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Ownership or unit inscriptions on surviving Imperial Gallic helmets are extremely rare indeed; only three examples can be cited from our research compiled so far. Curiously these all seem to fit in one group, despite having different find spots, these being from Mainz (D), Rijswik (NL) and from an unknown location in the Balkans (Junkelmann 2000, 126-7). All accord to Robinson's Imperial-Gallic type I dating approximately to the third quarter of the first century A.D (1975, 58-60), being of brass and exhibiting tubes for side feathers. Only the Mainz example records a unit title alongside its owner's name, and belonged to a legionary of the first Adiutrix legion .The helmet from the Balkans is also likely to have belonged to a legionary (Junkelmann 2000, 180-4) In addition, the cresting style of all three, plus a further uninscribed example from Budapest, might also be compared with the gravestone of a fully armoured soldier of the II Adiutrix legion (3), also from Budapest (Robinson 1975, 167 pl 470.) Whilst interesting, these few inscriptions only account for one form of Imperial Gallic helmet. Closer scrutiny of the exact archaeological context of original finds might potentially be more informative. For example, if a certain type of helmet is evident from an auxiliary fort, we should be able to draw some conclusions from this fact. However, in practice this method is not nearly so simple, as in many cases it is not possible to determine the exact garrison unit in specific periods, whilst the occurrence of mixed garrisons is also possible (4). Added to this is the fact that a many examples do not come from exact contexts, a large proportion being found in rivers and an increasing number emerging from private collections without recorded provenances.

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.