A Sasanian Chieftain'sHelmet
by STEPHEN V. GRANCSAY
Some months ago the Museum's armorer re-
ceived a fine piece of ancient metalwork for clean-
ing and restoration. It was a helmet (Figure 2)
evidently excavated from the earth, whose com-
plex construction and surface ornamentation
were partially obscured by mineral deposits and
the by-products of corrosion. Attempting to clean
metal that has long been buried, as this was, in-
volves great difficulties and some risk, for pro-
longed contact with moisture and earth chemi-
cals is often disastrous. Fortunately, however, the
visible surfaces of the piece had mainly survived
the ravages of time, and the technician was able
to recover much of its former glory.
First, caustic potash was applied to remove the
unsightly crust of limestone and verdigris that
had formed on the exterior. This treatment was
especially effective on the bronze bands that
compose the framework of the piece. There are
four of these bands: one of them an encircling
browband, one forming a high parabolic ridge
from front to back, and the other two extending
from the browband to the top on either side.
Viewed from above (Figure 3), the frame looks
very much like a Maltese cross set within a circle.
The original finish of the bronze had helped con-
siderably in its preservation: it had been highly
polished, apparently for decorative reasons, and
this retarded pitting and spotting. When the
limestone crust and underlying verdigris were
scraped away, the smooth surface was uncovered
almost intact.
ON THE COVER: Detail of the gold plaque illus-
trated on page 275
Curatorof Armsand Armor
Attached to the frame by bronze rivets are
four triangular segments of iron. These had not
by any means survived as well as the bronze
frame. In the presence of saline ground water,
electrolytic action had taken place between the
juxtaposed bronze and iron, and the iron was al-
most entirely disintegrated, as was the leather
lining once adhering to it. But just as the maker
had polished the bronze frame to make it shine
brighter, he had superimposed bright sheets of
thin silver upon the dull iron segments. These
sheets were hardly damaged at all. Caustic pot-
ash removed most of the encrusted lime on their
surfaces, bringing out the pattern stamped upon
them (shown enlarged at right),
and treatmentwith ammonia and
careful burnishing restored their
original luster. The helmet was
thus revealedvery much as it must
have appeared nearly two mil-
lennia ago (Figure i). Its simple, graceful sil-
houette is emphasized by the contrast of light,
Contents APRIL I963
THE ART OF ANCIENT IRAN
A Sasanian Chieftain's Helmet
By StephenV. Grancsay 253
Beside the Kara Su
By VaughnE. Crawford 263
Treasure from the Mannean Land
By CharlesK. Wilkinson 274
253
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve, and extend access to
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin ®
www.jstor.org
I. Helmet. Sasanian, iv centuryA .D. Heightg9 inches, width 7 4 inches. Weight 3 pounds 8 ounces. Thickness
of bronze 532 - inch. Rogers Fund, 62.82

The MetropolitanMuseum of Art BULLETIN VOLUME XXI, NUMBER 5, APRIL 1963

Published monthly from October to June and quarterly from July to September. Copyright ? 1963 by The Metropolitan Museum
of Art, Fifth Avenue and 82nd Street, New York 28, N. Y. Re-entered as second-class matter November I7, 1942, at the Post Office
at New York, N. Y., under the Act of August 24, 1912. Subscriptions $5.00 a year. Single copies fifty cents. Sent free to Museum
Members. Four weeks' notice required for change of address. Editor: Gray Williams, Jr.; Assistant Editors: Anne M. Preuss and
Katharine H. B. Stoddert; Designer: Peter Oldenburg.

