Debate Bronze Age Warriors: Why So Horny?

[Bones McCoy]

Why did so many warriors of the Bronze Age wear horned helmets?

If you are wearing a helmet, the practical intent is to protect your head of course. You want the helmet to deflect blows from swords or clubs or axes etc, or at the very least you want the helmet to get dented instead of your skull.

But putting horns on a helmet would seem to defeat that purpose; instead of skipping or glancing off, any downward blow is bound to catch on one of the horns, giving the helmet wearer a nasty jolt, possibly even breaking his neck.

So why the horns?

A likely explanation is some sort of religious or ceremonial function. Many Celtic (and Pre-Celtic) tribes had deities or spirits that were depicted with horns or antlers.

Cernunnos - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

So perhaps the warriors in horned helmets were seeking to emulate or invoke a god-form, for success in battle.

Even so, it seems like a foolish practice. By the Viking Age, war helmets were generally smooth and conical, with hardly ever any ornamentation.

What do you think?

 

[TimeFlipper]

Why did so many warriors of the Bronze Age wear horned helmets?

If you are wearing a helmet, the practical intent is to protect your head of course. You want the helmet to deflect blows from swords or clubs or axes etc, or at the very least you want the helmet to get dented instead of your skull.

But putting horns on a helmet would seem to defeat that purpose; instead of skipping or glancing off, any downward blow is bound to catch on one of the horns, giving the helmet wearer a nasty jolt, possibly even breaking his neck.

So why the horns?

A likely explanation is some sort of religious or ceremonial function. Many Celtic (and Pre-Celtic) tribes had deities or spirits that were depicted with horns or antlers.

Cernunnos - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

So perhaps the warriors in horned helmets were seeking to emulate or invoke a god-form, for success in battle.

Even so, it seems like a foolish practice. By the Viking Age, war helmets were generally smooth and conical, with hardly ever any ornamentation.

What do you think?

I love your ambiguous use of the word "Horny" ..

Perhaps the horns were used as a weapon when all their normal weapons went missing or were damaged during battles...All they had to do in such a situation was to bend their heads down and go charging at their enemy, aiming for the eyes and face ..