Vulci’s helmet reveals its secret, having discovered the name of the warrior who wore it

A helmet that came to light in 1930 and exhibited almost immediately together with the rest of the kit in the rooms of the National Etruscan Museum of Villa Giulia in Rome revealed after almost a century the secret it had jealously guarded for almost 2,400 years: the headdress was worn by ‘Harnste’, perhaps a warrior originally from Perugia, or by a rival killed on an unknown battlefield, who took him with him to a tomb in Vulci (Viterbo). The brief Etruscan inscription ‘Harnste’ hidden inside – explains the Museum in a press release – had so far escaped the attention of all, despite the care with which Ugo Ferraguti and Raniero Mengarelli – architects of the discovery – had treated the materials found in starting from 1928 during the very successful excavation campaigns carried out in the necropolis of the Osteria di Vulci. These were the first archaeological investigations conducted with a modern scientific method in the ancient Etruscan city, after centuries of almost indiscriminate looting. The premature death of both excavators has so far prevented their publication due to problems also linked to the study of the excavation documentation. Despite this, the most important contexts were immediately destined for public use in the vulcent rooms of Villa Giulia. A recent digitization and verification of the conservation status of some weapons kept in the Museum’s collections led to the unexpected discovery. The results of the scientific study of the inscription and its first interpretative proposal will appear in the next issue of the journal “Archeologia Viva” (Giunti Editore). The epigraph, engraved inside the neck roll after the manufacture, most likely returns a nobleman so far lacking precise evidence in Etruscan onomastics, in the face of thousands of known inscriptions. If we exclude the specimens with votive dedications and a group of 60 helmets (out of 150) all distinguished by the same noble family found on the acropolis of Vetulonia in 1904, there are about ten weapons of this type characterized by inscriptions such as the one just identified, documented in the Etruscan and Italic context between the 6th and 3rd centuries BC It is therefore a very rare type of evidence that offers fundamental information for the reconstruction of the military organization and the evolution of the art of war in pre-Roman Italy. based on its typological examination and on the information provided by the other objects in the grave goods of tomb 55 (one of the richest of the contemporary ones found in Vulci), the deposition of the helmet can be dated to around the middle of the fourth century BC. characterized by a strong conflict between peoples who competed for dominance in our Peninsula or for simple survival, threatened by the descent of the Celts who in 390 they had put Rome itself to fire and sword. Vulci’s helmet fits perfectly into this context and, thanks to its inscription, tells an unpublished page in the life of a warrior of his time, even if it is not possible to establish with certainty whether the preserved name coincides with that of its last owner. . Many clues, in fact, lead us to look for its origins in another city, on the border between Umbrians and Etruscans, Perugia. Reading does not involve particular difficulties and allows us to reconstruct a complete sequence of 7 letters arranged on the sides of a rivet: ‘harn ste’ This last obstacle would seem to have been considered by the author of the epigraph which, most likely, should be read as a single word, almost certainly a noble by analogy with the other inscriptions found on helmets and characterized by a similar location. The presence inside had in fact to be known only to those who used the helmet and, therefore, most likely it had to indicate its owner. This reinforced the sense of belonging of a vital object which, in hiding the warrior’s features and protecting him, became his metaphorical projection.If warriors could travel as mercenaries employed by the highest bidder, even more could travel their weapons, donated as a reward or acquired as a prey of war on the battlefield. Contrary to what was previously thought, it is possible that the helmet was not produced in Vulci but in Perugia where the greatest number of specimens of this peculiar type is documented, a middle ground between the oldest traditional ‘Negau’ type helmets. Etruscan and those so-called ‘Montefortino’, of Celtic tradition but also very popular in the Italic world and in republican Rome. This provenance would seem to be confirmed by the nobleman returned by the inscription, very similar to that documented in a Latin epigraph found near the famous hypogeum of the Volumni of Perugia and belonging to a woman of Etruscan origin who lived in the first century BC: Harnustia. also identified with the noblemen Havrna, Havrenies / Harenies attested at the beginning of the third century BC in Bolsena, halfway between Vulci and Perugia. However, Perugia seems to lead us back to what could be the origin of the name, if it is correct to hypothesize its correlation with the toponym Aharnam, mentioned by Tito Livio (X, 25.4) as the site of a Roman camp on the eve of the famous Battle of Nations that took place. near Sentino in 295 BC It is in fact very probable that the small Etruscan-Umbrian center mentioned by Livio should be identified with the modern Civitella d’Arna, very close to Perugia. The nobility of our warrior could therefore have been formed by drawing origin from the name of the city from which he was originally, as evidenced by various inscriptions on weapons, also following the mobility of the military and their possible propensity to be called by the name of the place of origin. . Perhaps the cries of the cheering audience echo the deeds of the ‘Hispanic’ gladiator in the arena of the Colosseum, immortalized by Russel Crowe in the famous film by Ridley Scott. “Even if it is no longer possible to establish whether Harnste was his family or that of a rival killed on an unknown battlefield, we like to think that the public who from now on will admire the vulcent helmet will be able to memorize not only the cold number order of a tomb but also something more intimate and personal, such as a name and some shreds of the possible history of those who once owned it and entrusted their life to it “, underlines the press release from the National Etruscan Museum of Villa Giulia in Rome.