254
 '?"iTV

delicately tooled silver against the rich color of

bronze. This could not have been the possession
of an ordinary warrior, even in a civilization
noted for fine metalwork; a piece of such quality
could only have belonged to a chieftain or king.
Like many of the archaeological objects that
have recently come out of Iran, this helmet is
said to have been found in the area of Amlash,
southwest of the Caspian Sea in the northwest
part of the country. In this region have been
found, among other ancient remains, several
tombs of the Sasanians, who brought about a re-
vival of Persian culture in the third to seventh
centuries A.D. This helmet is typically Sasanian
in shape, material, and structure; the pattern
stamped upon its segments, moreover, is almost
exactly like that on a Sasanian capital from Be-
histun in western Iran.
The Sasanians borrowed liberally from the 2. The Museum's Sasanian helmet before cleaning,
cultures of their predecessors.They viewed them- with apical disk incorrectlymounted
selves as the heirs of the Achaemenian empire of
Cyrus the Great, whose descendant Darius III
had been overthrown by Alexander in 331 B.C. the sort that has been worn in parts of Asia into
One of Alexander's generals, Seleucus, had then modern times. Indeed, it seems likely that even
founded a Hellenistic dynasty, and after about a after metal came into use it was too costly for
the ordinary soldier, who continued to wear only
century and a half this had in turn been gradu-
ally superseded and finally overthrown, at least padded or quilted fabric for protection. This has
in Persia and Mesopotamia, by the Parthians, been the custom wherever armor has been used.
former nomads from Central Asia. Thus when
Ardashir, founder of the Sasanian dynasty, con- 3. The Museum's Sasanian helmet seenfrom above,
quered Artabanos, last of the Parthian rulers, in showing overlappingbands at apex
A.D. 226, he inherited not only ancient Persian

traditions, but also traces of the Hellenistic cul-

ture of the Seleucids and the more barbarian
ways of the Parthians. These influences were
blended to form one of the most brilliant civili-
zations of the Near East. There was a flowering
of culture within the borders of the kingdom it-
self, as well as a spread of influence, through trade
and warfare, far to the east and west. The Sasa-
nian city of Ctesiphon, on the Tigris not far from
present-day Baghdad, was a meeting place for
caravans from India, Central Asia, and the Med-
iterranean.
In making armor, as in their other arts, the
Sasanians harked back to older styles. The high,
almost conical shape of our helmet is typical of
Persia and Mesopotamia, and can be traced
many centuries. The shape was probably derived
from that of a conical cap of leather or cloth, of
 I | The first metal helmets were of copper or
Pe;rsian, xvni centuryA.D.
Steel, damascenedwith gold; bronze. Most of the few Near Eastern helmets
steeel camail that have been excavated, as well as the great
"A ,: -
number shown in ancient sculpture, appear to
have been made in a single piece, usually in a
Germanic, VI century A.D.
conical or near-conical shape, and sometimes
Gilded copperframe; with additional pieces attached to the rim to pro-
iron segments, browband, tect more of the head (Figure 4). During the first
and cheekplates, over- millennium B.c. bronze was gradually supple-
'
mented and partially supplanted by iron, which
i'^
I./'... . ^
laid with sheets of silver
when carburized was harder than bronze. But
.. unlike bronze, sheets of which could be cast in
almost any size, iron had to be made in small
pieces, and it was difficult to weld these together
into a massfromwhich a helmet could be wrought.
The solution to this problem seems to have been
the use of iron in segments, fastened together
rather than forged in one piece. At first these seg-
ments were probably attached to some sort of
framework, very likely a leather cap of the kind
that provided the original inspiration for the hel-
''il met shape. Later the segments were fastened to-
gether without internal support, the fastenings
themselves providing enough stability to keep the
helmet in shape. No Near Eastern examples are
known of the earliest types of segmental construc-
tion, but in the Museum is a rare, late example
of such a helmet (Figure 9). It was made in
seventeenth century Tibet, and is constructed
of eight iron segments and a crest ornament,
laced together very simply with leather thongs.
Whether it is a survival of an old Near Eastern
Sasanian, iv centuryA.D.
form (which is not in the least unlikely), or sim-
Bronzeframe, segments ply a similar solution to a similar problem, is not
withsilver
of ironoverlaidwuith known. This rather primitive form can, however,
be considered a model of the lost prototype for
our Sasanian helmet.
The Sasanian helmet is also in essence a struc-
ture of segments, perforatedalong the edges, with
short lengths of wire, hammered through the
holes to form rivets, replacing the less durable
leather thongs. Very few Sasanian helmets have
Tibetan, xvII century A.D.
Iron segmentslaced been found-there are only four other known
together,lamellar iron examples (Figures 5-8)-but all are made in
neck defense the same way, with triangular iron segments riv-
eted to a cross-shapedframeworkof metal bands.
One of the helmets is made entirely of iron, and
two others have iron browbands, indicating that
Assyrian, vii centuryB.c.
the choice of bronze for the frame of our piece
Bronze, in onepiece
was dictated by taste and tradition rather than
4. Assyriansoldierwearinga conicalhelmetwith cheekplates and a corseletof lamellararmor.Alabasterrelief
from thepalace of Sennacherib(705-680 B.C.) at Nineveh in Iraq. Gift of John D. Rockefeller,Jr., 32.143.18

