 800BC-700BC
- Dimensions
-
Circumference: 62 centimetres (Internal Measure)
-
Diameter: 21.70 centimetres
-
Height: 30.80 centimetres
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Weight: 3049 grammes
- Curator's comments
- Pointed helmets of this shape are commonly shown worn by soldiers on the Assyrian reliefs. However, they were not always made of iron, as we know from the discovery of bronze helmets of this shape at Khorsabad. Further evidence for iron helmets with bronze inlay comes from Assyrian provincial centres in Syria: an actual example was found at Zincirli, while on the wall-paintings at Til-Barsip helmets are shown in blue, presumably representing iron, with yellow decoration which must be inlaid bronze. Together with the present helmet, Layard found in Room I of the North-West Palace at Nimrud sixteen iron fragments with bronze inlay belonging to at least four different crested helmets.
According to WAA Transfer book, this object was sent for examination by Plenderleith in the Research Laboratory from 11.3.52 - 21.5.52.
Bibliography:
A. H. Layard, ‘Nineveh and its Remains’ vol. I (London, 1849), 341;
T. Deszö & J. E. Curtis, ‘Assyrian iron helmets from Nimrud now in The British Museum’. ‘Iraq’ 53 (1991), 121-5, fig. 21, pl. XIX.
- Location
- On display (G55/dc10)
- Exhibition history
-
2013 - 2014 22 June - 6 Jan, Toronto, Royal Ontario Museum, 'Mesopotamia, Inventing Our World'
2013: 30 Jan-13 May, Museum of History, Hong Kong, 'The Wonders of Ancient Mesopotamia'
2012: 4 May-7 Oct, Melbourne Museum, 'The Wonders of Ancient Mesopotamia'
2011 28 March-26 June, Abu Dhabi, Manarat Al Saadiyat, 'Splendours of Mesopotamia'
2008-2009 21 Sept-4 Jan, Boston, MFA, 'Art and Empire'
2007 2 Apr-30 Sept, Alicante, MARQ Museum, 'Art and Empire'
2006 1 Jul-7 Oct, Shanghai Museum, 'Art and Empire'
- Acquisition date
- 1848
- Acquisition notes
- Discovered end of October or the very beginning of November 1846; despatched from Nimrud 22 April 1847; loaded at Basra on the EIC ship 'Clive' December 1847; trans-shipped to the 'Elphinstone' at Bushehr, thence to Bombay; despatched from Bombay April 1848 on the RN ship HMS 'Jumna', arriving Chatham October 1848.
- Department
- Middle East
- BM/Big number
- 22496
- Registration number
- 1848,1104.319