A Sasanian Chieftain's Helmet

Transcription

1 A Sasanian Chieftain's Helmet by STEPHEN V. GRANCSAY Curator of Arms and Armor Some months ago the Museum's armorer received a fine piece of ancient metalwork for clean- ing and restoration. It was a helmet (Figure 2) evidently excavated from the earth, whose complex construction and surface ornamentation were partially obscured by mineral deposits and the by-products of corrosion. Attempting to clean metal that has long been buried, as this was, involves great difficulties and some risk, for prolonged contact with moisture and earth chemicals is often disastrous. Fortunately, however, the visible surfaces of the piece had mainly survived the ravages of time, and the technician was able to recover much of its former glory. First, caustic potash was applied to remove the unsightly crust of limestone and verdigris that had formed on the exterior. This treatment was especially effective on the bronze bands that compose the framework of the piece. There are four of these bands: one of them an encircling browband, one forming a high parabolic ridge from front to back, and the other two extending from the browband to the top on either side. Viewed from above (Figure 3), the frame looks very much like a Maltese cross set within a circle. The original finish of the bronze had helped con- siderably in its preservation: it had been highly polished, apparently for decorative reasons, and this retarded pitting and spotting. When the limestone crust and underlying verdigris were scraped away, the smooth surface was uncovered almost intact. ON THE COVER: Detail of the gold plaque illustrated on page 275 Attached to the frame by bronze rivets are four triangular segments of iron. These had not by any means survived as well as the bronze frame. In the presence of saline ground water, electrolytic action had taken place between the juxtaposed bronze and iron, and the iron was almost entirely disintegrated, as was the leather lining once adhering to it. But just as the maker had polished the bronze frame to make it shine brighter, he had superimposed bright sheets of thin silver upon the dull iron segments. These sheets were hardly damaged at all. Caustic potash removed most of the encrusted lime on their surfaces, bringing out the pattern stamped upon them (shown enlarged at right), and treatment with ammonia and careful burnishing restored their original luster. The helmet was thus revealed very much as it must have appeared nearly two millennia ago (Figure i). Its simple, graceful silhouette is emphasized by the contrast of light, Contents APRIL I963 THE ART OF ANCIENT A Sasanian Chieftain's Helmet By Stephen V. Grancsay Beside the Kara Su By Vaughn E. Crawford Treasure from the Mannean Land By Charles K. Wilkinson IRAN The Metropolitan Museum of Art is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve, and extend access to The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin

2 I. Helmet. Sasanian, iv century A.D. Heightg 9 inches, width 7 4 inches. Weight 3 pounds 8 ounces. Thickness of bronze inch. Rogers Fund, The Metropolitan Museum of Art BULLETIN VOLUME XXI, NUMBER 5, APRIL 1963 Published monthly from October to June and quarterly from July to September. Copyright? 1963 by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Fifth Avenue and 82nd Street, New York 28, N. Y. Re-entered as second-class matter November I7, 1942, at the Post Office at New York, N. Y., under the Act of August 24, Subscriptions $5.00 a year. Single copies fifty cents. Sent free to Museum Members. Four weeks' notice required for change of address. Editor: Gray Williams, Jr.; Assistant Editors: Anne M. Preuss and Katharine H. B. Stoddert; Designer: Peter Oldenburg. 254

3 '?"itv delicately tooled silver against the rich color of bronze. This could not have been the possession of an ordinary warrior, even in a civilization noted for fine metalwork; a piece of such quality could only have belonged to a chieftain or king. Like many of the archaeological objects that have recently come out of Iran, this helmet is said to have been found in the area of Amlash, southwest of the Caspian Sea in the northwest part of the country. In this region have been found, among other ancient remains, several tombs of the Sasanians, who brought about a revival of Persian culture in the third to seventh centuries A.D. This helmet is typically Sasanian in shape, material, and structure; the pattern stamped upon its segments, moreover, is almost exactly like that on a Sasanian capital from Behistun in western Iran. The Sasanians borrowed liberally from the cultures of their predecessors. They viewed themselves as the heirs of the Achaemenian empire of Cyrus the Great, whose descendant Darius III had been overthrown by Alexander in 331 B.C. One of Alexander's generals, Seleucus, had then founded a Hellenistic dynasty, and after about a century and a half this had in turn been gradually superseded and finally overthrown, at least in Persia and Mesopotamia, by the Parthians, former nomads from Central Asia. Thus when Ardashir, founder of the Sasanian dynasty, conquered Artabanos, last of the Parthian rulers, in A.D. 226, he inherited not only ancient Persian traditions, but also traces of the Hellenistic culture of the Seleucids and the more barbarian ways of the Parthians. These influences were blended to form one of the most brilliant civilizations of the Near East. There was a flowering of culture within the borders of the kingdom itself, as well as a spread of influence, through trade and warfare, far to the east and west. The Sasanian city of Ctesiphon, on the Tigris not far from present-day Baghdad, was a meeting place for caravans from India, Central Asia, and the Mediterranean. In making armor, as in their other arts, the Sasanians harked back to older styles. The high, almost conical shape of our helmet is typical of Persia and Mesopotamia, and can be traced many centuries. The shape was probably derived from that of a conical cap of leather or cloth, of 2. The Museum's Sasanian helmet before cleaning, with apical disk incorrectly mounted the sort that has been worn in parts of Asia into modern times. Indeed, it seems likely that even after metal came into use it was too costly for the ordinary soldier, who continued to wear only padded or quilted fabric for protection. This has been the custom wherever armor has been used. 3. The Museum's Sasanian helmet seen from above, showing overlapping bands at apex