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257
COMPARABLE SASANIAN
=.! mJ
5. Helmet, found at the temple of Ishtar at Nineveh-
Kouyunjik.Sasanian. Iron segmentsand browband;
other bands of bronze; bronze rivets with globular
heads; traces of leather lining and of fabric overlay
on segments.Iraq Museum, Baghdad
9. Helmet. Tibetan, xvii century A.D. Eight over-
lapping ironplates and a balusterornamentat apex,
laced togetherwith leather thongs; neckguardof iron
lamellae laced together.Bequest of GeorgeC. Stone,
36.25.53A
HELMETS
6. Helmet. Sasanian. Iron segments,overlaidwith cop-
per; apex lacking; no browband; side bands of
bronze; bronzerivets with globular heads; traces of
fabric lining; two lumps of rusted mail adhering
near lower rim. Trustees of the British Museum
necessity. One of the iron browbands is covered
with a copper overlay, and the whole surface of
the all-iron helmet is sheathed with copper. These
overlays are too thin to serve any practical func-
tion, except perhaps protection of the surface
from weather; they were evidently applied for
embellishment, as were the silver sheets used in
our piece. Nor was metal the only material used
for decoration: the iron segments of one helmet
retain a few tatters of a fabric covering.
There are not many contemporary represen-
tations of Near Eastern armor in use. Most occur
in Roman art, for the Romans were usually at
war with the nations of the Near East, and also
adopted some of their equipment. Or rather their
mercenaries did: more and more as the Empire
waned, the Romans hired barbarians to fight
other barbarians, and these former nomads had
come into immediate contact with Near Eastern
culture as they emigrated westward from Cen-
tral Asia. Scythians and Parthians are shown
wearing conical helmets on the Column of Tra-
jan, erected in A.D. I I4 (Figure 12), and on the
Arch of Galerius in Salonika (A.D. 296) the Em-
7. Helmet.Sasanian.Iron segmentsand bands,over- 8. Helmet. Sasanian. Iron segments and browband,
laid with copper;bronzerivetswithglobularheads. overlaidwith copper;browbandcut in front toform
Trusteesof theBritish Museum eye slits; other bands of bronze; bronze rivets with
globular heads. Trustees of the British Museum

peror's bodyguard itself carries Persian standards io. Side view of the Museum'sSasanianhelmet.Iron
and is armed in the Persian fashion, with helmets segments,overlaidwith stampedsilver; bronze
of clearly segmental construction (Figure I I). bands;bronzerivets;tracesof leatherlining
The Romans called the Near Eastern warriors
meaning that they were totally cov-
cataphractarii,
ered with armor. They were, in fact, equipped
more like the knights of medieval Europe than
their contemporaries in the legions, and like the
later knights, the Sasanian elite usually fought
on horseback. Perhaps the best representation
of the Sasanian heavy cavalryman is the rock
sculpture of Taq-i-Bustan (Figure I5), variously
said to have been carved in the fifth century or
around the turn of the seventh, and supposedly
portraying one of the Sasanian kings. The king's
helmet does not contain visible segments and is
more hemispherical than conical, but the family
resemblance to our helmet is obvious. His face
and neck are entirely covered, except for the eyes,
with a defense of mail, suspended from the rim
of the helmet, and his body is protected by a long
mail shirt, or hauberk. Around the rim of our
helmet are several perforationsto which a similar
defense of mail, called a camail, must have been

