When are Horned Helmets REALLY From? (not the Vikings)
Vložit
- čas přidán 30. 01. 2022
- You know those horned helmets? Yes you do! The bronze ones! They were excavated in the 1940s and we knew they weren't Viking. Yes, those ones! The Veksø (or Vikso) ones. Well anyway, the fact Vikings didn't wear them isn't news, it's clickbait to trick you. You know, media stuff. Anyway, we knew that ages ago. But there is cool archaeology stuff about them that is news! Yay!
Join me in having a little dig into why these bronze horned helmets are in the news and what important work has really been done on them!
The article: www.degruyter.com/document/do...
Not news: www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-...
Find me elsewhere:
Patreon: / jimmyjohnson
Ko-fi: ko-fi.com/thewelshviking
New mugs and merch: the-welsh-viking.creator-spri...
Actual website: www.welshviking.com
Insta: @littlewelshviking
Twitter: @realwelshviking
Letters, parcels, packages?
The Welsh Viking,
PO Box 821,
YORK,
YO1 0PY
Business and collaboration email (sorry, I won't read/respond to anything else): thewelshviking1 at gmail dot com
Dane here - lived in Wales for 14 months some years ago in Colwyn Bay, while working at Bodnant. I often walked Little Orme. Love watching your videos because of the historical content but also for a slight Welsh fix...😍🤗😅
Også en dansker her! 🇩🇰😃
Også dansker her 😁
89.96 ⁹⁹
9⁹
@@madsrasmussen5536 ⁹⁹999⁹9⁹⁹⁹⁹
I love it. "I'm from a strange part of the world, pretty but strange" this from the man who goes to the Great Orme in the evening to see a sunrise.
And yes North Wales is a beautiful place , we spent our honeymoon there
I watched an episode of time team last night. They found a "Anglo Saxon" sight. They couldn't decide whether something they found was a henge or a burrow or perhaps a round house. They also found a lady buried with a sword and shield. They were shocked a lady could have such a thing... yep they let them do that. Mainly because their men were gone for long periods of time and they needed to be able to defend themselves. I was annoyed at their surprise. Like all women did in those days was pop out babies and sew. That was part of it, but they also had other important things to do. I feel your frustration with this archeology stuff.
Time Team has an interesting grasp of archaeology at times...
@@markfergerson2145 I know that there was some issues between the lead archeologist and show producers about having to dumb down the archeology.
Tony from Time Team has went on to set back archaeology centuries, IMO...
I have long found it annoying that we can look not even long back in history, and we're so amazed that people made it thru the day. Like how did we even make it here then, if everyone was overwhelmed at the technology of paper, or a pan or something? I fell for it as a kid, then as I got older, it made no sense. I think we're pacifying our loss of skill by being amazed our ancestors lived without Instagram or whatever....
Ok, I'm done😂 Thanks for listening👍
I also just started watching Time Team. Something to keep in mind: it ran from January 1994 to Feb 2014. It wasn't the most technical and, if you watch the earliest eps vs the latest, their approaches changed and they used better practices.
I didn't interpret the shock/surprise the same way, but sexism was definitely apparent in many of the episodes--experts talking over or disregarding the actual archaeologists who happened to be women.
But I'm still watching!
me living in Northern Sweden hearing the goats walking the streets: you know. maybe telling people to watch out for the reindeer that like to camp on the roads and don't move for anything, the bastards, is a little strange and unusual in other parts.
Rural Oregon in the USA. We have open pastures out here. There are signs to beware of the cows, because the highway run through *their* pasture.
2:33 Don't worry, our pronunciation of "Prähistorische Zeitschrift" was absolutely spot on. That said "Deutsche" is wrong. In this context it should be "Deutsch" xD
Anyway love your videos. Keep up the good work.
The thing my stupid brain always fixates on whenever bronze age is discussed is the thought that I really want to hear what a battle using bronze swords sounds like. Bronze is such a unique alloy. In every way, down to the sound of it. And I can't get the idea out of my head that it would somehow sound less like hitting a ladle on a pot and more like discordant bells.
