The Hallaton Helmet

Author: Current Archaeology, (2009), “Hallaton Helmet’s Secrets Uncovered”, first published in The Imperial Courier, Volume 4, Issue 8, THE RMRS, pp. 2.

Experts at the British Museum are helping to unpick the secrets of a 2,000-year-old Roman helmet, found in Leicestershire. The helmet is part of the Southeast Leicestershire Treasure, an internationally-important Iron Age find that will be the subject of a major, permanent exhibition at Harborough Museum later this year.

Discovered in 2000, the Hallaton helmet is one of the most ornate Roman cavalry helmets ever found in Britain. The deposition date just before or during the Claudian conquest and its context - an Iron Age shrine in south-east Leicestershire - are continuing to excite archaeologists. It is believed the helmet, plus more than 5,000 silver and gold coins, was left on a religious site, the first of its kind to be found in Britain. The helmet and the coins were lifted out of the ground in a soil block, to protect it but is now at the British Museum, where experts from the University of Liverpool have carried out 3D scans to record every detail.

Made of silver gilt over an iron frame, the helmet has ornate cheek pieces that show a Roman soldier on horseback. The helmet is so fragile, however, that every detail is being recorded, before painstaking work takes place to remove the soil around it. According to Jeremy Hill, research manager at the British Museum:

“This incredible fragile and beautiful helmet is rewriting our history. This one object can sum up the Roman Conquest of Britain and shows us it was not the black and white story it has often been made out to be in the past. The fact its discovery was only possible because of the work of local amateur archaeologists makes this find even more important.”

Indeed the helmet was found by professional archaeologists from the University of Leicester Archaeological Services (ULAS) working with local community archaeologists and Leicestershire County Council. The excavation was funded by English Heritage.

Opinions varying as to how the helmet ended up in an Iron Age site at such an early date. It may have belonged to a local tribesman of the Corieltavi who had served in the Roman auxilia and who deposited it afterwards as a tribute. Or it could have been a trophy after the tribe clashed with the Romans. Or it could have been a diplomatic gift from the Romans to a local ruler. Regardless, the Southeast Leicestershire treasure is one of the most significant Iron Age finds in Britain and one of the best for the Corieltavi who occupied the entire East Midlands and whose capital, in the Roman period, was at Leicester. Significantly, the Corieltavi were the most northerly Iron Age tribe in Britain to use coins.