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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind production of My

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hey you welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind.

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Speaker 1: My name is Robert Lamb, and I'm Joe McCormick, and

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Speaker 1: today we're doing the Horned helm. That's right. This is

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Speaker 1: gonna be one of our essentially one of our Invention

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Speaker 1: themed episodes. But I've decided, you know, we really need

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Speaker 1: to come back to armor, and the best place to

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Speaker 1: start with armor is really the helmet. I think the

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Speaker 1: helmet is is one of these wonderful things to consider

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Speaker 1: because on the one hand, there is the more sort

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Speaker 1: of combat centric and you know, medieval uh, and even

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Speaker 1: fantasy idea of a helmet or sci fi helmets, like

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Speaker 1: you can get very fantastic with the concept. But at

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Speaker 1: a very basic level, I feel like we all have

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Speaker 1: some experience wearing a helmet, taking this bit of artificial exoskeleton,

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Speaker 1: slipping it over our own skull, and then enjoying its protection.

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Speaker 1: Do you remember the scene in cone Heads where it

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Speaker 1: is revealed that Dan Ackroyd's cone Head Belder enjoys driving

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Speaker 1: a motorcycle, but he's not a fan of helmet laws. No,

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Speaker 1: I don't remember this. Does he have a weird helmet

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Speaker 1: or he just he can't wear human helmets. I would

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Speaker 1: imagine that's the source of his frustration, because it seems

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Speaker 1: like Belder is actually normally pretty much a rule follower.

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Speaker 1: But but yeah, he doesn't like the helmets, and I

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Speaker 1: think it's probably because he has to get one custom made.

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Speaker 1: Oh man, I haven't seen that forever, but I do

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Speaker 1: remember it had a really fun stop motion monster towards

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Speaker 1: the end. Yes, yeah, yeah, Beldar has gotta fight one

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Speaker 1: with his golf skills. It also has a great line that,

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Speaker 1: for some reason is is just used for all occasions

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Speaker 1: around our house, which is your cone is too young. Well,

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Speaker 1: you know, I I don't remember if they wore helmets

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Speaker 1: in that at all, like the more like space centric

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Speaker 1: cone heads, but I feel like there was some sort

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Speaker 1: of a hornyed crown that one of them war. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I think that's right. So one of the we're gonna

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Speaker 1: be discussing helmets in general. But but one thing that

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Speaker 1: we're also going to discuss here is the idea of

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Speaker 1: the hornett helm a helmet with horns on it. It's

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Speaker 1: it's an ancient motif in human civilization, and it ties

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Speaker 1: into some of our earliest ceremonial practices and models of

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Speaker 1: imaginative thinking. There's also just something so elegant about the

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Speaker 1: idea thing that may be worn upon the head and

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Speaker 1: in doing so, transforms the individual from a mere human

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Speaker 1: into something symbolically different, a hybrid of human and beasts,

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Speaker 1: channeling the archaic, chaotic gods of the hunt. Oh yeah,

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Speaker 1: I mean it's it's theory anthropy. It's what you see

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Speaker 1: in those ancient cave paintings that's so exciting, when you

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Speaker 1: start to see the human and the animal forms joined together,

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Speaker 1: suggesting fantastical thinking. It's clearly there in the horned helmet

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Speaker 1: as well. Um, and and and so when you see

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Speaker 1: these ancient motifs. Like one example that I was looking

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Speaker 1: at before we came in here today was Roberty familiar

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Speaker 1: with the sutton who helmet. Oh yes, yes, the sudden

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Speaker 1: who helmet. I had to pull up a picture of it.

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Speaker 1: But this is one of these that I remember from

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Speaker 1: an early age seeing perhaps on the cover of a

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Speaker 1: national geographic but it was certainly featured in some sort

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Speaker 1: of historical book that I had access to as a kid. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's just spectacularly creepy. With these hollow eyes, the way

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Speaker 1: the mustache is rendered on the plate of the face covering.

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Speaker 1: I think it also had a leather component when it

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Speaker 1: was actually worn. But it's this decorated Anglo saxon helmet

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Speaker 1: from I think it was from the seventh century. It

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Speaker 1: was buried in this in this ship burial somewhere in

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Speaker 1: East Anglia. And I've actually seen this up close and

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Speaker 1: and they're there are replicas of it that are really

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Speaker 1: cool because they reproduced the artwork that would have been

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Speaker 1: originally visible on the sides and all the it's got

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Speaker 1: all these panels over it. Basically it's a helmet covered

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Speaker 1: with like comic strips, and in all the little panels

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Speaker 1: there are scenes depicted. In one of them shows these figures,

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Speaker 1: like human shaped figures with horns, apparently wearing some kind

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Speaker 1: of horned helmet. Oh wow, So evidence of hornet helmets

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Speaker 1: on a helmet. That's wonderful, Yes, but it doesn't necessarily

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Speaker 1: show the characters wearing horned helmets, say, going into battle.