Well now you mentioned it, I needs to see - and hear - a battle with bronze swords!
Sounding like satan’s bell choir probably
"Boat dance party with people wearing horny hats. We don't know why it's done"
Well considering humans have been pretty darn similar throughout all of our history my guess would be ale was probably involved somehow.
As far as I'm aware there was/is no to little copper and/or tin in Scandinavia, so the materials for the helmets (or the artifacts themselves) would have had to come from either eastern Europe (Carpatians etc.) or western Europe (Wales, Bretagne or Spain). It is more impressive to me that there could develop these impressive networks whereby these (cumbersome) materials would travel for very long distances. Says something about the complexity and sofistication of these societies much more than the shape of their headdress, in my humble opinion.
Absolutely! This notion that only we, present day people, have international relations is strange. If you haven't seen it already there's a nice documentary about the Egtved girl here on YT. An amazing burial find from Denmark.
You're correct that they were importing the bronze. Scandinavia instead had amber mines, and exported amber from Scandinavia is found all over the Mediterranean in bronze age sites.
Thanks for going to Segontium again and also for showing the fort and copper mines without shaky cam. Also, I'm amused at the idea of the Trundholm sun chariot. Mostly because it hit me as "Is the sun sleeping in again, comfy behind the fluffy quilt of clouds? It should be keeping us WARM! Time to bring out the sun chariot and remind the sun how to roll around the sky. 'You have one job, sun, this is how you do it!' "
3 things:
1) Being danish, this is the first time I hear anyone related these horned helmets to the viking helmet, why.. look at 2)
2) We (right now) are closer to the viking age, in time, then the helmets talked about here. I mean.. honestly :D
3) Jimmy, when you see a rescue helicopter, the first thing to think is not ment to be "I hope it dont ruin my sound", but "I hope noone is hurt" :D
I saw these helmets when I was in Copenhagen a few years ago and I absolutely loved them, it's great to hear that their age has been narrowed down. I also loved hearing about the copper production in Wales as I'm down in Cornwall where we had tin, copper, gold and silver being sent all over the place. I'm going to have to make the looooong train journey up to see the Nebra Sky Disc in person, now its visiting the UK, as they've identified the gold in it came from just down the road from me.
I loved the goats showing up - showing off their horns. Maybe the helmets were inspired by goats, who knows.
And I've always loved the bronze age figurines, like the one at 4:57. They are almost modernist, abstract but still very clear, strong lines. Would love to get a nice reproduction one day.
Great video once again!
This is kinda like that recent thing where they pinpointed when a tree was cut down at the "vinland" site in Canada. So many articles saying stuff as if it's new information that the Norse were there in the early 11th century. We already knew they were there, the important thing is that a new method of dating was used to give a more precise timeframe.
This is really cool but I just can't unsee how they look like bicycle handles!
They do as well!
My guess, from what I can see in the picture, is that they would be turrets. Reins of harness /chariot horses are passed through turrets attached at various points on the harness, to prevent the rein from dragging on the ground, tangling up, and other happenings a driver would prefer not to have happen. Horse collars are a much latter Chinese invention, as is breaching, I think.
Came here to say this! Would be interesting to know the scale of the horse artifact shown . . .
That was my guess, too. I don't know much about ancient forms of tack (I haven't done any archaeology or seriously studied this stuff or anything, I just know about modern tack, a bit about 19th century tack and driving/agricultural equipment, and I'm beginning to read a lot more about archaeology regarding Proto-Indo-Europeans, which is leading to some interesting rabbit holes regarding horsey things). Without knowing the size, I figured it could be a terret or maybe a decorative ring somewhere on the bridle? You sound very right in saying the padded collar was a later Chinese invention, and I'm fairly certain it was introduced later than its invention into Europe around the 12th century C.E., so if it does have to do with the tack at the shoulder hitching a horse to the thing they're pulling, I'll bet it's probably a decorative ring holding straps together. But in my opinion, the most likely guess is yours, that they're terrets. Especially since from what I've seen, they can be very well-ornamented! It seems to me like a good place to put a couple decorative little guys.
