L'elmo del guerriero: riflessioni su armi, identità e mobilità nel mondo etrusco-italico dal VI al III secolo a.C.

The article is inspired by the discovery of an unpublished etruscan inscription – harn ste – recently identified on the inner side of a helmet of the type “mit Stirnkehle und Ohrausschnitten” (Pflug 1988), belonging to the grave goods of tomb n. 55 of the ‘Osteria’ necropolis in Vulci (mid-4th century BC), on display at the National Etruscan Museum of Villa Giulia and found in the Mengarelli-Ferraguti excavations. The interpretation of the inscription offers the cue for a reconsideration of the evolution of the ‘craft of arms’ in central Tyrrhenian Italy from the 6th to the 3th century BC. The analysis focuses in particular on the ritual, symbolic and sociological significance of helmets in warrior ideology, from the model of sodalitates masterfully reconstructed by Mario Torelli to the affirmation of mercenaries soldiers. The recurrence of inscriptions on helmets allows us to investigate phenomena such as warriors’ mobility and the circulation and reuse of weapons with a strong identity meaning like these. Even the defunctionalization and votive consecration of the helmets seem to fall within a precise ritual and symbolic language, closely linked to the more general historical and military context.