Ancient object
Mycenaean boar's-tusk helmet
Composite helmet of split boar's tusks on a leather cap
National Archaeological Museum, Athens
Object provenance
Record checked- Object
- Composite helmet of split boar's tusks on a leather cap
- Material
- Boar's tusk plates; the organic cap does not survive
- Made
- Evidence level: DocumentedLate Bronze Age
- Found
- Evidence level: DocumentedMycenaean context
- Excavated
- Not recorded in this catalogue
- Inventory
- NAMA 6568
- Identification
- Evidence level: DocumentedA helmet of the type described at Iliad 10.261–265
The correspondence between the excavated type and the Homeric description is close and is the single strongest piece of evidence that the epic tradition transmitted genuine Bronze Age material. The complication, stated on our Homer pages, is that Iliad 10 is widely regarded as among the latest material in that poem.
Condition — Reconstructed: the tusk plates survive and are mounted on a modern support, since the leather or felt cap they were sewn to has perished.
Restoration — The visible cap is modern. What is ancient is the arrangement of tusk plates.
Not recorded here
- The excavation date and excavator of this particular helmet, as distinct from the securely attested type
- Precise findspot
- Dimensions
Read across
How to read the evidence labels
- Evidence level: Documented
- Supported by a named primary text or by excavated material evidence.
- Evidence level: Probable
- Supported by strong inference that most specialists accept.
- Evidence level: Disputed
- Substantial specialist disagreement exists; competing readings are stated.
- Evidence level: Literary
- Belongs to poetic or mythological construction rather than to history.
- Evidence level: Mythological
- Belongs to shared religious or mythic tradition rather than to any single text.
- Evidence level: Unknown
- The available evidence is insufficient to decide.
These labels describe the status of the evidence, not our confidence in a conclusion. A claim marked Literary is not a claim we doubt; it is a claim about what kind of thing a poem is.