@@horseenthusiast1250 Turrets can be highly decorated , why cant we get that stuff now? 🙂As a horse person you'll find the Celtic chariot stuff interesting, Things they could do in those little units without collars or bretching is amazing! It's all so interesting.
There's a different style of Bronze Age horned helmet that was fished out of the River Thames in the British Museum- known as the 'Waterloo Helmet.' Some medieval knights' helmets were decorated with horns, especially for tournaments. Going back further there are the Starr Carr antlered headdresses from the Mesolithic. A lot of people in different parts of the world and different time periods seem to have thought having horns would make you look pretty badass. They're not wrong.
I was going to mention Starr Carr. Thousands of years before but it seems to be a pretty popular thing to do. Native Americans also made horned headdresses.
Horse type person here! If its referring to a 'collar' then its probably a general headcollar, which in modern horse terms is what you lead a horse around with, but not what you ride them with. With it being that ornate I'd imagine it was something they would want to ride around with, so could have been for a bridle. It's quite a narrow curve, so looks more like part of a nose band than for the top of the head (poll), but if they have smaller thinner horses it could have been ornamental at the poll, which would have looked sick.
Jimmy in the sun! It is the first sign of Spring!
Edwardian Antiquarian Jimmy is my new favourite character; straight out of MR James.
Thanks for another fun and informative video. All the best with getting established in your new full time job.
50 years is such a fantastically small range. So cool!
Also, "my hair is a bird" made me laugh. Thanks for making Mondays better!
There are also images of similarly curved horn helmets on the Gundestrup cauldron, which apparently is contemporary with these helmets. There are some interesting conjectures associating those figures with Cerrunos and another figure associated with a solar deity. Curiouser and curiouser and yeah - likely Celtic rather than Viking - though I’m sure folks and their ideas ‘got around’ …
And last, but not least - those horns on your wandering village goats with their recurved shape! 🤩 wow.
You’re looking marvelous, I hope you’re feeling as good as your appear. Thank you for what you do - your presence brightened my day.
Your pronunciation of "prähistorische Zeitschrift" is quite good. :)
So glad I'm not alone in thinking Loki's helmet is eerily reminiscent, lol.
1) bronze helmets... yes I got the news. Thank you for your explanation!
2) your german pronunciation is fine!
3) when in Wales visit: copper mine, cable car, gots. Check
4) OMFG you have sunshine over there😳 haven’t seen the sun for weeks and weeks!
As a german I can tell you that your pronunciation is quite good actually. Especially giving that Prähistorische Zeitschrift is a very hard word to pronounce for an english speaker. But I have a small correction for your little commentary: it's "Deutsch" without the "e" in that context. If you they "deutsche" you need to ad a word on what it refers to afterwards, for example "deutsche Sprache" (german language).
"Pretty but strange" is the perfect description for many things. North Wales, the Vekso helmets, the Welsh Viking...
With their tentacular horns and little beaks, they are vary weird looking, but meh. One of the reasons I love loki's costuming in the MCU is the reference to these 'horny hats'. I always wondered what they'd look like with intact plumes/crests.
Thank you so much for showing us some more of Wales with goats, ha!!
I live near a town in southern Appalachia called Copperhill, famous for its copper mine, but no goats sadly! I’m always learning from this channel Jimmy and I so appreciate it❗️🐐
2:33 that german pronounciation was 10/10 ^^
(and thx for linking this article! It is unfortunately really rare on youtube that people link their ressources. Idk why...)
Me: OMG wanna go to North Wales to see the goats!
Also me: There are plenty of good reasons to visit North Wales, but in terms of affordability and travel restrictions, maybe a petting zoo, or the place that spins goat fibre for knitting, would be a better option?
But but but…
Yes, North Wales is strange but oh so beautiful! I used to live on Anglesey and if it wasn't so cold up there I'd move back there...
Hi. I've never been into Scandinavian archaeology before. Not really into archaeology in general. But I was recommended this video, and I have to say it was a very pleasant viewing experience! Thank you for sharing your knowledge. And thanks for sharing the article. Will be reading it some time
Cool archaeology stuff always makes me happy. The ancient past, for the most part, is a mystery and will remain so, so even the smallest new discoveries feel exciting and add to the mystery!