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Speaker 1: It appears to have more kind of a ritual or

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Speaker 1: religious significance surrounding the horns. Yeah, and this seems to

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Speaker 1: be basically underlying the earliest versions of of this, you know,

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Speaker 1: hornet helmets go back thousands of years, as far back

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Speaker 1: as twelfth century BC. We see this in Cyprus, Bronze

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Speaker 1: Age Europe, uh and uh. Generally, the idea is that, yeah,

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Speaker 1: this probably has its origins and in against symbolic thinking

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Speaker 1: and thinking and ritual and the idea that you're transforming,

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Speaker 1: you're becoming something else, which of course has a role

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Speaker 1: in combat as well, and a role in intimidation, a

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Speaker 1: sort of role in the basic um uh behavior of

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Speaker 1: making yourself look larger than you are sure. But but

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Speaker 1: then there's also this uh, imaginative side to it. There

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Speaker 1: is this ritual aspect of melding man and beast, the

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Speaker 1: symbolic or meaningful aspects of the horns as opposed to

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Speaker 1: having some kind of like combat purpose. That really comes

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Speaker 1: through in some of the Japanese traditions you see where

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Speaker 1: like they're they're the kabuto, the Japanese warrior helmets, where

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Speaker 1: I believe a number of these helmets do actually have

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Speaker 1: horns on them, sometimes deer antlers or cattle horns, but

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Speaker 1: these would be linked to like a like a leadership

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Speaker 1: class that they would be sort of a sign that

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Speaker 1: you were a commander. Yeah, and we we definitely see

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Speaker 1: this in in the early history of helmets as well,

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Speaker 1: which we'll get into. But in terms of just the

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Speaker 1: idea of a horned helm, obviously we have a modern

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Speaker 1: connotation with Vikings. Uh. This is my understanding. I know

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Speaker 1: you're gonna get into this more. It's I think it's

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Speaker 1: largely a nineteenth century association, but uh, there are plenty

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Speaker 1: of other warriors, uh, and in symbolic warriors uh that

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Speaker 1: actually wore horneted helms in Europe. And this included Bronze

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Speaker 1: Age Danes, Medieval Germanic warriors, and then of course, so

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Speaker 1: we already mentioned Japanese samurai uh, armored warriors of Japan. Uh.

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Speaker 1: And what one also sees horns and horn like crenulations

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Speaker 1: as a common feature of crowns, which of course are

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Speaker 1: not really about protecting the head. It's more like, let's

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Speaker 1: take the thing, the symbolic thing a helmet can do,

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Speaker 1: and just not worry about any of the protective aspects

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Speaker 1: to a certain extent, Yeah, totally. So to come back

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Speaker 1: to the fact that the Vikings didn't actually wear horns,

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Speaker 1: I think this at this point that's sort of one

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Speaker 1: of those false facts that everybody knows that everybody knows

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Speaker 1: at this point, you know, like most people have heard, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: the Vikings didn't actually wear horned helmets. But the fact

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Speaker 1: about where this Viking horn association comes from is pretty

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Speaker 1: interesting and it's kind of surprising. There's a great paper

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Speaker 1: about this by a Yale linguistics professor named ROBERTA. Fry Inc.

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Speaker 1: Published in the year two thousand and it's called The

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Speaker 1: Invention of the Viking Horned Helmet. And according to Frank,

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Speaker 1: the origin of this misunderstanding that Viking warriors would wear

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Speaker 1: horned helmets into battle that lies primarily with a late

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Speaker 1: nineteenth century artist and costume designer named Carl Amile Dippler.

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Speaker 1: So Dirpler was a German artist and and was in

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Speaker 1: charge of designing costumes for an eighteen seventy six Byroid

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Speaker 1: production of Wagner's musical epic Der Ring des Nibelungen The

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Speaker 1: Ring of Nibelung, which is a is a series of works. Uh.

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Speaker 1: I think there's four different sort of phases in this

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Speaker 1: cycle by Wagner, and it takes a lot of classic

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Speaker 1: Norse mythology, but it sort of smashes it together with

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Speaker 1: ideas about German national history and all these Germanic flavors.

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Speaker 1: And one of these conflations was in Dirpler's costumes. Dippler

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Speaker 1: gave the gave several characters horned helmets, and this sparked

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Speaker 1: the popular association between Vikings, who would have been roving

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Speaker 1: Scandinavian warriors between something like the eighth and the eleventh century.

