A Rare Celtic Helmet That May Be Up To 2,400-Years-Old Was Discovered In Poland, The First Of Its Kind To Be Found In The Country
At an archaeological site in Poland, a rare Celtic helmet that could be up to around 2,400-years-old was unearthed. The helmet was found in the Łysa Góra site located in the Mazovia region of Poland.
A team from the State Archaeological Museum in Warsaw and the Department of Archaeology at the University of Warsaw uncovered the helmet among nearly 300 other artifacts during excavations.
According to excavation leader Bartłomiej Kaczyński with the State Archaeological Museum, the helmet was the first of its kind to be discovered in Poland.
“At first, we thought it might be some kind of ancient vessel because bronze vessels are much more common on Polish soil than helmets. It was only during the discovery of one of the characteristic elements, the so-called neck piece—i.e., an arched plate near the edge—that Dr. Andrzej Maciałowicz of the UW Department of Archaeology pointed out that it could be a helmet,” said Kacyński.
It is thought that the helmet has ties to the Late Iron Age La Tène culture of the European Celts, which was widespread across much of the continent. The culture originated sometime around the middle of the 5th century B.C.
At that time, Celtic peoples came into contact with Greek and Etruscan influences from the south of the Alps.
The culture remained in existence for centuries and went through multiple phases before it vanished right at the turn of the first millennium B.C. when Rome gained control of most Celtic lands.
The culture’s name comes from the site of La Tène on Lake Neuchâtel, Switzerland, where the first associated artifacts were dug up in the late 19th century.
The recently discovered helmet from Łysa Góra likely dates back to the early La Tène period, which spanned from the 4th to the 3rd centuries B.C. It is rare to find helmets from this period.
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Previously, archaeological digs conducted between the 1970s and 1980s at Łysa Góra yielded La Tène items, but they were mostly small fragments of objects that may have ended up at the site through trade.
“However, the helmet is an example of the most advanced Celtic metallurgy, and it seems that it may have been in the possession of a Celt. It was probably not given to this population, which existed at that time on the outskirts of any ancient world. The discovery, therefore, changes the previous perception of the scale of contacts with the Celtic world in the earlier pre-Roman period,” Kaczyński said.
Hundreds of other items related to logging, farming, and animal husbandry were also uncovered at the site.
For example, the team excavated iron axe blades with rectangular sections, scythes for cutting grain or grass, and shear blades that were likely designed to trim sheep’s wool.
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