Ancient Dacian Gold Helmet With Piercing Evil Eyes

A. Sutherland - AncientPages.com - This golden helmet is over two millennia old and was accidentally found in Poiana Cotofenesti (now called Poiana Varbilau), southern Romania, in 1929 (or in the spring of 1928).

The Golden Helmet of Coțofenești. A Geto-Dacian helmet dating from the first half of the 4th century BC, uncovered by chance. Image credit:  Radu Oltean  - CC BY-SA 3.0

The helmet was found to be a remarkably well-preserved artifact (only the part of its skull cap is missing), and in this state of preservation, the artifact is 25 cm tall and weighs 770 grams. Its diameter is 13.92 mm.

The helmet's lower part is cylindrical and has the opening of the rectangular shape for the front and the ears, with outlines similar to the "U" (reversed). Both the cheekbones and the head protectors were fixed and immobile.

The parade and ritual helmet from Poiana Cotofenesti was made of two pieces of cold-rolled gold plate from a natural, unrefined gold ingot with the composition: Au = 760 ‰, Ag = 225 ‰, and Cu = 10 ‰. This Dacian helmet provided a good and stable head covering.

It was created from a relatively thick gold sheet by repeated beating on a wooden support.

A Geto-Dacian helmet dating from the first half of the 4th century BC, uncovered by chance. Graphical reconstruction by Radu Oltean. Image credit: Radu Oltean - CC BY-SA 3.0

The gold plate used for producing the Cotofanesti helmet has varying thicknesses. They range from 2.82 mm at the base to 0.76 mm in the upper area of the hold.

However, we must remember that the gold, even in the thick sheet, has a low hardness, and a helmet like this was certainly not sufficient enough to defend the battle.

The helmet was most probably a luxurious ceremonial piece to emphasize, for the bearer, his preeminent position in a more structured social or military hierarchy. A craftsman made the helmet of the local Thracian tribes of Geto-Dacians.

Helmet of Cotofenesti - A Geto-Dacian helmet dating from the first half of the 4th century BC, uncovered by chance. Mythological scene on the side. Image credit:  Radu Oltean - CC BY-SA 3.0

The Getae and the Dacians were ancient Thracian peoples who lived in Moesia, on the northern plain of the river Danube, and in the Carpathian Mountains, approximately in modern-day Romania and Moldova bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, south, and east.

Researchers have not been ale to reconstruct these ancient people's religion. However, it is known that like the religion of the ancient Celts, it represents one of the most fascinating chapters in the long history of Indo-European belief systems outside the Greco-Roman world.

The Getae and Dacians worshiped Zalmoxis, a divinity who  was probably an ancient and prominent religious reformer to whom the beginnings of Getic kingship are also related. Herodotus mentions the Getae, and says that others "surrendered without a fight to Darius" but" the Getae resisted stubbornly, and were enslaved at once, the bravest and most just Thracians of all..."Histories Book IV, 93–96.

Large Eyes And Eyebrows Twisted Upwards And Their Symbolic Meaning

So the Helmet of Cotofenesti  may also have been the sacred helmet of Zalmoxis, the living god-prophet of the Dacians, or belonged to an unknown, aristocratic warlord or a Geto-Dacian king, the head of a local political formation formed in the area at the end of the 5th or the beginning of the 4^th century BC.

As such, it was declared the treasure of a tribe chief or even a union of tribes.

Unique image from movie Dacii showing Decebalus wearing an incorrectly restored version of the Helmet of Coţofeneşti.  (1967 Dacii movie by Sergiu Nicolaescu) - source

The helmet is decorated with many conical rosettes arranged in horizontal rows, a scene of the sacrifice of a ram, and two divided registers depicting mythical creatures.

The frontal part of the helmet is rectangular and decorated with two large eyes and eyebrows twisted upwards.

These eyes are the most striking decorative element of the helmet, supposedly having the power to avert evil influences, bad luck, and magic spells.

The intriguing eyes could also symbolize:  "I see twice as well; I have eyes like my hawk."

The artifact is now kept at the National History Museum of Romania.

Written by – A. Sutherland  - AncientPages.com Senior Staff Writer

Updated on April 9, 2023

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