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Speaker 1: And then this idea of horned helms, which would have

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Speaker 1: actually been worn by some people, maybe some some ancient

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Speaker 1: Germanic people's, but not by the Vikings. But anyway, the

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Speaker 1: spark of this association caught on, and there were other

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Speaker 1: instances here and there, but within about twenty years it

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Speaker 1: had become much more pervasive. ROBERTA. Frank writes quote. During

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Speaker 1: the eighteen nineties, the horned helmeted Viking changed from a

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Speaker 1: series of widely scattered occurrences into a kind of weather

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Speaker 1: mass produced. Children's books were an ideal medium for imprinting

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Speaker 1: the image on the popular imagination. So it becomes a

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Speaker 1: staple of children's books. And once it's in children's media,

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Speaker 1: you know it's just going to be everywhere. Right, You're

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Speaker 1: just in indicted at such a young age that even

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Speaker 1: when you inevitably reach that point where you learn again

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Speaker 1: the idea that everybody knows the Vikings didn't have horns,

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Speaker 1: it's almost too late because that motif is just burned

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Speaker 1: into your brain. Uh so you you end up carrying

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Speaker 1: like both at the same time, contradictorily. Yeah, that's right.

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Speaker 1: And another thing that I thought was interesting that this

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Speaker 1: section was actually highlighted in a vox piece I was reading.

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Speaker 1: But this is also from ROBERTA. Frank's article. Uh. She

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Speaker 1: notes that the idea of the Viking Age as a

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Speaker 1: distinct period in European history is also actually a late

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Speaker 1: nineteenth century invention. Frank writes, quote, until the Viking Age

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Speaker 1: was invented, there was no horned, helmeted Viking, and vice versa.

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Speaker 1: The two go together like Easter and bonnet. A Viking

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Speaker 1: Age is first mentioned in eighteen seventy three in two

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Speaker 1: independent Danish and Swedish articles. The period gets its first

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Speaker 1: monumental right up in Johanna steen Strips four volume Norman Ern,

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Speaker 1: published between eighteens seventy six and eighteen eighty two. Perhaps

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Speaker 1: only an expansionist empire building era could have thought up

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Speaker 1: an age that began with naval attacks on foreign shores

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Speaker 1: and ended when these attacks ceased. So yes, to clarify,

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Speaker 1: there have been decorative horned helms in history, but the

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Speaker 1: Scandinavian warriors of the roughly eighth to eleventh century generally

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Speaker 1: did not wear helmets like this. Uh And and this

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Speaker 1: idea mostly comes from the late nineteenth century. Another thing

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Speaker 1: that I thought was kind of funny. What associations do

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Speaker 1: you get from the idea of a horned helmet? What

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Speaker 1: does that suggest about the person wearing it well and instantly?

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Speaker 1: And part of this I think has to do with

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Speaker 1: the Viking motif becoming such a central part of a

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Speaker 1: fantasy imagery as well, you know, sort of friends of Frazetta,

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Speaker 1: um Art and so forth. Is the idea that this

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Speaker 1: is what a barbarian wears on their head. This is

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Speaker 1: it's it symbolizes a barbaric or primal state of being,

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Speaker 1: exactly right. I mean that's the same way I feel

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Speaker 1: like horned helmets at a gut level signify a kind

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Speaker 1: of uncivilized brutality, like a theory anthropy mindset, where you know,

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Speaker 1: in battle, I am no longer a human, I am

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Speaker 1: a charging bull. I am a beast without reason. And

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Speaker 1: in light of that, I wanted to read a passage

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Speaker 1: that ROBERTA. Frank quotes from a novel by the historian

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Speaker 1: Alfred Dugan. This is from the King of Athelney. It's

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Speaker 1: about Alfred the Great, who was king of the Anglo

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Speaker 1: Saxons in the ninth century. And I think this part

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Speaker 1: is from Alfred's perspective. Quote on his head was one

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Speaker 1: of those impractical but imposing helmets embellished with spreading ox horns,

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Speaker 1: which among the heathen were a badge of grandeur. That

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Speaker 1: was a comforting site, implying that the pirates expected fair

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Speaker 1: play and no bloodshed. No sensible warrior would risk his

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Speaker 1: life under a helmet which could be knocked flying by

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Speaker 1: a single stroke. That isn't a full very good point,

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Speaker 1: and it really underlines too some of the forces we're

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Speaker 1: going to be discussing in in in this episode about

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Speaker 1: you know, early and important um helmet designs is that

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Speaker 1: you know you have you have the the need to

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Speaker 1: protect the head. You have this other aesthetic principle coming

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Speaker 1: into play where you want to to look cool in

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Speaker 1: the helmet or look imposing or signal something about your status.