4 I Pe; rsian, xvni century A.D. Ste el, damascened with gold; s tee el camail "A,: - I./ '.... ^ i'^ ''il Sasanian, iv century A.D. Bronze frame, segments of iron overlaid with wuith silver ' Germanic, VI century A.D. Gilded copperframe; iron segments, browband, and cheek plates, overlaid with sheets of silver.. Tibetan, xvii century A.D. Iron segments laced together, lamellar iron neck defense Assyrian, vii century B.c. Bronze, in one piece The first metal helmets were of copper or bronze. Most of the few Near Eastern helmets that have been excavated, as well as the great number shown in ancient sculpture, appear to have been made in a single piece, usually in a conical or near-conical shape, and sometimes with additional pieces attached to the rim to protect more of the head (Figure 4). During the first millennium B.c. bronze was gradually supplemented and partially supplanted by iron, which when carburized was harder than bronze. But unlike bronze, sheets of which could be cast in almost any size, iron had to be made in small pieces, and it was difficult to weld these together into a mass from which a helmet could be wrought. The solution to this problem seems to have been the use of iron in segments, fastened together rather than forged in one piece. At first these segments were probably attached to some sort of framework, very likely a leather cap of the kind that provided the original inspiration for the helmet shape. Later the segments were fastened together without internal support, the fastenings themselves providing enough stability to keep the helmet in shape. No Near Eastern examples are known of the earliest types of segmental construction, but in the Museum is a rare, late example of such a helmet (Figure 9). It was made in seventeenth century Tibet, and is constructed of eight iron segments and a crest ornament, laced together very simply with leather thongs. Whether it is a survival of an old Near Eastern form (which is not in the least unlikely), or simply a similar solution to a similar problem, is not known. This rather primitive form can, however, be considered a model of the lost prototype for our Sasanian helmet. The Sasanian helmet is also in essence a structure of segments, perforated along the edges, with short lengths of wire, hammered through the holes to form rivets, replacing the less durable leather thongs. Very few Sasanian helmets have been found-there are only four other known examples (Figures 5-8)-but all are made in the same way, with triangular iron segments riveted to a cross-shaped framework of metal bands. One of the helmets is made entirely of iron, and two others have iron browbands, indicating that the choice of bronze for the frame of our piece was dictated by taste and tradition rather than

5 4. Assyrian soldier wearing a conical helmet with cheek plates and a corselet of lamellar armor. Alabaster relief from the palace of Sennacherib ( B.C.) at Nineveh in Iraq. Gift of John D. Rockefeller, Jr., _ or ,- -'.: es -. a. ', "4k vvu? r1j?c~b; sijirlll~~~~~~~~li I. I: _J,C`~~~~~~~~., m ~. jdb. /..'a~?~- y 6?iW1fI \, I, ;;a 4 IS,. I. t t E f?.t t/f, I)?)q I'i. *. I?it~'?Ir -or f i0! * V0*000" s,- R.' 'sl I, r'? r,;s, ;. k-' -. i,.^ c IC 'I,1 :' '.'.?? /-,* - 0 &- f; * AA ^. - d oal. I" h 'rl I? / r-??? L?' '., 1.:?isF r L ii ' l- ' ' d 257

