A GOLD WASHED STEEL HELMET

This helmet has fewer features than the preceding one to help firmly place its origin. Its most prominent element is the applied broad band around the base which was substantialy gilded. Helmets of very similar form with gilded bands around the base can be seen in a Gospels in the miniatures with miniatures painted in Mosul in 1220 (Michael Gorelik, "Oriental Armour of the Near and Middle East from the eighth to the fifteenth centuries as shown in works of art, in Robert Elgood (ed.), Islamic Arms and Armour, London, 1979, pls.36 and 37, pp.32-3). A similar form with clearly raised lower band, albeit below an uper section that is also ridged, is to be seen on a stucco figure of a Central Asian warrior dating from the 8th-10th century (H. Russell Robinson, Oriental Arms and Armour, London, 1967, fig.14, p.27).