For more than three decades, it was thought to be a relic of the Roman era. New research, however, has shown it to be a key source of evidence for understanding the commercial and military networks of the Late Medieval Mediterranean.
For more than three decades, the 43 iron helmets discovered in 1990 off the coast of Benicarlo were Roman helmets. Fishermen removed them with their nets near the mouth of Rambla Cervera, in two large metal blocks compacted by marine corrosion. In this underwater site of Piedras de la Barbada were found amphoras, Roman anchor flakes and bronze helmets, as well as italic helmets of Montefortino of the time of the Punic Wars and a fragment of anot…