MushrOOm picker finds Helmets from late Bronze Age

The Eastern Slovakia Museum in Košice has presented two unique bronze helmets from the late Bronze Age. A mushroom picker found them last year near the village of Trhovište in Michalovce county. The finder brought the objects to the museum in January 2018.

"This precious finding consists of two Bronze helmets, partly stuck to each other. There were also two pairs of protective cheek pads and two spiral arm guards" said Róbert Pollák, director of the museum, as quoted by the SITA newswire.

Discoveries of helmets from the Bronze Age are rare not only in Slovakia but in the whole of Europe, according to Gašaj. The helmets from Trhovište are Western European style made from two shaped bronze plates. The decorated sides are connected with a central three-toothed comb that has a hole for attaching a decorative plume. Other holes at the sides and at the bottom edge are to attach the protective cheek pads. Only three similar pieces had been found, all of them in the Eastern Alpine area.

Similar helmets have been found in Lúčky, Spišská Belá and Žaškov but they were made only from one sheet of bronze. They originated between the 12th and 10th century BC.

Those helmets look almost exactly the same as the Lueg Pass helmet found in Austria and are most probably associated with the Halstatt Culture and Urnfield Culture.

Photo source: František Iván, TASR