II. The Emperor Galerius's bodyguardarmed in thi,
Persianfashion. Detail of the Arch of Galerius at
Salonika, erectedA .D. 296. Photograph: Deutsche
ArchdologischesInstitut, Athens
12. Scythianand Parthianhorsemenwearingconical
helmets.Detail of the Columnof Trajanat Rome,
erectedA.D. 114. Photograph: Alinari
attached. A few links of mail, furthermore, were
found with one of the other surviving Sasanian
helmets (Figure 6).
The king's horse is almost as heavily shielded
as he is. The forequartersare covered with small,
overlapping metal plates, called lamellae, which
were pierced along the edges and laced together
with thongs to form a semiflexible fabric. (Virtu-
ally the same technique was employed to pro-
duce the segmental helmet, but since the aim in
helmetmaking was rigidity and not flexibility,
the loose laces gave way to tight rivets.) Pieces of
lamellar armor, made mostly of iron with occa-
sional plates of bronze, were excavated by the
Museum from the Sasanian fortressof Kasr-i-abu
Nasr, near Shiraz in southern Iran. The iron is
badly corroded, but a few of the bronze segments
are illustrated, placed to show how they were
fastened together (Figure I3).
Lamellar armor and mail were apparently
Near Eastern inventions. The lamellar form was
derived from, and was an alternative to, scale
armor, which was also made up of small plates,
sewn to a backing of cloth or leather and not to
one another. Both forms were used in antiquity
(Figure 4), and survived for many centuries.
Mail is known to have existed at least as early as
the Parthian period: a large piece of Parthian
mail of the second century A.D. was discovered
in the ruins of Dura-Europus, a Roman garrison
town on the upper Euphrates staffed largely by
non-Roman mercenaries.
Mounted on the king's helmet at Taq-i-Bustan
is a royal crest, and in the center of the top of our
helmet there is a hole drilled for a similar orna-
ment (Figure 3). When the helmet first came to
the Museum, there was a small mercury-gilded
disk riveted on through this hole, but it did not
seem to be part of the original helmet. Another
detail of the Taq-i-Bustan relief suggests the real
function of the little disk: in the sculpture there
appears a very similar ornament, fastened to the
pommel of the saddle. It seems most likely that
helmet and disk were found together, and that
the one was afterward wired to the other by
someone who thought they belonged together.
Near Eastern fashions in armor had great in-
fluence in both Europe and Asia, an influence
that continued long after the Sasanian dynasty
had fallen to the Moslems. The spangenhelms of
the barbarians who swept into Europe in the
Great Migrations demonstrate the direct inspira-
tion of Near Eastern models. They are so called
becausethey are composed of Spangen,small plates I
like the bands and segments of Sasanian helmets.
They are constructed in a slightly different fash- .^ .a.
ion from their Sasanian prototypes; the Spangen
do not meet at the apex, but are attached to a
separate disk at the top, like the spokes of a wheel
(Figure 17). The earliest surviving examples were
found in Egypt, where they were worn by bar-
barian chiefs serving in the Roman army of the
fifth century. Others have been found scattered
across Europe: hard to date exactly, they are
roughly of the early Dark Ages, but are more or-
nate and presumably later than those found in
Egypt. The segments of one, from Mezoband in
Transylvania, were apparently laced together
with thongs; those of another, found at Kerch
in the Crimea, are fastened by wire. Such rela-
tively primitive construction suggests that they
are of an earlier type than the known Sasanian
examples, and, like the latter, derived from some
lost model that was laced rather than riveted.
Most spangenhelms, however, do have rivets.
One of the finest is in the Museum (Figure I6):
it was found near Trevoux in eastern France and
must have belonged to a Frankish or Burgundian

