News - Possible Iron Age Helmet Identified in England - Archaeology Magazine

SNETTISHAM, ENGLAND -- Metal fragments previously thought to be part of a vessel are actually pieces of an Iron Age helmet, according to a BBC News report. Conservator Fleur Shearman of the British Museum was examining the fragments as part of a 15-year-long project to analyze 14 hoards of gold, silver, and bronze torcs unearthed near England's eastern coastline between 1948 and the 1990s. She realized that one of the fragments resembled a nose piece, and then she was able to identify possible brow pieces. "It's got a kind of nasal bridge which is really unusual and these little brow pieces and it's all hammered out from incredibly thin sheet bronze, and that's a tremendously skilled thing to be able to do," said research team member Jody Joy, now of Cambridge University. Joy thinks that the helmet may have been damaged when it was put in the ground, since so much of it is missing. To read about a new study of a helmet found in the 1950s in northeastern England, go to "An Enduring Design."