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Speaker 1: But at the same time, you need to be able

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Speaker 1: to fight in this thing you need. You don't need

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Speaker 1: horns that can as as the author states here, that

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Speaker 1: will allow your helmet to be just taken off or

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Speaker 1: just spun around violently on your head due to essentially

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Speaker 1: a miss by the opponent. You know, you need something

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Speaker 1: that is going to have a certain level of comfort, uh,

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Speaker 1: as well as durability. Yeah, you don't want to attach

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Speaker 1: levers to your armor where it can just easily be

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Speaker 1: wrenched off of you. Right. Ideally your armor would be

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Speaker 1: really tough and would be as like flat then close

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Speaker 1: to your body as possible so that it stays put

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Speaker 1: and doesn't get dislodged. Yeah. Um. And certainly when you

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Speaker 1: start start looking at different helmets, even those that do

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Speaker 1: have some sort of a horn or spike motif the

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Speaker 1: ones that see more use to one that can certainly

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Speaker 1: be ornate, you often see something that's a little smaller

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Speaker 1: in stature. Uh. For instance, for for single horns and spikes,

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Speaker 1: we see plenty of examples of this where the top

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Speaker 1: of the helmet tapers into a spike of some sort.

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Speaker 1: There are the the the kulakud helms of Persia and

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Speaker 1: then you also have the famous pickle haba helms that

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Speaker 1: are typically associated with the Prussian and German militaries of

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Speaker 1: the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and you of course

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Speaker 1: occasionally see them in biker movies as well. Oh yeah,

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Speaker 1: if you look at a lot of Allied propaganda during

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Speaker 1: the World War One era, it would often depict the

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Speaker 1: German enemy with a with a pickle helba like a

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Speaker 1: you know, a spear on the top of its helmet. Yeah. Now,

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Speaker 1: one of the interesting things, of course, is the spear

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Speaker 1: has no real offensive purpose. You know that you're not

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Speaker 1: gonna like, uh, you know, bend over and then run

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Speaker 1: into combat and try and stab people with the top

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Speaker 1: of your head. But there is a fun scene I

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Speaker 1: don't know if it has any even remotely you know,

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Speaker 1: historic counterpart. But there was a film written and directed

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Speaker 1: by James Clavell of Showgun and uh the Fly Fame,

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Speaker 1: and it is titled The Last Valley, and there's a

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Speaker 1: scene in which Michael Kine's character, who wears one of

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Speaker 1: these helmets, has casually taken it off for some sort

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Speaker 1: of conversation and then use it to murder the other

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Speaker 1: individual by stabbing them in the chest with it, and

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Speaker 1: then is it like the purloined letter, like they never

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Speaker 1: know to look for the murder weapon on top of

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Speaker 1: his head. Oh. I mean he does it in front

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Speaker 1: of numerous people, so it's it's not so much a

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Speaker 1: murder mystery as more of a uh you know, I

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Speaker 1: don't think it's completely governed by the rules of war.

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Speaker 1: It's kind of a shady act. But essentially, like he

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Speaker 1: and his bunch, if I remember correctly there, they're essentially defecting.

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Speaker 1: They find this this valley that's untouched by the wars

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Speaker 1: ravaging the countrysides around them, and they're like, well, hell,

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Speaker 1: we're just gonna stay here, but I need to kill

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Speaker 1: this guy first with my helmet. You never trust to

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Speaker 1: Michael Caine. Uh. You know, we already touched on some

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Speaker 1: of the fantasy elements here, but I know that I

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Speaker 1: grew up with a lot of Warhammer and Warhammer forty

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Speaker 1: thousand imagery in my head, and they always had these

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Speaker 1: really horned up chaos warriors where they had really almost

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Speaker 1: like this exaggerated Viking heilm motif. Uh. Sometimes the horns

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Speaker 1: met in the middle and kind of formed a ring,

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Speaker 1: but other times they were just straight up horns um elsewhere,

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Speaker 1: and I like current popular culture, you see a lot

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Speaker 1: of cool horns. For instance, Marvel's version of Loki often

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Speaker 1: dresses up with a helm that has some just ridiculous

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Speaker 1: horns spiraling out of the top of it. Uh. If

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Speaker 1: you watch The Mandalorian, there's actually a horned Mandalorian that

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Speaker 1: pops up in that show, character called the Armor. And

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Speaker 1: then um and then I was also thinking, as long

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Speaker 1: as we're talking about Disney, there's a sleeping beauty have

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Speaker 1: Maleficent two has these horns that are either I'm not

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Speaker 1: I was never entirely clear if those were part of

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Speaker 1: her body or just part of her fantastic wardrobe. You know,

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Speaker 1: I gotta say I've always been partial to Tim the

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Speaker 1: Enchanter from Monty Python on the Holy Grail, of course,

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Speaker 1: with his rams horns, which I don't recall exactly, but

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Speaker 1: it looks almost like they're more attached to like a

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Speaker 1: hood than a helmet. I guess that's the thing when

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Speaker 1: you get into a magic user, right, like, what where

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Speaker 1: does the the magical individual end in the magical costume begin?

