A Minoan Helmet

The heck you say. Minnows don’t wear helmets- and on that point we can agree. But Minoans did- they were the pre-cursor of the ancient Greeks (3100 - 1100 BC), named for King Minos and from whom we also get the name Minotaur. Their distinctive helmets are also seen worn by the Greeks and Trojans in similar style, since they all came after the Minoans and presumably brought along their helmets. You might more readily recognize the Minoans from the Old Testament bible as the Philistines, a name not so well-thought of. But hey, that’s only one side of the story, and they did eventually morph into the ancient Greek culture so give credit where credit is due.

While the original helmets were made of bronze (this being the bronze age), this helmet is made of marble with a bronze nose piece. This was done as a marble nose piece would have surely snapped off in the process of making it and casting a piece of bronze is a good tip of the hat to the original. And for you nerds out there, you can make your own bronze by melting 85% by weight of copper and 15% of pewter, in my case copper pipe and old pewter plates from the Habitat ReStore. The marble came from a salvaged block that in a previous life was a foundation for a sundial; technically speaking it first spent millennia as some sea life, then part of a layer of limestone, then pressurized into marble, then only comparatively recently as a sundial foundation, and only just now as a Minoan helmet. The design was taken from two discovered helmets, getting the shape and silhouette as close as possible to actual size, with some carved flourishes added that were also found on the originals. The helmet was originally supposed to set on a stand, which proved much more difficult than anticipated and would have been way too heavy. Hollowing the helmet out made it “just heavy enough” to move about easily.

Overall 4 out of 5 since I know where all the mistakes are, but it polished up nicely and the nose piece fits wonderfully.