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Northampton/Pioneer Helm

The Anglo-Saxon Helmet from Northamptonshire

"The boar crest, brightly gleaming, stood over their helmets: superbly tempered, plated with glowing gold, it guarded the lives of those grim warriors. ... Displayed on his pyre, plain to see, were the bloody mail-shirt, the boars on the helmets, iron hard and gold clad. ... Placed on the bench above each retainer, his crested helmet, his linked corselet and sturdy spear-shaft were plainly to be seen. ... when the ornamented sword, forged on the anvil, the razor sharp blade stained with blood, shears through the boar-crested helmets of the enemy. ... we shielded our heads in the fight, when soldiers clashed on foot, slashed at boar-crests. ... and his head was guarded by the gleaming helmet which was to explore the churning waters, stir their very depths; gold decorated it, and it was hung around with chains as the weapon-smith had wrought it long before, wondrously shaped it and beset it with boar-images, so that afterwards no battle-blade could do it damage."

Extracts from Beowulf

The Saxon princeling's iron helmet has been reassembled from pieces found in a seventh-century A.D. grave in Northamptonshire, England. The helmet, only the fourth example of such warrior gear ever found, is also being called the Pioneer Helmet, after Pioneer Aggregates, which paid for the excavation and conservation of the artifacts. The other three helmets were recovered from Benty Grange, Derbyshire, in 1861, Sutton Hoo, Suffolk, in 1939, and Coppergate, York, in 1982. An amateur found the helmet Tuesday 22nd April 1997 with a metal detector in who was working alongside archaeologists on an 18-acre site in a gravel pit. Investigation of a strong signal revealed a bronze bowl. Ian Meadows, the site director, recognized the importance of the bowl and the area was then subjected to careful hand excavation. A grave containing the partial remains of a skeleton and Anglo-Saxon grave goods dating to the 7th century AD was discovered. It was discovered under only 8 inches of topsoil and the helmet was placed beside the warrior's hip in the grave. It is similar in construction to the Anglian helmet from Coppergate, with a wide brow-band and a nape to nose band ending in a round tipped nasal. There are bands running from ear to ear, with metal infill panels. It has cheek-flaps very similar in shape to the Coppergate helmet, with an edging strip. There are holes around the back of the brow band, which seem to have supported some sort of neck-guard. This part of the helmet has been damaged by a plough at some point so the exact nature of the neck guard is not clear at present, although it seems to be constructed of metal rods, perhaps some sort of 'link-mail' (not chain-mail as in the Coppergate helmet or a solid guard as in the Sutton Hoo helmet). The only other decorative feature apart from the boar seems to be narrow bands making a cross pattern running along the nose to nape and ear to ear bands.

   Rolly Read, former antiquities conservator for Newarke Houses Museums in Leicester, first examined a CT scan of the helmet's remains, which had been removed from the grave in a block of soil. Organic materials inside the helmet may be the remains of a leather lining. Traces of feathers and textiles on the outside suggest that the princeling rested on a mattress or bolster. The top of the helmet is decorated with a boar, as is the Benty Grange helmet. The epic Beowulf refers to warriors with figures of boars on the crests of their helmets, intended to invoke the Germanic deity Freyr for protection in combat. "This was a good quality fighting helmet," says Read. "The nosepiece and figure of a boar on the crest are plain." Once the pieces of the helmet were freed from the soil block, they fit together perfectly to form a high rounded dome. Site director Ian Meadows of the Northamptonshire Council Archaeology Unit believes the helmet was probably secured with a leather chinstrap fastened to its crescent-shaped cheek pieces

1. Tweddle, Dominic. The Anglian Helmet from Coppergate. Council for British Archaeology 1992

2. Some of the above information was gleaned from http://www.angelcynn.org.uk/history_helmet.html. As this helm was found after the publication of the Tweddle's book, there is still very little information available that I am aware of at this time.