The unusual life of a helmet from Vrhpolje near Kamnik

It was 1928. Farmer Kregar, who rented Romšak’s field in Vrhpolje near Kamnik, was hit by unusual objects while plowing with a plow. In 1935, he gave the helmet (he thought it was a tin pot made of metal. He used it for feeding hen in the yard), along with iron spears and axe, to Josip Nikolaj Sadnikar. In 1958, representatives of the municipality of Novo mesto came to the Sadnikar’s (on behalf of the protocol of Slovenia). They were looking for a valuable object to pay tribute to Josip Broz Tito, who came to open the road of Brotherhood and Unity in Novo mesto in the autumn. They have chosen a helmet. It was bought for 250,000 dinars. On November 23, 1958, the helmet was given to the president of the former Yugoslavia as a protocol gift. It is still in the Museum of Yugoslavia today – in the Museum on May 25 in Belgrade.

A helmet is a beautiful product of its time. It has a pronounced ridge, is bronze, cast in one piece and decorated. A helmet is a beautiful product of its time. It has a pronounced ridge, is bronze, cast in one piece and decorated. The helmet is 21 cm high, 27-28 cm in diameter, the inner diameter is 20-21 cm; weighs 1795 g. The graves with such content dates back to the 5th-4th century BC. The helmet belongs to the helmets of “Negova type”. When the helmets lays in the grave together with offensive weapons, as it is the case from Vrhpolje, we can assume that it belonged to the high status of the deceased, the representative elite, a warrior.

A copy of this helmet was made in 1985 in Belgrade by a conservator from the National Museum, Aleš Lah. Since then, the copy has been in Ljubljana. This year (2020) we also plan to obtain a copy of the copy for the Kamnik Museum.