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Speaker 1: You're not entirely certain. Yeah, and this would bring us

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Speaker 1: back to the idea of somebody with a kind of

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Speaker 1: shamonic stature, right he's supposed to have. It suggests a

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Speaker 1: hybrid nature animal human power, that kind of thing. Now,

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Speaker 1: in terms of just sort of the transformative aspects of

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Speaker 1: the helmet itself, we of course see plenty of examples

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Speaker 1: of this in in our media. Uh Um, you know

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Speaker 1: it goes everything from Darth Vader's helmet being such an

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Speaker 1: iconic example of this too. So many different slasher villains

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Speaker 1: in horror, you know, they have some sort of signature

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Speaker 1: mask or masks that they wear. And I was thinking,

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Speaker 1: as cool as all those various masks are, I can't

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Speaker 1: think of a hornet example of that, you know, an

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Speaker 1: idea of like some sort of a slasher murderer character

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Speaker 1: who has a helmet or a mask that incorporates horns. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I couldn't think of one either, though I do think

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Speaker 1: a good horned monster it would be wonderful. And it's

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Speaker 1: underused in cinema. I've long maintained I think we've actually

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Speaker 1: talked about this before, that the minotaur is one of

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Speaker 1: the most under realized monsters in modern cinema. The minotaur

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Speaker 1: should be so terrifying if rendered with the proper care

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Speaker 1: the carrot deserves. But you know, I strained to think

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Speaker 1: of good minotaurs in modern movies. Yeah, I mean there

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Speaker 1: there have been some. There have been some good ones

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Speaker 1: in the past few decades, but yeah, nothing recently. We'll

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Speaker 1: have to get into this when we inevitably come back

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Speaker 1: into an episode on the minotaur. Um. You know, I

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Speaker 1: was looking. I was trying to think though about horror

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Speaker 1: film masks, and there is a very minotaur esque looking

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Speaker 1: mask that shows up, apparently one of the Purge films,

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Speaker 1: so it's a Purge mask with horns. But having not

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Speaker 1: actually seen any of these movies, I don't know if

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Speaker 1: this is a major perjurer or a marginal perjur. It's

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Speaker 1: just a background perjured. I'm not really sure how this

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Speaker 1: thing works, but it's it's a cool looking, essentially a

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Speaker 1: minotar mask. I'm thinking one of these days in the

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Speaker 1: in the Purge movies, they're just gonna get down to

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Speaker 1: like the Marie Hondo kind of level, where it's more

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Speaker 1: about like possessions, things you don't need than than humans. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: I have no idea how how detailed they get in

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Speaker 1: their world building in the show I think he did

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Speaker 1: a TV series which I hope gets into like white collar,

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Speaker 1: purge crimes and so forth. I mean, there's so many

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Speaker 1: dimensions to that, like what are the full rules here?

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Speaker 1: And is it just murders legal or like other crimes

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Speaker 1: as well. I know the movies must address this, but

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Speaker 1: but I don't think I'm going to find out. Yeah, well,

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Speaker 1: listeners will have to let us know you watch it

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Speaker 1: so we don't have to. But you know, when you

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Speaker 1: think about the helmet not as a decoration, I mean

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Speaker 1: most of what we've been talking about is idea decoration

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Speaker 1: and trying to create visual significance. When you think about

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Speaker 1: the helmet as a practical invention, I love that it's

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Speaker 1: pretty much just creating a second skull. You've already got

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Speaker 1: a skull. It's a hard casing that covers the brain.

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Speaker 1: And then some people got the idea of what if

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Speaker 1: I just did another one on top. Yeah, I guess

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Speaker 1: you could basically think of it this way in terms

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Speaker 1: of human on human violence, Like the skull does a

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Speaker 1: pretty good job protecting against um, you know, fists and kicks,

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Speaker 1: and I'll not to say that it can't be fractured

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Speaker 1: in those encounters as well. But once you start involving

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Speaker 1: tools um offensive tools like it is the it is

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Speaker 1: such an elegant um defensive tool to develop as well. Like, Okay,

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00:20:03,280 --> 00:20:07,080
Speaker 1: if you're going to upgrade your strikes with pieces of

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Speaker 1: bone and uh and and you know, stones and so forth,

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Speaker 1: then I want to have something around my head that

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Speaker 1: at least cushions the blow if if if not shields

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00:20:18,119 --> 00:20:20,879
Speaker 1: me from from some of the more direct violence that

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Speaker 1: is inherent your attack. Yeah, that actually highlights that there

