Ilirske kacige s područja Bosne i Hercegovine
Illyrian helmets from Bosnia and Herzegovina

Summary/Abstract: A remarkable number of Illyrian type helmets have been recorded in present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina. These bronze helmets, used as part of a warrior’s defence weapons or as emblems of status, of symbolic, parade nature, were made in the early Iron Age, and were of various types and variants. Their cultural features and historical trajectory are traced by means of 24 specimens and accompanying fragments, originating from no fewer than 20 sites scattered throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina. This is what prompted the research, the result of which is a detailed catalogue of all the helmets and fragments thereof, particularly those that have already been referred to in the literature but remain essentially unknown. The study was designed to identify the quantity, typological and chronological diversity, geographical distribution and cultural and historical features that have added, both essentially and specifically, to the exhaustive, well-known synthetic studies to date of Illyrian type helmets in general. In the light of the available archaeological data, therefore, we have classified them as type II and III, with their respective variants (II A, III A1-a, III A1-b (?), III A2-a, III A2-b), and traced them chronologically from the 7th to the 4th century BC, in various cultural settings. The analysis and presentation of the archaeological context of close associations and the material culture of the entire area and surrounding regions are accompanied by new observations on military equipment, with a view to advancing knowledge of cultural and historical circumstances in the early Iron Age in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

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