Diolch, for this video James. I hate it when shows & movies depict Vikings w/horned helmets😵💫 Drives me mad😫 Much love❤️ from a Cymraeg (Gilbert "the Red" de Clare, descendant) living in the US🇺🇲
Nordic Bronze Age (and especially clothing and textiles) is my period of special interest for study and reenactment. This video was a delight and made me very happy to watch. I’ve been enjoying hopping through videos while I sew and having a great time and learning more about Vikings and later medieval history :).
Jimmy, I really needed this today. I had a very bad day at work, and coming home to see your bird hair helped so much. Thank you. Also I always learn something new from you and I get to see some absolutely beautiful scenery. So a win all around.
Omg, the horned figures and helmets are weirdly cute! I love them!! They look like if you showed Star Trek to a Minoan child and then asked them to draw some Andorians! Absolutely precious.
I think your german pronunciation was quite good.
Nice Video by the way 👍
That's winter in Wales? But everything's still green and sunny.
Is good to see you! I have had a productive few days, and am between classes and this was an enjoyable way to take a moment. Hope everything is well for you and yours, and thank you for sharing
Great video! It’s awesome that they can more accurately date artefacts ❤️.
With the horse collar/accessory,if you post a full picture of it we would be able to see better if they part of tack for a wagon or riding tack.
Your country is beautiful & full of character! 😁
I always come here to feel safe after a day at work. You are amazing my dude.
May you feel safe and be well. Sorry work is rough for you rught now
@@TheWelshViking it’s all good my man. Keep doing what you are doing. And lots of good health and inspiration to you :*
Really interesting information, thank you!
I'm a little jealous you're able to sit outside and enjoy the sun. It's been a really cold winter where I live (yesterday it was 4° F which is about -15.5 ° C if Google converted it correctly for me).
That is a dashing cardigan+jumper combo
I grew up visiting North Wales, especially Llandudno and walking the Great Orme. Wales is like a second home to me, I really miss it.
Love the horse pulling the sun! Helios went to visit the northlands! Opa!
I suspect there may be some cultural continuity with the bird helms seen on the Torslunda plate and Sutton Hoo helm from the Vendel period. While I was looking at the Viksø helms again, I noticed there was a beak on the front of the helms that may evoke a bird. In addition to the fact that there may have been feathers attached to the helm in ancient times. The warriors wearing bird helms also appear as twins, and the bronze age also had a twin warrior motif, seen in the Viksø helms as well as the Grevensvænge figurines, though one was lost.
Spouse and I went to the Great Orme Mine in 2004 .... it was amazing and I'm a good height for it (5'3"). There weren't many people there that day, and we went through twice because it was so fascinating. Hope to go back some day ...
It blows my mind that we're now able to date things this is to such a narrow time frame, so this is all very, very cool for me 😁
Thanks for this video and for magical bird hair! I started my Scandinavian history wormhole about 6 months ago to "culture stack" while learning Norwegian. I was super interested in the Viking age, like everyone is lol! But I am finding now that the bronze age is SUPER interesting and filled with incredible artifacts that pull at my heart with their detail and mystery.
Cool stuff!
My school field trips were to places like Lavan Sands and Aber Falls... never did the Great Orme.
I'm fascinated by the little round...thingys...on the tips of the horns. Thinking in terms of ceremonial helmets still in use today, like the Life Guards or the French Garde Republicaine, or the Chilean Military Academy (If you want an infantry example) I picture a pair of magnificent horsetail plumes streaming from the horns. That thought probably doesn't add a thing to the sum of human knowledge, but it's the picture that's now stuck in my head.
Pretty but strange, perfect description for Wales and Jimmy. It's sad people still keep thinking these are viking. There has never been proof of it. At least the wider world is finally learning this. The horn helmets have always been cool.
Oh, that sun chariot was so exiting to see! I hadn't known about it before (the helmets I had a vague picture of). Those really, really old stuff are always fascinating.
I also sometimes think to myself that I come from a strange part of the world. But for other reasons. It is kind of amusing when you find those strange things that you have grown so familiar to.
