Possible Medieval Helmet Recovered Off Sicily’s Coast

News April 1, 2024

Sicily Helmet
(Superintendency of the Sea)
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Sicily Helmet

PALERMO, ITALY—The Miami Herald reports that a helmet thought to have been worn by an infantryman during the late medieval period or the early Renaissance has been found on the ocean floor off the southeastern coast of Sicily by researchers from the Superintendency of the Sea. The helmet is oval in shape with a ridge along its bottom edge and a crest across the top, in a style known as a cabasset, or a capacete in Spanish and Portuguese. It is not clear if the artifact was part of a shipwreck, or if it was lost on its own by a soldier at sea. The divers plan to return to the site for further investigation of the area. To read about a Byzantine shipwreck discovered off the Sicilian coast, go to “Shipping Stone.”

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