Imperial Gallic Helmet (Type H)

Imperial Gallic HWeisenau
Type	Helmet
Designation	Henry Russell Robinson: "Imperial Gallic Type H", Marcus Junkelmann: "Weisenau"
Place of Origin	Roman Empire
Produced	Mid 1st century AD - late 1st century AD
Manufacturer(s)	Romanized Gauls
Material(s)	iron, brass, copper
Evolved from	Imperial Gallic C, D, E, F
Evolved into	Imperial Gallic J, K
Service
Used by	Imperial Roman army
Wars	Roman conquest of Britain, Year of the Four Emperors, Jewish-Roman wars, Dacian Wars

The Imperial Gallic Helmet (Type H) is an iron helmet of Roman origin.

Overview

The Imperial Gallic Helmet H is a fourth generation Imperial Gallic helmet. The bowl of the helmet was made of iron while some of its features such as the earguards, stamped decorative bosses, edging of the cheekpieces, "reeded" browbands, crest support holders and chinstrap rings were made of brass. Most of these fittings are riveted on with copper rivets, though an iron brow reinforce may be secured with iron rivets at either end. The neckguard is one-piece construction with the bowl.

It descended from the C, D, E, F Imperial Gallic helmets and was an update of these variants. The most complete example of this type was found among the finds from the Roman military depot which was located at the confluence of the river Lech and the river Wertach. The helmet was produced by Gallic craftsmen and was used by the Roman Army as one of their main combat helmets alongside the G variant during the period from the middle of the 1st century AD to the early 2nd century AD. The helmet saw action in every major conflict in this period.

Designation

There are two main typologies of the helmets of the imperial Roman army.

The typology developed by Henry Russell Robinson in his book The Armour of Imperial Rome classifies the helmets depending on their maker thus defining the ones made in Gaul as "Gallic" and the ones made by copycats in Italy or elsewhere in the empire as "Italic".

The other typology is the one developed by Marcus Junkelmann which classifies the helmets by their place of finding. The most well-preserved Imperial Gallic G helmet was found in the Rhine River at Mainz-Weisenau and is now exhibited in Worms. As such Junkelmann classifies all of these helmet series simply as Weisenau instead of breaking them down into individual variants like Robinson.

Robinson's typology has been widely adopted in the UK and USA but never really found favor in Europe where Junkelmann's system is more established.

Robinson's typology classifies this helmet as Imperial Gallic H while according to Junkelmann's one it is classified simply as Weisenau.

Gallery

Another modern replica of Imperial Gallic H helmet

Front view

Backside view

Another modern replica of Imperial Gallic H helmet

Front view

Closeup of the cheekpiece

Top view

Backside view

In popular culture

• The Imperial Gallic H helmet is featured in the video game Rome: Total War.
• The Imperial Gallic H helmet is featured in the video game Total War: Arena. It is worn by Germanicus. However, the sporting of the Gallic H helmet by Germanicus can be considered to be an anachronism by few decades.