I5. A king wearing, Sasanian armor. Detail of the rock

t c ^ sculptureat Taiq-i-Bustan. The drawing below in-
!$ ^~~~~~terprets the arnnor worn by the man and the horse

13, 14. Gilded bronze lamellae of cuirasses. LEFT:

Sasanian (Kasr-i-abu Nasr), v-viii century
A.D. Height of each lamella 2 2 inches. Ex-
cavations of The Metropolitan Museum of \
Art, 36.30.295. RI GH T: Japanese (Kiyokawa,
Kadzusa), not later than the vs century A.D. S----- ? '
Height of longest lamella 2 2 inches. Received r
in exchangewith the Imperial Museum, Tokyo, \ \ ,
o6.3Io.5 7 ir
261
chief. It has six segments, and its bands are cov-
ered with copper, like some of the surviving Sa-
sanian examples. Such decorative overlay, either
silver or gilded copper, appears on several other
spangenhelms as well. These helmets were in turn
the ancestors of most of those developed in the
Middle Ages.
The barbarians of Europe also adopted scale
armor, lamellar armor, and mail from their Near
Eastern neighbors. In the West, mail generally
found more favor than the others and became
the standard form of body defense by the end of
the Dark Ages. A vestige of its Near Eastern
origin is retained in the old German names serk
or sarwatfor the mail shirt; the words seem to
have been derived from the Persian zirrh,mean-
ing "mail." In the Near East itself, all three
forms of armor continued to be used, and the
basic conical helmet shape was maintained even
after one-piece iron or steel construction became
common. As so often happens in art, the memory
of function was preserved in decoration; the typi-
cal Indo-Persian helmet, the kula khud,is often
ornamented with panels following the old pat-
tern of separate segments.
Near Eastern designs in armor were also car-
ried to the Far East, partly through trade, even
more through invasion by the same nomadic
i6. Spangenhelm.Frankish or Burgundian, vi century
A.D. Height 7 2 inches. Iron; browband, con-
vergingbands,and apical disk coveredwith thin
copperplates, mercurygilded. Dick Fund, 42.50.1
l I
as
17. Diagramsof a Sasanianhelmetandspangenhelm
in construction
seenfrom above,showingdifferences
tribes that remade the face of Europe. Mail is
known to have been imported into China from
Persia during the T'ang dynasty (A.D. 618-906),
although there is no sign that it was ever made
there. It was in fact lamellar and scale armor
that were favored in the Far East, just as mail
was in Europe. A lamellar neck defense hangs
from the rim of the Tibetan helmet described
earlier, and is accompanied by a long coat of the
same small plates; the shape is obviously of
Near Eastern influence, and the curiously archaic
construction of the helmet suggests that the in-
fluence may have been a very early one. Lamellar
and scale armor are thought to have been intro-
duced to China during the first millennium B.c.
by the Huns, who came originally from Central
Asia. It was for protection against these barbar-
ians that the Chinese built their Great Wall in
the third century B.c., but they also borrowed
many elements of arms and armor from the in-
vaders. Both forms of armor survived in the Far
East almost into modern times: scale armor was
standard in China, and lamellar armor in Japan.
The Museum owns some Japanese lamellae (Fig-
ure I 4)-strikingly similar to the Sasanian ones
-that must have been made at least as early as
the sixth century A.D., and lamellar suits were
widely worn in Japan as late as the nineteenth.
Thus the significance of Sasanian armor, of
which the Museum's new helmet is so rare and
handsome an example, is twofold. First, of course,
it represents and illumines the splendid culture
in which it was made. But equally, if not more
important, is the fact that it was made at a cul-
tural crossroad, both of time and of space. It is a
link between the continuum of ancient Near East-
ern civilization, going back several millennia,
and the later civilizations, of both the East and
West, that supplanted the ancient world.