I'm not sure why people are still speculating about if they were used in battle - obviously they were used to hold drinks atop your head during the annual ritual ceremony of watching Ye Olde Superbowl, and, depending on if you were winning or losing, to spray them in the face of your enemies. Ahem.
Jokes apart, it's super impressive that the helmets' age has been narrowed down to such a small period of time! Thanks for the video!
Not to detract from the information here, nor the channel, but Dan Davis has a good video or two about this.
The more the information gets out there, the better!
Love this channel, btw
Mildly interested in helmets; vastly entertained by lollypopter & goats. Love your channel, keep up the great work!
Gorgeous video! Loved your peaky blinder Outfit.
Thanks for showing us such a beautiful area of the world. We have a town a bit west of here in one of the national parks, right in the Rockies. It is often overrun by deer and moose and such. Ungulates down main street. I get it. Take care.
I can't shake the fact that they look like moth heads, especially when they have the feather plumes in the ends, and I am SO CURIOUS as to if there's any reason behind them being in pairs in a number of those examples, and now I am late for work.
I've been waiting for this to be covered more
I've heard of the so-called "Horse Twins" that some have suggested might be part of a Proto-Indo-European religion. But, Mesopotamian representations of Gemini-twins have horned helmets, from what I read.
Two years ago, I was air-lifted to a trauma center after cardiac arrest. The sound of a rescue helicopter has a special meaning to me now... even though I was unconscious for the ride and didn't actually hear it.
Heya Jimmy. I get all my helmets from the trash.
It's mostly buckets, but you know. It's better than plastic bags, for defending against the scrummy south! (Which is the peoples downriver)
They tried to steal my carrot once.
Trash lid shields are underrated.
8:00 "...mid-late December evening you get spectacular sunrises..."
Shush you
Currently 2:39 in and all I know so far is we have headlines explaining what was already known as if it's new, and that I really want to visit that site early on a sunny morning and just chill by that tree.
6:03- Would a lollypopter air drop some sweets? I hope so.
I forgot to take more time stamps. I was too busy watching, and thinking bout wearing one of those sweet helmets. And also looking to see if there is a Regia chapter in this part of the US because I'm getting more and more interested in at least the crafting side of things and they cover my interests better than something like the SCA.
Anyway, nice video. :)
Well that was interesting, I couldn't not google about the papier maché heads! A bit of history that had passed me by!
Maybe I'm crazy, but I can't help but see Gonzo from the Muppets in those helmets.
*honk*
Horned helmets are just really cool, I was kinda bummed out when I found out Vikings didn't use em
They've always seemed silly to me, at least the way they're often portrayed on "vikings". I much prefer when the horns are facing forward rather than up
I used to go up the Orme every week to the Copper mines when they first opened as I wanted to volunteer as part of my IB course. One of the best places to go see and explore.
This made me think about the depiction of the "sea people" (1200 BC - 900BC) in the tomb of Rameses III, where some were wearing horned helmets.
I was just roaring a bit at the tv because they showed a school mascot that was a viking with bloody horned helmets. It also irritates me to see horned helmets sold in tourist shops here in Iceland
Love the channel!, Do you have any recommendations for historical books (even textbooks) that you think are must haves? Keep up the great work! its awesome your making this full time ! 🤓🧐📖
Two.... serpents... curling forward...
*hyborean drums play*
Now we answer the riddle of steel...
I'm researching this and there's a brilliant observation by Flemming Kaul that these motifs follow a solar narrative. Perhaps more interestingly, the 'S' symbol is ubiquitous in Celtic and Germanic art.
So these razors mostly from 1100-500 BCE Jutland are truly fascinating in their fluid use of motifs. The 'S' which is depicted on the horns of the helmet is a common feature and constantly morphs into horses, birds, and serpents. Perhaps even more fascinating is the S, which also morphs into the solar boat's prow and stern.
The back of the Vekso helmets has a Direct copy of these 'S-shaped prows. So this symbol is constantly shapeshifting into new forms, bringing to mind early animistic thought.
