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Burials There are however a small number of helmets which have emerged from soldiers' burials. This in itself is significant in that citizen troops would typically have been cremated and interred with few if any grave goods, suggesting these graves belong to non-citizen troops. A prime example is a warrior's grave excavated at the ancient cemetery site of Verdun in Slovenia (Feugere 1993, 205-7). Several items of the deceased soldier's military kit were discovered, including an early iron Imperial-Gallic helmet*, a "Mainz type"gladius which had been bent double and a conical shield boss. The latter item has been associated with Germanic auxiliaries on other sites (ibid, 78 & 87) and with the other fittings found seems entirely appropriate for the style of auxiliary shield seen recurrently with auxiliary troops depicted on first and early second century monuments. Bent swords are also highly characteristic of European Iron Age weapon burials. All these points taken together strongly suggest that this soldier was an auxiliary. A very similar assemblage has been uncovered at the cemetery site of Idria pri Baci, also in Slovenia (ibid, 207 and Robinson 1975, 53-5). Again, this included an iron Imperial-Gallic helmet, a Mainz type gladius with scabbard and a circular shield boss. The well-known Augustan iron helmet from Nijmegen in Holland, dubbed the "Imperial-Gallic A" by Robinson (1975, 50-1), was also found in a grave+. An Augustan period Imperial-Gallic helmet in copper-alloy has been found out of context in Kakheti in Eastern Georgia (Braund), though in circumstances which lead the excavators to the hypothesis that it was from a burial. Such evidence would seem to suggest that in the Augustan period at least, Imperial-Gallic helmets might have seen regular use by the auxilia. Furthermore, finds of an Augustan brass Imperial-Gallic helmet bowl and isolated cheek pieces from the Bosporus have been linked with sustained activity by auxiliary units in this area (Treister). *Along with an example from Valkenburg (NL) dated to the Claudian period, this helmet was classified by Robinson as the "Imperial-Gallic type E" (1975, 53-5). However, there are certain features on the Idria helmet that suggest an earlier date of manufacture, including the apparent lack of shaping around the ears and the high stepping in the occipital area. A closer parallel can now be provided by an example from Eich (D) (Oldenstein 1990), which was unknown to Robinson. +The helmet was found with a round shield boss belonging to a convex shieldboard (xxx). If we are correct in the identification of this soldier as an auxiliary, then he was using a pattern of shield traditionally associated by archaeologists as legionary.
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A burial assemblage from Slovenia, including Imperial-Gallic helmet (above) and a closer view of the helmet (below) |
