Details

LOT 0262

Scythian Chalcidian Helmet with Embossed Stags

3RD-1ST CENTURY B.C.

9 1/8 in. (696 grams, 31cm high).

Chalcidian or Illyrian variant (Caucasian type), constructed from two halves with the right side overlapping the left, embossed ram horns on the brow, with a profile image of a stag to both sides; hinged cheek-pieces with regularly disposed holes to the outer edges; some restoration.

Provenance

Acquired on the European art market, mid-1980s.
Private collection, Oxford, UK.
From the collection of a London doctor.

Accompanied by an academic report by Dr Raffaele D’Amato.
This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate number no.12339-228100.
This lot has been cleared against the Art Loss Register database, and is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D’Amato.

Literature

Cf. Rabinovich, B. Z., Trudy Otdela istorii pervobytnoi kul’tury Gosudarstvennogo Ermitazha (Works of the Department of history of prehistoric culture of the State Hermitage) I, Leningrad, 1941, pp. 99-171; Erlikh, V. R., Rossiiskaia Arkheologiia (Russian Archaeology) (3), 1996, pp.176-179 (in Russian); Chernenko, E.V., The Scythians 700-300 BC, Hong Kong, 1998; Shevchenko, N.F., Zaitsev, Yu. P., Mordvintseva V. I. in Vestnik drevnei istorii (Bulletin of Ancient History) (1), 2011, pp.115-152 (in Russian); Симоненко А. В., 'Шлемы сарматского времени из Восточной Европы (Sarmatian Age Helmets from Eastern Europe)', in Stratum Plus, no. 4, 2014, pp.249-284; Negin, A.E., Negin, A. E., 'Pozdnerimskie shlemy s prodol'nym grebnem', in Germania-Sarmatia II, Kaliningrad-Kursk, 2010, pp.343–58; Hixenbaugh, R., Ancient Greek Helmets, a complete guide and catalogue, New York, 2019, nos.H303-H304.

Footnotes

The cultural interchange and the military contacts between the Nomads of Kuban and the Hellenic peoples allowed the Sindo-Meothic, Scythian, or Sarmatian noblemen to equip themselves with such beautiful defensive equipment. The helmet finds its closest parallel in a specimen published by A.E. Negin, belonging to the Puskin Fine Arts Museum of Moscow, originally in the collection of S. Karakowskij (Negin, 2010, p.354 no.6; Hixenbaugh H304). Some of the helmets of this type were modified according to the nomadic (Scythian or Sarmatian) taste, being decorated with religious elements, like the deer.