Horned Helmet - Migration Period

Migration Period

Depicted on the Arch of Constantine, dedicated in 315 CE, are Germanic soldiers, sometimes identified as "Cornuti", shown wearing horned helmets. On the relief representing the Battle of Verona (312) they are in the first lines, and they are depicted fighting with the bowmen in the relief of the Battle of the Milvian Bridge.

A depiction on a Migration Period (5th century) metal die from Öland, Sweden, shows a warrior with a helmet adorned with two snakes or dragons, arranged in a manner similar to horns. Decorative plates of the Sutton Hoo helmet (ca. 600 CE) depict spear-carrying dancing men wearing horned helmets. A diebolt for striking plaques of this kind was found at Torslunda, Sweden. An engraved belt-buckle found in a 7th century grave at Finglesham, Kent in 1965 bears the image of a naked warrior standing between two spears wearing a belt and a horned helmet; a case has been made that the much-repaired chalk figure called the "Long Man of Wilmington", East Sussex, repeats this iconic motif, and originally wore a similar cap, of which only the drooping lines of the neckguard remain. This headgear, of which only depictions have survived, seems to have mostly fallen out of use with the end of the Migration period.

There is, nevertheless, some evidence for a continuation of the tradition of horned helmets in cultic use into the Viking Age: an illustration on a tapestry found in the Viking Age Oseberg ship burial, and a depiction on an amulet found in Uppland, Sweden.