Also, Celtic coinage commonly features a horse surrounded by solar imagery which is presented from naturalistic to completely abstract morphing into serpents and the LETTER S.
The battle-axe also is HEAVILY associated with the divine twins who in the PIE myth pulled the sun across the sky. The kivik tombs depict two axes above two sun symbols. A double axe also appears on the NBA razors although many have called it a mushroom.
The spiral motifs in one case are a direct copy or import of Minoan art. Where the axe is heavily associated with the sun. This is speculation but it seems reasonable. (Maybe explaining the appearance of labyrinths in northern Europe)
Also in a paired NBA sculpture one twin leaps without a helmet next to his other brother with a horned helmet. Could this tie into the Minoan bull-leaping phenomena?
Seriously incredible stuff.
SO, my very unscientific theory is the random guy in horns is probably personifying a nature god of some sort. Also saw you--finally--on Bernadette's film review. You done good, as usual!
It makes sense considering how many bronze age pastoral and nature deities had horns such as Pan and Cernunnos... possibly from the same indo-european line.
Although the boat motif then seems a little more out of place.
Maybe fertility? Those horns do look kind of like a penis.
Gorgeous scenery for this vid! And a fascinating subject. I do feel sad sometimes that we may never know anything solid about these peoples - just such fragments. Although, if the Norse did originate in the Mediterranean (there seems to be a steady accumulation of knowledge suggesting they may well have done), you're not going to find the physical evidence in France and Germany - you're going to find it in Bulgaria, Romania, Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia - their borders form virtually a straight line via land from Greece and Turkey.
Not the argument! The argument is that some element of a pan-European religion is displayed through these artefacts, not that the Norse originated in the Mediterranean. And, weirdly, it seems that Norse cultural elements spread *to* the nations you list, not from. Funky!
@@TheWelshViking LOL It's the argument I'm working on in a private project ;p But to or from doesn't matter - there's a route between them, and it goes by land as well as sea - but by land it doesn't seem to include France and Germany, only Eastern Europe. But I didn't know artefacts had been found there at all, so thanks for the info. If they were brought there by the Norse on their way south, that's fascinating - is there any chance of a video on the Romans in Scandinavia? I didn't know they got that far (going round the Goths, presumably!) - because it seems to me the Norse were extremely keen on getting to the Med (well, who wouldn't? ;p ) and I wondered if they went over land because the Roman invasion of Britain cut off the sea route. All plot bunnies and speculation ;)
Just stopped the Video to tell you that your German pronunciation was actually perfect. Back to watching now :D
The roads around where my family used to live in Jamaica weren't paved...I assume because of the goats. Nice to know that the world over, they're just kind of...around in their various forms. XD
A wild outside Jimmy! The rarest creature.
Your pronunciation of "Deutsche prähistorische Zeitschrift" was quite accurate. I can hear your native accent, but this is just fine 👍
Hmm yes, archaeology is cool (it really is, these kinds of videos make my week!)
I'm fascinated how similar these helmets are to the Hoplomachus helmets used by gladiators. The hair-crest and sockets (used for feathers on the Hoplomachus) are similar on both!
The horned helmets seem so impractical to me. Your foil could grab you by them and throw you to the ground so easily, particularly from the rear. I can see them not lasting very long, at least as helmets, but maybe to hang your hats on back at the round house.
I am intrigued by the horned helmets/hats on the figures on the Sutton Hoo helmet. As these are so much later (and of course in Britain, though there seem to be very direct Scandinavian parallels) is it a massive leap to think there may be a connection? Particularly tempting since the Sutton Hoo helmet also has an animal motif on its central ridge (dragon's head rather than bird's beak). It's conjecture, but is it daft conjecture?
Yes new vid!
There's certainly more behind these horned helmets than what would first appear. Although seperated by thousands of years, similar motifs appear in other artifacts such as Vendel (Torslunda plates, the Kungsängen figure), a horned head found in Blakely, Norfolk, the belt buckle from Finglesham. Could these be references to warrior cults and rituals that had been present since the Bronze Age? Unfortunately, Piggott's concept of "the past-as-known" vs "the past-as-wished-for" comes to mind. Perhaps we'll never know.