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Speaker 1: are a couple of different physics issues going on when

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Speaker 1: you're creating a helmet, right. One of them is you

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Speaker 1: want to prevent like just direct injury to the outer tissues,

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Speaker 1: like to the skin and the bone of your skull,

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Speaker 1: because obviously you don't want fractures in your skull. But

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Speaker 1: another thing is, even if nothing would break through, you

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Speaker 1: also want to provide a certain amount of padding that

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Speaker 1: will slow the rate of acceleration caused by jostling of

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Speaker 1: the head and different directions. You know, when you get

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Speaker 1: hit in the head, A lot of what can hurt

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Speaker 1: you is if your brain suddenly slashes too fast against

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Speaker 1: the inside of your skull from the acceleration of the blow.

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Speaker 1: So like a football, helmet works because it pads that out,

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Speaker 1: it slows it down. Yeah, So hopefully this provides a

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Speaker 1: good a good initial overview of what helmets are and

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Speaker 1: some of the different roles they play. But this leads

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Speaker 1: to the most obvious question, is this just a human thing?

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Speaker 1: Is this pure human technology? Or do we because essentially

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00:21:21,520 --> 00:21:23,359
Speaker 1: it is tool used, do we see this sort of

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Speaker 1: tool use in other animals out there? Well, we're going

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Speaker 1: to answer that question after we come back. Thank thank

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Speaker 1: thank Alright, we're back, So we're asking the question, Hey,

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Speaker 1: do any animals wear helmets? Okay, so essentially no, um,

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Speaker 1: I mean, there's some caveats. I guess it. It basically

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Speaker 1: comes down to how far are you willing to stretch

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Speaker 1: the idea of a helmet. So, for instance, hermit crabs,

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Speaker 1: obviously they're they're acquiring a shell from another organism and

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Speaker 1: using them as additional armor over their own exoskelets, and

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Speaker 1: and uh, you know, they're not wearing it on their head.

390
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Speaker 1: But then that didn't make sense. Why would they wear

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Speaker 1: just something over their head. They're going to cover their

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Speaker 1: whole body. It's more like a mineral diaper, I guess yeah,

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00:22:11,680 --> 00:22:16,040
Speaker 1: a mineral diaper. Uh. You Also there are examples of

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00:22:16,040 --> 00:22:18,920
Speaker 1: of octopi using you know, coconut husts that sort of thing.

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Speaker 1: But again, I don't know if i'd really qualify that

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Speaker 1: as a helmet as like as specifically the shielding of

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Speaker 1: one's skull, of one hit one's head, of one's brain

398
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Speaker 1: with some sort of additional layering. I think a thing

399
00:22:32,880 --> 00:22:35,280
Speaker 1: we're also going to run into with with this question

400
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Speaker 1: about animals is, um, how external is the head covering

401
00:22:41,119 --> 00:22:45,280
Speaker 1: originally because they're there are lots lots of animals obviously

402
00:22:45,400 --> 00:22:49,080
Speaker 1: that have natural shielding of the head that's just part

403
00:22:49,080 --> 00:22:51,440
Speaker 1: of their body. And then you have the hermit crab,

404
00:22:51,480 --> 00:22:53,240
Speaker 1: which of course it's not on the head, but it

405
00:22:53,359 --> 00:22:56,919
Speaker 1: like picks up something from the environment and uses that

406
00:22:57,000 --> 00:22:59,159
Speaker 1: as armor. And then you've got some stuff that's going

407
00:22:59,200 --> 00:23:02,800
Speaker 1: to be kind of in between those two extremes. Yeah. Yeah,

408
00:23:02,800 --> 00:23:05,560
Speaker 1: And and so certainly again you have plenty of creatures

409
00:23:05,560 --> 00:23:09,880
Speaker 1: that have some fabulous armor around the head, but it's

410
00:23:09,920 --> 00:23:13,360
Speaker 1: not something that they have acquired or created. Um. Yeah,

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00:23:13,480 --> 00:23:17,359
Speaker 1: And you also have these um activities that seem cantalizingly

412
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Speaker 1: close to, if not helmet wearing that at least hat technology.

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Speaker 1: Guerillas certainly have been observed to put straw on their

414
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Speaker 1: bodies and on their head. Uh. I mean, I've seen

415
00:23:28,240 --> 00:23:31,080
Speaker 1: this before at the zoo multiple times. It's always amusing.

