Benty Grange Helmet

Coordinates: 53°03′19″N 1°53′56″W / 53.055299°N 1.898832°W

The Benty Grange Helmet on display in the Weston Park Museum

The Benty Grange helmet is an archaeological artefact excavated by Thomas Bateman in 1848 from an Anglo-Saxon tumulus (or barrow) at the Benty Grange Farm in the civil parish of Monyash in the English county of Derbyshire.

The remains and a reconstruction are in Sheffield's Weston Park Museum.

This helmet is of the Spangenhelm type and like the Pioneer helmet is boar-crested. The surviving iron bands would have supported plates of horn (decayed in antiquity) held in place with small silver rivets^[1] and the nasal of the helmet is decorated with a silver cross.

Crest

Detail of the Boar shaped crest.

This helm is crested with an iron boar with bronze eyes inset with garnet, this sits upon an elliptical copper-alloy plate. The hips of the boar are made with pear shaped plates of gilded silver.^[2] The 1986 reconstruction, based on conservation work carried out at the British Museum has boar bristles running along the back.^[3]

In Norse mythology, the boar talisman was associated with Freyja's role as battle goddess, helmets with boar-crests are described in the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf.

References

1. Bateman, T (1861). Ten Years' Digging in Celtic and Saxon Grave Hills, in the counties of Derby, Stafford, and York, from 1848 to 1858; with notices of some former discoveries, hitherto unpublished, and remarks on the crania and pottery from the mounds. London: John Russell Smith. Retrieved 14 November 2010.
2. Bruce-Mitford, R; Luscombe, M R (1974). Aspects of Anglo-Saxon archaeology. Sutton Hoo and other discoveries. London: Victor Gollancz Limited. pp. 223–252. ISBN 0-575-01704-X.
3. "Museums Sheffield". Retrieved 14 November 2010.

External links

• The 'Museums Sheffield' page for this object