Moro helmet

[Sentrad]

I am really very glad, that Oliver opened this thread to get more information about the armour of the Southern Philippines / Northern Indonesian region. As far as I know, both Portuguese and Spaniards introduced helmets of the Comb-Morion and Morion-Cabasset types made of steel and of bronze. Still today similar local made helmets are in use during festivities in the Bangsamoro region, the Northern Moluccas and Northern parts of Sulawesi, made out of copper alloys. Most of them are of brass, which is cheaper, but not as hard as bronze. Brass helmets are normally not as old as bronze helmets.
Originally Comb-Morions out of the Bangsamoro region had ear flaps, but nearly all I saw missed them or had later made replacements and I believe without having the helmet of the above mentioned eBay auction in hand, it is difficult decide wether the ear flaps are original or not. As far as I remember the Moro helmets in the Naval Museum and the Museo Nacional de Antropologia in Madrid are complete pieces with ear flaps and cheek pieces, perhaps one of our Spanish members could check how they look like?

Here are my helmets:
A Comb-Morion, greenish-brownish patinated bronze, with one plume holder; a crack int the peak guard; ear flaps are missing,
and a Morion-Cabasset, brownish patinated bronze, three plume holders, some holes in the corpus (corrosion? faults of the casting?).
(I did not make metallographical analyses, to check the components of the alloy.)

Udo

[fernando]

I could (and should) have mentioned that the paper i took the pictures from, in my post#30, were found HERE.


,

[Oliver Pinchot]

Thanks Udo, these are great contributions.
Your Moro helmet is of the form I'm calling type 2, as noted above. Can we see images of the interior, please?

The Sulawesi helmet is beautifully wrought and embossed. As a group, these tend to be very uniform in their construction and decoration. I've noticed that in older references, this type is usually ascribed to European craftsmen. But after examining several in hand, I find nothing to support this. There is a good thread on these helmets here: http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...ulawesi+helmet The last entry by VVV is especially informative and just above that, Kino provided a nice photo of the Sultan of Celebes and his bodyguard, all of whom are wearing them.

By contrast, Sulwesi helmets are wrought of sheet, and so are far lighter than their Moro counterparts. It's well known that the Moros fought in armor; is there any data that indicates these helmets were worn in battle in the Moluccas and Sulawesi?

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Originally Posted by Oliver Pinchot

Thanks Udo, these are great contributions.
Your Moro helmet is of the form I'm calling type 2, as noted above. Can we see images of the interior, please?

The Sulawesi helmet is beautifully wrought and embossed. As a group, these tend to be very uniform in their construction and decoration. I've noticed that in older references, this type is usually ascribed to European craftsmen. But after examining several in hand, I find nothing to support this. There is a good thread on these helmets here: http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...ulawesi+helmet The last entry by VVV is especially informative and just above that, Kino provided a nice photo of the Sultan of Celebes and his bodyguard, all of whom are wearing them.

By contrast, Sulwesi helmets are wrought of sheet, and so are far lighter than their Moro counterparts. It's well known that the Moros fought in armor; is there any data that indicates these helmets were worn in battle in the Moluccas and Sulawesi?

Salaams Oliver, It is great to see your posts... Although I tend to be engrossed in Arabian ethnographics I have to say this subject you have launched is very tempting to read into...Thank you !

Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.

[Oliver Pinchot]

Salaam ya karim. La shakr al wajib!
My focus has always been the Middle East and Central Asia. It's a pleasure to explore this part of the Dar al Islam with our forum colleagues.

[Ian]

Originally Posted by fernando

I could (and should) have mentioned that the paper i took the pictures from, in my post#30, were found HERE.


,

Fernando:

Thanks for the link to this excellent reference article.

Ian

[estcrh]

Here is a link to a Pinterest site with a few more helmet and armor pictures, there are some newly edited pictures of armor details that have not been seen before.

http://www.pinterest.com/worldantiqu...d-surrounding/

[Oliver Pinchot]

Forum members, estchr has done us all a great service here in posting numerous images of Moro and Indonesian armor on Pinterest. Many of these appear to be unpublished. It seems he has also annotated the images for us; thank you, estchr! I'm sure all that work was quite time consuming.