You also might see aliens 👽 when visiting The Great Orme.
Need a full picture of the horse piece...
Could be the top of a bridle or hackamore or harness, and I really wanna see the whole thing
You sounded like having a French accent when attempting Prähistorische Zeitschrift! LOL
The only noticeable flaw was the Z, which should be voiceless. Apart from that there was literally nothing to forgive 😀
thank you 4 explaing about this in a simple way. Could you do something short and snappy about the (was the word rock carving?) hällristingar as well
In Estonia it’s -15degrees Celsius and 20 cm of snow
Not so strange, I live in a tiny New Zealand mountain farming town and it's normal for sheep, cattle, pigs or ponies randomly getting out on the roads roaming around.
The horns give me some D&D’s beholders vibes!
This might be way off, but I wonder about an association between the Geats (like Beowulf) and the Getae of ancient Thrace. The Vekso horned helmets remind me of an ancient (4th century BC) helmet called the helmet of Cotofenesti, which is Geto-Dacian. It doesn't have horns (the top is missing anyway) but it does have similar nobbles, as well as the additional modelled eyes above the brow.
Geat comes from proto-Germanic Gautaz, no etymological link as far as is known to Getai which was probably a Greek exonym Herodotus used.
One thing we do have, that is a lot closer to the viking age, is the depiction of "weapon dancers" in Vendel period art (as well as on the Sutton Hoo helmet) wearing headgear with very prominent horn-like crests. As far as I know, scholars can't really agree on whether these represent gods, mythical heroes, some kind of religious rite or actual real-life warriors.
But this might be an indication, that while people in the Viking Age didn't use horned helmets, the IMAGE of the "horned warrior" might not have been all that foreign to them.
The thumbnail is hilarious
Jimmy you should do a video on the lindisfarne raid or sunthin
School trips must be amazing all over Europe.
In my pretty but strange part of the world I don't think there's a site older than the 20th century within 300 miles.
Indigenous peoples around here (pacific northwest, United States) didn't leave much as far as sites. Lots of material artifacts but no structural sites.
White people demolished most standing structures in the east. In the west they used organic building materials so not much survived.
There's very little in the entire country that predates colonialism. Nothing in the pacific northwest with its wet climate.
And around here, settlers came late. So you can find 15th century sites in the southeast, lots of 17th-19th century sites along the east coast, but here.... I literally can't think of anything before the 20th century.
I did a school trip to a recreated 1820s-50s trading post. We literally had to leave the country. They piled us on a bus & took us to Canada.
I remember being in Scotland & literally tripping over history (a broken tombstone in Edinburgh & then a bit of Hadrian's wall while fleeing an angry sheep). I've been able to visit places with tangible history.
I feel left out. I probably would have enjoyed history in school more if I'd been able to experience it. There's nothing comparable to touching something of historic significance. Just pressing your hand against the wall at the tower of London or climbing a pyramid like Coba in Mexico.
Even touristy stuff like kissing the blarney stone in Ireland or walking barefoot around Stonehenge gave me a feeling of connection to the past that you can't get by reading.
But, there's no place on earth as pretty as the pacific northwest. If you disagree, you probably haven't been here.
I thought you were going to say someone was using the helmets as evidence that vikings existed far earlier than previously believed. 😉 😂 glad I was wrong 😅
I'm sorry but I can't help thinking about what military strategy includes the use of paper mache heads... you really got me stuck on that one...
Sniper decoys!
@@TheWelshViking thanx, though I was having fun imaging, I even thought of that, but all scenarios I came up with had the heads being decoys...
vaguely reminds me of the long coiled trumpets But then anything made from bronze sets up resonances for me. I'm still adjusting to spending Pres not Arian after returning 5 years ago from 40 years exile in De Cymru.
The little children who mined the ores need a mention. Thinking of them working long hours in narrow tunnels by rush or candle light helps us scrub the glamour away from our ancestors
Who wore horned helmets in battle? Everyone but the Vikings!
But seriously, it's cool how horned helmets and big axes were so widely popular in the 8 centruy BC.