Everything about Negau Helmet totally explained
Negau helmet refers to one of 28 bronze
helmets (23 of which are preserved) dating to ca.
400 BC, found in
1811 in a cache in
Zenjak, near Negau, now
Negova,
Slovenia. The helmets are of typical
Etruscan '
vetulonic' shape, sometimes described as of the
Negau type. They were buried in ca.
50 BC, shortly before the
Roman invasion of the area.
On one of the helmets ("Negau B"), there's an inscription in a
northern Etruscan alphabet. Note that the inscription need not date to 400 BC, but was probably added by a later owner in ca. the
2nd century BC or later. It is read as
»
harikastiteiva\ip,
Many interpretations of the inscription have been proffered in the past, but the most recent interpretation is by T.L. Markey (
Journal of Indo-European Studies 2001) who reads the inscription as 'Harigast the priest' (from *
teiwaz "god"), as another inscribed helmet also found at the site bears several names (mostly
Celtic) followed by religious titles.
In any case, the Germanic name
Harigast is almost universally read. Formerly, some scholars have seen the inscription as an early incarnation of the
runic alphabet, but it's now accepted that the script is North Etruscan proper, and precedes the formation of the Runic alphabet.
Harigast constitutes an attestation of the
Germanic sound shift, probably the earliest preserved, preceding
Tacitus perhaps by some two centuries.
Must (1957) reads
Hariχas Titieva as a
Raetic personal name, the first element from the Indo-European (
Venetic rather than Germanic), the second from the Etruscan.
The four discrete inscriptions on the helmet usually called "Negau A" are read by Markey as:
Dubni banuabi 'of Dubnos the pig-slayer';
sirago turbi 'astral priest of the troop';
Iars'e esvii 'Iarsus the divine'; and
Kerup, probably an abbreviation for a Celtic name like Cerubogios
Helmets of the Negau type were typically worn by priests at the time of deposition of these helmets, so they seem to have been left at the Zenjak site for ceremonial reasons. The village of Zenjak was of great interest to
Nazi archaeologists and was briefly renamed Harigast during
World War II. The site has never been excavated properly.
Literature
- Gustav Must, The Problem of the Inscription on Helmet B of Negau, Harvard Studies in Classical Philology (1957).
Further Information
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