416
00:23:31,119 --> 00:23:33,200
Speaker 1: It's you know, oh, the gorilla put put some straw

417
00:23:33,200 --> 00:23:36,040
Speaker 1: in its head. Now it's walking around. But this seems

418
00:23:36,160 --> 00:23:39,800
Speaker 1: at best aligned with keeping sun or rain off. But

419
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Speaker 1: I've also seen it discussed in terms of a quote

420
00:23:43,240 --> 00:23:46,239
Speaker 1: straw wave, which I take to mean that it's more

421
00:23:46,280 --> 00:23:50,480
Speaker 1: about gesticulating and play versus doing anything with the straw

422
00:23:50,560 --> 00:23:53,920
Speaker 1: that is actually functional. Um. At any rate, I'm not

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00:23:53,960 --> 00:23:56,840
Speaker 1: sure how qualified as as hat wearing. Yeah, if you

424
00:23:56,960 --> 00:24:00,280
Speaker 1: qualified that, then you might also want to qualify well

425
00:24:00,359 --> 00:24:04,040
Speaker 1: as So let's say elephants often would cover the tops

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00:24:04,040 --> 00:24:07,080
Speaker 1: of their heads or backs with mud in order to

427
00:24:07,080 --> 00:24:10,040
Speaker 1: to shield themselves in various ways. Would that count as

428
00:24:10,040 --> 00:24:12,960
Speaker 1: a hat? I don't really think so. Yeah. Yeah, I

429
00:24:13,000 --> 00:24:15,560
Speaker 1: mean if you walk from a human standpoint, like if

430
00:24:15,560 --> 00:24:18,840
Speaker 1: a human walked into a fine restaurant with their their

431
00:24:18,880 --> 00:24:21,680
Speaker 1: bald head covered in mud, no one would say, I'm sorry,

432
00:24:21,680 --> 00:24:24,879
Speaker 1: you have to take your hat off the side. So, uh,

433
00:24:25,480 --> 00:24:27,639
Speaker 1: where we're getting into silly territory here, because I do

434
00:24:27,800 --> 00:24:31,240
Speaker 1: have at least one example of an animal, actually a

435
00:24:31,280 --> 00:24:35,640
Speaker 1: few different species that do wear something like a helmet

436
00:24:35,760 --> 00:24:38,960
Speaker 1: or a hat, and we ultimately have to to cheat

437
00:24:38,960 --> 00:24:41,200
Speaker 1: a little bit to to to count this as well.

438
00:24:41,440 --> 00:24:43,960
Speaker 1: But we actually end up hitting on another favorite trend

439
00:24:44,119 --> 00:24:47,160
Speaker 1: of mine in fictional helmets, and that is skeletal helms.

440
00:24:47,760 --> 00:24:50,240
Speaker 1: Uh so like rattle shirt in a Song of Ice

441
00:24:50,320 --> 00:24:53,040
Speaker 1: and Fire or the what is a general kale or

442
00:24:53,160 --> 00:24:57,880
Speaker 1: kale from the movie Willow? Yeah, a bone helmet? Sure,

443
00:24:58,119 --> 00:25:01,440
Speaker 1: so obviously that's cool wearing a larger skull over your

444
00:25:01,480 --> 00:25:03,760
Speaker 1: own skull as some sort of a helmet. But what

445
00:25:03,840 --> 00:25:06,600
Speaker 1: if you uh and then likewise, if you wore a

446
00:25:06,600 --> 00:25:08,400
Speaker 1: skull as a hat, that would be kind of goth

447
00:25:08,480 --> 00:25:11,200
Speaker 1: in weird, right, But what if you simply didn't simply

448
00:25:11,240 --> 00:25:14,359
Speaker 1: wear a skull on your head? Uh? What if you

449
00:25:14,359 --> 00:25:17,800
Speaker 1: wore your own skull as a helmet? And heck, what

450
00:25:17,920 --> 00:25:21,679
Speaker 1: if you wore a stack of skulls on top of

451
00:25:21,720 --> 00:25:25,840
Speaker 1: your head as this sort of weird tapering hat. Then

452
00:25:25,880 --> 00:25:29,200
Speaker 1: I'd say you are a fashion innovator. I mean I

453
00:25:29,359 --> 00:25:31,920
Speaker 1: have never seen someone with a stack of their own

454
00:25:31,960 --> 00:25:34,640
Speaker 1: skulls as a hat. But now now I must see it,

455
00:25:35,040 --> 00:25:37,520
Speaker 1: but you would, you'd be a Johnny come Lately because

456
00:25:37,760 --> 00:25:40,760
Speaker 1: the fashion world is far behind the natural world on

457
00:25:40,800 --> 00:25:43,439
Speaker 1: this one. Because this is roughly what we see with

458
00:25:43,520 --> 00:25:47,560
Speaker 1: the caterpillar of the moth. Rabba Lugan's a k a.

