CIRCA 2ND CENTURY A.D.

This helmet is richly sculpted in relief with a winged griffin on each side of the crown. It has peaked parallel bands centered above the forehead, with half palmettes on either side of the peak above and a palmette flanked by scrolling tendrils below, with a dog on either side. There are further volutes with half palmettes above the ears. The top of the crown has a flattened zone centered by a drilled tenon for insertion of a separately-made, now-missing crest.
The ornament on this helmet exactly parallels one worn by the Ares Borghese, a sculptural type known from numerous Roman examples, all which are thought to be copies of a now-lost bronze original by the 5th century B.C. sculptor Alcamenes that originally was in the Athenian Agora (see no. 23 in P. Bruneau, “Ares,” in LIMC, vol. II). The underside of the present example has been hollowed, perhaps in antiquity, either to be attached to a statue or for use as a trophy.