The Red Kaganate

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Previous Helmet The Helmet Database Next Helmet Helmet from Kovali By Dmitriy V. Ryaboy click images to enlarge from Pyatysheva N. V. Zheleznaya Maska iz Hersonesa. Moscow, 1964 Location Kovali, Ros river valley, near Kiev, Ukraine Culture Kara Kalpak - Chernye Klobuki - Black Hats Dating 1150-1250 Construction notes This is another one of the Nomadic face-helmets. The mask has been lost since its discovery. The following excerpt is the description Bobrinskiy published in 1901: Mask description. Length from top to chin 0.23 m; width across theforehead: 0.2 m; at the sides two small bronze ears are welded, the left one has a bronze ring htrough it; the ring from the right one is lost and has been replaced by a strap; a bronze ring hangs off the chin. In my opinion, these 3 rings served to attach an aventail to the mask. The nose is very large, with a hook, but without nostril openings. Eyes .04 long and .18 wide. The mouth is shut tight, the opening is very small; could have decreased due to oxidation. The mask is cast [Pyatysheva inserts a big question mark here], but not forged. In the middle of the forehead, on top, there is a device for attaching the mask to the helmet. Helmet Description. Height of the helmet from the top of the spike to the bottom: 0.36 m; the spike alone is 0.11 m. Inside diameter: 0.20. Circumference around the bottom of the helm is 0.665; the aventail beint into the helmet ad fused to the inside of the helmet. The front of the helmet has a cut-out for the mask 0.10 m long, 0.035 wide. The helmet has 4 simmetrically placed deep indentations which go from the base of the helmet almost to its middle.� (Bobrinskiy 1901, quoted in Pyatysheva 1964).   Pyatysheva notes that the ears on the Lipovetz, Kovali, and Kherson masks are identical, and that only these ears are cast. She also points out that in both Lipovetz and Kovali the helmet cut-out is narrower than the mask, which went over it. When found, the mask was lowered onto the face of the deceased, not lifted up like the Lipovetz one. Archaeological details Found by E.A. Znosko-Bobrinskiy in 1897 according to Pyatysheva, Mound #54 in the publication. Orientation: West. Type a. Coffin present. Two horse carcasses. Stored Kiev Historical Museum, # 4556/3 Notes Find erroneously dated 1887 in Pletneva. The mask was lost in WWII. Source Pyatysheva 1964, Pletneva 1973, Bobrinskiy 1901, Kirpichnikov 1958 Also Found Sabre, maille shirt, horse bit, earrings, coins-grivnas, knife Bibliography. Bobrinskiy A.A. �Kurgany I sluchainye arheologicheskie nahodki bliz mestechka Smely� v. III Saint Petersburg 1901 Pletneva, S.A. Drevnosti Chernyh Klbukov. Archeologia SSSR E1-19. Nauka, Moscow 1973. Pyatysheva N. V. Zheleznaya Maska iz Hersonesa. Moscow, 1964 Kirpichnikov A. N. �Russkie shlemy X-XIII vv� Sovetskaya Arheologiya 1958 #4 Previous Helmet The Helmet Database Next Helmet Copyright Permission Notice: Dmitriy V. Ryaboy hereby gives express permission for reproduction of this article for non-commercial purposes provided that the article is unaltered and includes the author attribution. The Red Kaganate requests that a hyperlink be provided to this web site - http://www.geocities.com/kaganate.