6 COMPARABLE SASANIAN HELMETS =.! mj 5. Helmet, found at the temple of Ishtar at Nineveh- Kouyunjik. Sasanian. Iron segments and browband; other bands of bronze; bronze rivets with globular heads; traces of leather lining and of fabric overlay on segments. Iraq Museum, Baghdad 6. Helmet. Sasanian. Iron segments, overlaid with copper; apex lacking; no browband; side bands of bronze; bronze rivets with globular heads; traces of fabric lining; two lumps of rusted mail adhering near lower rim. Trustees of the British Museum 9. Helmet. Tibetan, xvii century A.D. Eight over- lapping iron plates and a baluster ornament at apex, laced together with leather thongs; neckguard of iron lamellae laced together. Bequest of George C. Stone, A necessity. One of the iron browbands is covered with a copper overlay, and the whole surface of the all-iron helmet is sheathed with copper. These overlays are too thin to serve any practical function, except perhaps protection of the surface from weather; they were evidently applied for embellishment, as were the silver sheets used in our piece. Nor was metal the only material used for decoration: the iron segments of one helmet retain a few tatters of a fabric covering. There are not many contemporary representations of Near Eastern armor in use. Most occur in Roman art, for the Romans were usually at war with the nations of the Near East, and also adopted some of their equipment. Or rather their mercenaries did: more and more as the Empire waned, the Romans hired barbarians to fight other barbarians, and these former nomads had come into immediate contact with Near Eastern culture as they emigrated westward from Central Asia. Scythians and Parthians are shown wearing conical helmets on the Column of Trajan, erected in A.D. I I4 (Figure 12), and on the Arch of Galerius in Salonika (A.D. 296) the Em-

7 7. Helmet. Sasanian. Iron segments and bands, overlaid with copper; bronze rivets with globular heads. Trustees of the British Museum 8. Helmet. Sasanian. Iron segments and browband, overlaid with copper; browband cut in front to form eye slits; other bands of bronze; bronze rivets with globular heads. Trustees of the British Museum peror's bodyguard itself carries Persian standards and is armed in the Persian fashion, with helmets of clearly segmental construction (Figure I I). The Romans called the Near Eastern warriors cataphractarii, meaning that they were totally covered with armor. They were, in fact, equipped more like the knights of medieval Europe than their contemporaries in the legions, and like the later knights, the Sasanian elite usually fought on horseback. Perhaps the best representation of the Sasanian heavy cavalryman is the rock sculpture of Taq-i-Bustan (Figure I5), variously said to have been carved in the fifth century or around the turn of the seventh, and supposedly portraying one of the Sasanian kings. The king's helmet does not contain visible segments and is more hemispherical than conical, but the family resemblance to our helmet is obvious. His face and neck are entirely covered, except for the eyes, with a defense of mail, suspended from the rim of the helmet, and his body is protected by a long mail shirt, or hauberk. Around the rim of our helmet are several perforations to which a similar defense of mail, called a camail, must have been io. Side view of the Museum's Sasanian helmet. Iron segments, overlaid with stamped silver; bronze bands; bronze rivets; traces of leather lining

8 II. The Emperor Galerius's bodyguard armed in thi, Persian fashion. Detail of the Arch of Galerius at Salonika, erected A.D Photograph: Deutsche Archdologisches Institut, Athens 12. Scythian and Parthian horsemen wearing conical helmets. Detail of the Column of Trajan at Rome, erected A.D Photograph: Alinari attached. A few links of mail, furthermore, were found with one of the other surviving Sasanian helmets (Figure 6). The king's horse is almost as heavily shielded as he is. The forequarters are covered with small, overlapping metal plates, called lamellae, which were pierced along the edges and laced together with thongs to form a semiflexible fabric. (Virtually the same technique was employed to produce the segmental helmet, but since the aim in helmetmaking was rigidity and not flexibility, the loose laces gave way to tight rivets.) Pieces of lamellar armor, made mostly of iron with occasional plates of bronze, were excavated by the Museum from the Sasanian fortress of Kasr-i-abu Nasr, near Shiraz in southern Iran. The iron is badly corroded, but a few of the bronze segments are illustrated, placed to show how they were fastened together (Figure I3). Lamellar armor and mail were apparently Near Eastern inventions. The lamellar form was derived from, and was an alternative to, scale armor, which was also made up of small plates, sewn to a backing of cloth or leather and not to one another. Both forms were used in antiquity (Figure 4), and survived for many centuries. Mail is known to have existed at least as early as the Parthian period: a large piece of Parthian mail of the second century A.D. was discovered in the ruins of Dura-Europus, a Roman garrison town on the upper Euphrates staffed largely by non-roman mercenaries. Mounted on the king's helmet at Taq-i-Bustan is a royal crest, and in the center of the top of our helmet there is a hole drilled for a similar ornament (Figure 3). When the helmet first came to the Museum, there was a small mercury-gilded disk riveted on through this hole, but it did not seem to be part of the original helmet. Another detail of the Taq-i-Bustan relief suggests the real function of the little disk: in the sculpture there appears a very similar ornament, fastened to the pommel of the saddle. It seems most likely that helmet and disk were found together, and that the one was afterward wired to the other by someone who thought they belonged together. Near Eastern fashions in armor had great influence in both Europe and Asia, an influence that continued long after the Sasanian dynasty had fallen to the Moslems. The spangenhelms of

