The Benty Grange helmet is an
archaeological

Archaeology

Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...

 artefact excavated by Thomas Bateman

Thomas Bateman

Thomas Bateman was an English antiquary and barrow-digger.-Biography:Thomas Bateman was born in Rowsley, Derbyshire, England, the son of the amateur archaeologist William Bateman...

 in 1848 from an Anglo-Saxon

Anglo-Saxons

Anglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...

 tumulus

Tumulus

A tumulus is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds, Hügelgrab or kurgans, and can be found throughout much of the world. A tumulus composed largely or entirely of stones is usually referred to as a cairn...

 (or barrow) at the Benty Grange Farm in the civil parish

Civil parish

In England, a civil parish is a territorial designation and, where they are found, the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties...

 of Monyash

Monyash

Monyash is a village in the Derbyshire Peak District about five miles west of Bakewell.Monyash lies at an elevation of 300m above sea level, and has a population of about 280 people. The village is located in a shallow hollow in the limestone plateau at the head of Lathkill Dale, which starts just...

 in the English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 county of Derbyshire

Derbyshire

Derbyshire is a county in the East Midlands of England. A substantial portion of the Peak District National Park lies within Derbyshire. The northern part of Derbyshire overlaps with the Pennines, a famous chain of hills and mountains. The county contains within its boundary of approx...

.

The remains and a reconstruction are in Sheffield's Weston Park Museum.

This helmet is of the Spangenhelm

Spangenhelm

The Spangenhelm was a popular European war combat helmet design of the Early Middle Ages. The name is of German origin. Spangen refers to the metal strips that form the framework for the helmet and could be translated as clips, and -helm simply means helmet. The strips connect three to six steel or...

 type and like the Pioneer helmet

Pioneer helmet

The Pioneer Helmet is a 7th century Anglo-Saxon boar-crested helm found by archaeologists from Northamptonshire Archaeology at a quarry site operated by Pioneer Aggregates...

 is boar-crested. The surviving iron bands would have supported plates of horn (decayed in antiquity) held in place with small silver rivets and the nasal of the helmet is decorated with a silver cross.

Boar Crest

This helm is crested with an iron boar with bronze eyes inset with garnet, this sits upon an elliptical copper-alloy plate. The hips of the boar are made with pear shaped plates of gilded silver. The 1986 reconstruction, based on conservation work carried out at the British Museum

British Museum

The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...

 has boar bristles running along the back.

In Norse mythology

Norse mythology

Norse mythology, a subset of Germanic mythology, is the overall term for the myths, legends and beliefs about supernatural beings of Norse pagans. It flourished prior to the Christianization of Scandinavia, during the Early Middle Ages, and passed into Nordic folklore, with some aspects surviving...

, the boar talisman was associated with Freyja's role as battle goddess, helmets with boar-crests are described in the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf

Beowulf

Beowulf , but modern scholars agree in naming it after the hero whose life is its subject." of an Old English heroic epic poem consisting of 3182 alliterative long lines, set in Scandinavia, commonly cited as one of the most important works of Anglo-Saxon literature.It survives in a single...

.

External links

• http://www.idigsheffield.org.uk/object.asp?ref=J93_1189 The 'Museums Sheffield' page for this object