1977 - Greek Helmet

Italo-Corinthian Helmet with Boars
300-200 BC
Purchased from Sotheby, Parke-Bernet & Co, London, with funds from the Alumni Association of The University of Queensland.

In 1977, the Alumni Association of The University of Queensland made a considerable donation towards the purchase of this South Italian Greek helmet.

It is the Antiquities Museum’s only bronze helmet, and one of very few pieces of ancient arms and armour in the Museum collection. The helmet was part of a Greek hoplite panoply (suit of armour), derived from the original Corinthian type helmet and used by Greek colonists in the south of Italy during the Late Classical and Hellenistic periods. The decoration is simple in its design: on each cheek is inscribed a wild boar, charging towards the centre of the helmet. A horse-hair plume would have been attached to the two-pronged holder on the top of the helmet.