The Waterloo Helmet (also known as the Waterloo Bridge Helmet) is a pre-Roman

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

bronze ceremonial horned helmet with repoussé decoration in the La Tène style, dating to circa 150–50 BC, that was found in 1868 in the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, s ...

Waterloo Bridge Waterloo Bridge () is a road and foot traffic bridge crossing the River Thames in London, between Blackfriars Bridge and Hungerford Bridge and Golden Jubilee Bridges. Its name commemorates the victory of the British, Dutch and Prussians at the ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. It is now on display at the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

in London.

Discovery

The helmet was dredged from the bed of the River Thames close to Waterloo Bridge in 1868, and in March of the same year it was given on loan to the British Museum by

Thames Conservancy The Thames Conservancy (formally the Conservators of the River Thames) was a body responsible for the management of River Thames, that river in England. It was founded in 1857 to replace the jurisdiction of the City of London up to Staines-upon-T ...

. In 1988 its successor body, the

Port of London Authority The Port of London Authority (PLA) is a self-funding public trust established on 31 March 1909 in accordance with the Port of London Act 1908 to govern the Port of London. Its responsibility extends over the Tideway of the River Thames and its ...

, donated the helmet to the British Museum.

Description

The main part of the helmet is constructed from two sheets of bronze, one forming the front and one the back of the helmet, that are riveted together at the sides and top. A separate crescent-shaped bronze piece is riveted to the bottom of the front sheet, and two conical bronze horns with terminal knobs are riveted to the top of the helmet. A decorative strip with a row of rivets overlays the join between the front and back sheets, and goes around the base of the horns. At the end of the strip, on both sides of the helmet, is a ring fitting for a chin-strap or cheekpiece. There are a number of small holes around the bottom edge, which may have been used to attach a lining. The helmet was decorated with six bronze studs, one of which is now missing, three on the front and three on the back. These have cross scores on them that suggest they were designed to hold red glass enamel studs, but these are no longer present. There is also a repoussé decoration in the La Tène style on the front and back of the helmet. The design is similar to that on the Snettisham Great Torc.

Purpose

Being made from thin bronze sheets, the helmet would have been too fragile for use in battle, and so it was probably intended to be used for ceremonial or parade purposes. In this respect it is similar to Iron Age bronze shields that have been found, which would not have been effective against contemporary weapons and could only have been used for display purposes. Alternatively, it has been suggested that the helmet is in any case too small for most adult males, and may have been worn by a wooden statue of a Celtic deity. It is thought that the reason why the Waterloo Helmet and ceremonial bronze shields such as the Battersea Shield and

Witham Shield The Witham Shield is an Iron Age decorative bronze shield facing of La Tène style, dating from about the 4th century BC. The shield was discovered in the River Witham in the vicinity of Washingborough and Fiskerton, Lincolnshire, Fiskerton in Linc ...

were all found in rivers is that they were thrown into the river as votive offerings to the gods.

Importance

The Waterloo Helmet is one of only three Iron Age helmets found in England and also the only horned helmet dating to the Iron Age to have been found anywhere in Europe. However, there are several Iron Age depictions of people wearing horned helmets from elsewhere in Europe. There are some carvings of

Gauls The Gauls (; , ''Galátai'') were a group of Celts, Celtic peoples of mainland Europe in the Iron Age Europe, Iron Age and the Roman Gaul, Roman period (roughly 5th century BC to 5th century AD). Their homeland was known as Gaul (''Gallia''). Th ...

wearing horned helmets on the

triumphal arch A triumphal arch is a free-standing monumental structure in the shape of an archway with one or more arched passageways, often designed to span a road, and usually standing alone, unconnected to other buildings. In its simplest form, a triumphal ...

at Orange, France, dating to c.55 BC, but these are very different from the Waterloo Helmet. Whereas the Waterloo Helmet has straight, conical horns with a broad base that are stylised representations of animal horns, the helmets depicted on the carvings at Orange show realistic, curved bull's horns between which is placed an upright wheel. Similar to the depictions on the triumphal arch of Orange is the image of a leaping figure wearing a horned helmet and holding a wheel on the Gundestrup cauldron from Denmark, dating to the 1st century BC. This helmet is of a different shape from the Waterloo Helmet, and the horns are curved like those at Orange, but like the Waterloo Helmet the horns of the helmet are not sharply pointed, but are fitted with terminal knobs. An Iron Age

bas-relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces remain attached to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb , to raise (). To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...

at Brague, near

Antibes Antibes (, , ; ) is a seaside city in the Alpes-Maritimes Departments of France, department in Southeastern France. It is located on the French Riviera between Cannes and Nice; its cape, the Cap d'Antibes, along with Cap Ferrat in Saint-Jean-Ca ...

in France, also shows representations of people wearing horned helmets. Despite the depictions of horned helmets on the triumphal arch of Orange and elsewhere, the Waterloo Helmet remains the only known example of an actual horned helmet from this period, and other Iron Age helmets that have been found, such as the Canterbury helmet and the Meyrick Helmet from northern Britain, are hornless. Nevertheless, influenced by the iconic features of the Waterloo Helmet, modern artistic interpretations of Iron Age people tend to show them wearing horned helmets, which has led Miranda Aldhouse-Green, professor of archaeology at

Cardiff University Cardiff University () is a public research university in Cardiff, Wales. It was established in 1883 as the University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire and became a founding college of the University of Wales in 1893. It was renamed Unive ...

, to comment that it is "unfortunate that it has found such a firm place in many popular reconstructions of British warriors".

References

External links