Fragment de casque

Three iron helmets and a bronze penknife handle, discovered in 1998 less than 500 m from the amphitheater of Poitiers/Limonum on the preventive excavations of the Cordeliers block, evoke gladiatorship. They were trapped by the collapse of the buildings aligned in the eastern edge of the major axis of the city following a violent fire dated by the coinage after 257 and before the years 260-270. On the eastern side of this street, on at least 200 m long, workshop-shops framed the entrance of domus or buildings with commercial vocation on which they depended. Six of them have been explored in the Cordeliers. The helmets interpreted as those of secutor were found in workshop P212 and its annex, and in the annex of the neighboring store of a ceramic vase dealer. In workshop P212, where iron, copper alloys and bone were worked, the objects made, being assembled or repaired, were intended for a male clientele, undoubtedly military or warlike (sword, scabbard, folding knife, razor, cutlass, harness...). One might be tempted to see it as the workshop of a "fourbisseur", although the term is anachronistic for antiquity. This exceptional discovery attests to the presence of this armatura in the city.

Contrary to helmets 1 and 2, only fragments of the cap and headgear are preserved here. The latter bear witness to successive repairs, materialized by the presence of sheet metal plates or riveted corner pieces. A broken angle indicates the forced downward inclination of the neck cover and an excessive stretching of the material. This deformation occurred while the metal still had some elasticity. This could be a result of active use of the helmet in combat, its compression after disposal, or the impact of falling construction debris when the object was buried.