I just received this image of a Moro helmet which is of the first type, from a collector who says it weights around 4 lbs and isn't bad to wear for short periods (I didn't want to ask....)

[Battara]

Some great examples folks and research, thank you all!

[estcrh]

Originally Posted by Oliver Pinchot

Forum members, estchr has done us all a great service here in posting numerous images of Moro and Indonesian armor on Pinterest. Many of these appear to be unpublished. It seems he has also annotated the images for us; thank you, estchr! I'm sure all that work was quite time consuming.

Thanks Oliver, the images you and other forum members posted made me decide to finally put all of the images I have collected from this region in one place. I have done this with armor and weapons from other regions and it has proven to be a valuable research tool, having a pool of images to look at in one place allows you to see similarities and differences much easier.

Here is a very interesting armor and helmet. It is described as being from the Philippines. The armor is in the form of a cuirass, it and the helmet are made from from carabao horn (Philippine water buffalo). Both items appear to be European inspired. It is in the National Museum of Anthropology, Spain.

Possibly the predecessor of the later mail and plate armor and brass helmet or just another variation?

[Spunjer]

Originally Posted by estcrh

Thanks Oliver, the images you and other forum members posted made me decide to finally put all of the images I have collected from this region in one place. I have done this with armor and weapons from other regions and it has proven to be a valuable research tool, having a pool of images to look at in one place allows you to see similarities and differences much easier.

Here is a very interesting armor and helmet. It is described as being from the Philippines. The armor is in the form of a cuirass, it and the helmet are made from from carabao horn (Philippine water buffalo). Both items appear to be European inspired. It is in the National Museum of Anthropology, Spain.

Possibly the predecessor of the later mail and plate armor and brass helmet or just another variation?

it appears that this particular style is indeed the predecessor of the mail and plate version. there's a similar one i've seen, but it was made out of carabao hide. is that yours? older still is the one on post #27, which is a facsimile of the old conquistador's cuirass.

[estcrh]

Originally Posted by Oliver Pinchot

I just received this image of a Moro helmet which is of the first type, from a collector who says it weights around 4 lbs and isn't bad to wear for short periods (I didn't want to ask....)

Oliver, it looks like the ear guards on this one may have been replaced, they do not seem to match the rest of the helmet.

Here is something that I think no one has seen, the Portuguese gold helmet presented in the early 1600s by the Portuguese to the Raja Dom Alesu Ximines da Silva (Raja of Sikka) along with 70 elephant tusks and other assorted valuable items. The Sikka royal family name was changed as a show of allegiance with the Portuguese. When I compare this helmet to other examples it appears that there are some similarities, possibly the other examples were a reflection of the original helmet.

Here are a couple of pictures of Don Jozef Thomas Ximenes da Silva, Raja van Sikka from the 1900s, showing him wearing the same 17th century helmet and posing with what I assume is some of the original ivory elephant tusks given to his family by the Portuguese in the 17th century.

Also some comparative pictures of the original gold 17th century helmet and some other known examples. Its possible that the bosses around the base of some similar helmets are mimicking the spikes around the base of the original helmet. The middle image is the only known iron example of this type of Indonesian helmet.

[fernando]

Originally Posted by estcrh

...Here is something that I think no one has seen, the Portuguese gold helmet presented in the early 1600s by the Portuguese to the Raja Dom Alesu Ximines da Silva (Raja of Sikka) along with 70 elephant tusks and other assorted valuable items. The Sikka royal family name was changed as a show of allegiance with the Portuguese...
...Here are a couple of pictures of Don Jozef Thomas Ximenes da Silva, Raja van Sikka from the 1900s, showing him wearing the same 17th century helmet and posing with what I assume is some of the original ivory elephant tusks given to his family by the Portuguese in the 17th century...

Outstanding material, estcrh.
I know nothing about helmets but, being an interested party, i browsed a bit on the subject.
I have located a blog in which the author visited Ilha das Flores in Indonesia in 2012 and had the chance to meet the Rajá of Maumere Dias Vieira Godinho, who still keeps the helmet once offered to his ancestor Dom Alexo Ximenes da Silva. Indeed this offer was made to seal an aliance, when the King of Portugal treated the Rajá as 'cousin', an attitude well kept in the heart of his descents.

I hope you guys don't get bored with these evasions from the topic

.