9 the barbarians who swept into Europe in the Great Migrations demonstrate the direct inspiration of Near Eastern models. They are so called because they are composed of Spangen, small plates like the bands and segments of Sasanian helmets. They are constructed in a slightly different fash-.^.a. ion from their Sasanian prototypes; the Spangen do not meet at the apex, but are attached to a separate disk at the top, like the spokes of a wheel (Figure 17). The earliest surviving examples were found in Egypt, where they were worn by barbarian chiefs serving in the Roman army of the fifth century. Others have been found scattered across Europe: hard to date exactly, they are roughly of the early Dark Ages, but are more ornate and presumably later than those found in Egypt. The segments of one, from Mezoband in Transylvania, were apparently laced together with thongs; those of another, found at Kerch in the Crimea, are fastened by wire. Such rela- tively primitive construction suggests that they are of an earlier type than the known Sasanian examples, and, like the latter, derived from some lost model that was laced rather than riveted. Most spangenhelms, however, do have rivets. One of the finest is in the Museum (Figure I6): it was found near Trevoux in eastern France and must have belonged to a Frankish or Burgundian I I5. A king wearing, Sasanian armor. Detail of the rock t c ^ sculpture at Ta iq-i-bustan. The drawing below in-!$ ^~~~~~terprets the arn nor worn by the man and the horse 13, 14. Gilded bronze lamellae of cuirasses. LEFT: Sasanian (Kasr-i-abu Nasr), v-viii century A.D. Height of each lamella 2 2 inches. Excavations of The Metropolitan Museum of \ Art, RI G H T: Japanese (Kiyokawa, Kadzusa), not later than the vs century A.D. Height of longest lamella 2 2 inches. Received in exchange with the Imperial Museum, Tokyo, \ o6.3io.5 S-----? ' r \, 7 ir 261

10 l I chief. It has six segments, and its bands are covered with copper, like some of the surviving Sasanian examples. Such decorative overlay, either silver or gilded copper, appears on several other spangenhelms as well. These helmets were in turn the ancestors of most of those developed in the Middle Ages. The barbarians of Europe also adopted scale armor, lamellar armor, and mail from their Near Eastern neighbors. In the West, mail generally found more favor than the others and became the standard form of body defense by the end of the Dark Ages. A vestige of its Near Eastern origin is retained in the old German names serk or sarwat for the mail shirt; the words seem to have been derived from the Persian zirrh, meaning "mail." In the Near East itself, all three forms of armor continued to be used, and the basic conical helmet shape was maintained even after one-piece iron or steel construction became common. As so often happens in art, the memory of function was preserved in decoration; the typical Indo-Persian helmet, the kula khud, is often ornamented with panels following the old pattern of separate segments. Near Eastern designs in armor were also carried to the Far East, partly through trade, even more through invasion by the same nomadic i6. Spangenhelm. Frankish or Burgundian, vi century A.D. Height 7 2 inches. Iron; browband, converging bands, and apical disk covered with thin copper plates, mercury gilded. Dick Fund, Diagrams of a Sasanian helmet and spangenhelm as seen from above, showing differences in construction tribes that remade the face of Europe. Mail is known to have been imported into China from Persia during the T'ang dynasty (A.D ), although there is no sign that it was ever made there. It was in fact lamellar and scale armor that were favored in the Far East, just as mail was in Europe. A lamellar neck defense hangs from the rim of the Tibetan helmet described earlier, and is accompanied by a long coat of the same small plates; the shape is obviously of Near Eastern influence, and the curiously archaic construction of the helmet suggests that the influence may have been a very early one. Lamellar and scale armor are thought to have been introduced to China during the first millennium B.c. by the Huns, who came originally from Central Asia. It was for protection against these barbarians that the Chinese built their Great Wall in the third century B.c., but they also borrowed many elements of arms and armor from the invaders. Both forms of armor survived in the Far East almost into modern times: scale armor was standard in China, and lamellar armor in Japan. The Museum owns some Japanese lamellae (Figure I 4)-strikingly similar to the Sasanian ones -that must have been made at least as early as the sixth century A.D., and lamellar suits were widely worn in Japan as late as the nineteenth. Thus the significance of Sasanian armor, of which the Museum's new helmet is so rare and handsome an example, is twofold. First, of course, it represents and illumines the splendid culture in which it was made. But equally, if not more important, is the fact that it was made at a cultural crossroad, both of time and of space. It is a link between the continuum of ancient Near Eastern civilization, going back several millennia, and the later civilizations, of both the East and West, that supplanted the ancient world.