The history of the evolution of helmets of ancient Armenia dates back to the aborigines of the Armenian Highland from the middle of the II millennium BC. er The finds of the earliest helmets and images on art objects date to this time [1] .
Content
Classification
To this day, information about the forms of ancient helmets has not been preserved. Metal helmets, judging by their images on objects of art, appeared in ancient Armenia only in the second half of the 2nd millennium BC, and even then only from representatives of the tribal nobility. Headdresses, to some extent protecting the heads of ordinary soldiers (before the appearance of metal helmets among the nobility), were leather, felt, wooden or fur hats, which, apparently, were reinforced with metal plates or metal plates.
In their form, the ancient Armenian metal helmets are divided into three main groups, each of which has its own types and variants [1] :
- helmets with ridges
- helmets in the form of pointed cones,
- helmets with spiked and horn-shaped protrusions.
Wheelchair Helmets
The most ancient of them known to us and found on the Armenian Highlands are the chariot helmets standing in the bodies of bronze chariots from the rich mounds of Lchashen, dating from the XIV-XIII centuries BC [2] . Among the helmets of this type can be divided into three options. Helmets of both variants have the shape of a semicircular helmet with a comb. On the helmets of the first variant, the comb is located right in the center of the helmet and covers it from two sides in the form of a high semi-moon. Helmets of the second variant have the same helmet shape, but differ in the shape of the ridges. So, on one of them the crest is flat, high and protrudes above the helmet at an angle. The long side of this ridge is narrower and longer, as a result of which it hangs slightly above the helmet. The crest of the other helmet is narrower, slightly rounded at the front. It occupies, as it were, an intermediate position between the crest of the first and second variants [1] .
The helmets of the Lchashenian wheelwalkers have some similarities with the Hittite helmet from Bogazkoia, although they differ from it. The Hittite helmet has an elongated helmet, as a result of which its narrower ridge covers the head of the helmet from two sides, and it is also equipped with plumage. A closer analogy to the second Lchashen helmet is the helmet from Karhemysh (VIII century BC) [3] , but it is distinguished by a somewhat higher crest and plumage. This suggests the earlier existence of Karhemysh type helmets, although they were not found on the territory of Armenia and Western Asia. The suggestion that the Early Urartian helmets in the shape of the ridge are closer to the Lchashen and Karhemysh types than the Bogaz characters, seems even more likely [1] .
In order to establish where the chariots of the Lchashen charioteers come from, it is necessary to determine the origin of the chariots themselves. As is known, three bronze models of chariots of war were found in the Lchashen barrows.
The first model of the Lchashenka chariot, found in barrow No. 1, stands on a separately cast small rectangular platform (9.4x6 cm) with carved sides in the lower part has a massive pin for fixing the cart in the drawbar. The chariot has a small body, closed on three sides by high slitting sides and open at the rear. In the back there are two warriors with daggers and high comb helmets. They hold each other with one hand and helmets with the other. In the center of the back of the body is a ledge that helps the chariot to jump on the chariot on the move or jump out of it. The wheels are massive, with eight spokes, the drawbar is strongly curved. The chariot is drawn by two horses under the yoke. On a dyshl four figures of birds are located.
The second model of the Lchashenka chariot basically repeats the shape of the first, differing from it in size and some details. It stands on the same slotted platform as the first model, but unlike the first, this area does not have a pin, but an anchor support.
See also
- Shields of Ancient Armenia
- Helmets of Ancient Greece
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 Esayan S.A. Armor of Ancient Armenia / Ed. ed. Areshidze TM, art. Afrikyan FG, art. ed. Tovmasyan N.A., those. ed. Alvrtsyan A.S., counter. ed. Abrahamyan A.A. - Department of Archeology and Ethnography of EHU. - Yerevan: Yerevan University Press, 1986. - P. 18-34. - 88 s. - 1000 copies
- ↑ Yesayan S.A. Weapons and Military Affairs of Ancient Armenia, 1966, p. 97, tab. XVI, Fig. 7-10
- ↑ Bonnet H. Die Waffen der Volker des Alten Orients. Leipzig, 1926, fig. 102