459
00:25:47,840 --> 00:25:51,320
Speaker 1: The mad hat a pillar a k a. The gum

460
00:25:51,400 --> 00:25:55,320
Speaker 1: leaf skeletonizer. That that last nickname is due to the

461
00:25:55,320 --> 00:25:58,080
Speaker 1: way it ravages Eucalyptus leaves um and nothing to do

462
00:25:58,160 --> 00:26:00,639
Speaker 1: with its its hat. As we're going to just guys,

463
00:26:00,680 --> 00:26:05,560
Speaker 1: But Luraba luggans is native to Australia in New Zealand,

464
00:26:05,960 --> 00:26:10,200
Speaker 1: and the key here is it's molding, which which Luggans

465
00:26:10,240 --> 00:26:14,359
Speaker 1: does thirteen times during its catapult propillar stage, regularly shedding

466
00:26:14,400 --> 00:26:17,720
Speaker 1: its exoskeleton as it grows. Now, well, I think we're

467
00:26:17,720 --> 00:26:20,280
Speaker 1: all familiar with this sort of molding, uh, the idea

468
00:26:20,280 --> 00:26:23,960
Speaker 1: of leaving behind, you know, this shell of your former exoskeleton.

469
00:26:24,359 --> 00:26:27,760
Speaker 1: You see this in a numerous species. But what Uraba

470
00:26:27,840 --> 00:26:31,119
Speaker 1: does is something a little bit interesting. It keeps the

471
00:26:31,119 --> 00:26:34,639
Speaker 1: exoskeleton head that it just sized out of and it

472
00:26:34,720 --> 00:26:38,160
Speaker 1: remains atop its current head and then when it molts again.

473
00:26:38,680 --> 00:26:41,040
Speaker 1: Why it does the same thing, so that it's wearing

474
00:26:41,080 --> 00:26:43,719
Speaker 1: an exoskeleton of its head like a hat that in

475
00:26:43,760 --> 00:26:46,800
Speaker 1: turn has a smaller exoskeleton helm on top of it.

476
00:26:47,080 --> 00:26:51,160
Speaker 1: And this keeps going and going in a very Susian fashion,

477
00:26:51,440 --> 00:26:54,560
Speaker 1: so that the heads taper off in a stack atop

478
00:26:54,640 --> 00:26:57,760
Speaker 1: the creature's own head. Yeah. So to picture this, I mean,

479
00:26:57,800 --> 00:26:59,440
Speaker 1: you should look it up if you can. But if

480
00:26:59,440 --> 00:27:02,600
Speaker 1: you can't, remember again, the purpose of molting is to

481
00:27:02,680 --> 00:27:05,480
Speaker 1: allow an animal with an exo skeleton to grow bigger.

482
00:27:05,760 --> 00:27:10,320
Speaker 1: So each previous exoskeleton was smaller than the current animal,

483
00:27:10,880 --> 00:27:14,000
Speaker 1: So the heads just keep getting smaller as they go up.

484
00:27:14,080 --> 00:27:17,119
Speaker 1: It's like a stack of beads of diminishing size with

485
00:27:17,200 --> 00:27:20,880
Speaker 1: this tiny original head perched on top. It's like if

486
00:27:20,920 --> 00:27:27,119
Speaker 1: you made a snowman out of exoskeleton heads of a

487
00:27:27,160 --> 00:27:30,119
Speaker 1: caterpillar and they're on top of the head of a caterpillar.

488
00:27:30,359 --> 00:27:32,920
Speaker 1: It's really weird. You. I highly recommend people look up

489
00:27:33,119 --> 00:27:35,600
Speaker 1: a picture of this. It is uh, you are a

490
00:27:35,680 --> 00:27:39,600
Speaker 1: B A l U G E N s well worth

491
00:27:39,640 --> 00:27:41,840
Speaker 1: the price of a Google search. Yeah and uh. And

492
00:27:42,200 --> 00:27:47,040
Speaker 1: scientists generally refer to this as head capsule stacking. And

493
00:27:47,119 --> 00:27:49,760
Speaker 1: the interesting thing is that you might look at anythink well,

494
00:27:49,760 --> 00:27:52,479
Speaker 1: this is weird. Is the weird quirk, But it's it's

495
00:27:52,520 --> 00:27:54,840
Speaker 1: not a quirk. It it seems to play a role

496
00:27:55,240 --> 00:27:58,679
Speaker 1: in the caterpillars survival. Now. One of our favorite science writers,

497
00:27:58,920 --> 00:28:01,760
Speaker 1: Ed Young, wrote about the species back in two thousands

498
00:28:01,840 --> 00:28:05,080
Speaker 1: sixteen for National Geographic and he pointed out that back

499
00:28:05,119 --> 00:28:10,280
Speaker 1: in nineteen Australian entomologist Noel McFarland merely speculated that it

500
00:28:10,359 --> 00:28:14,919
Speaker 1: might serve these already large bristly caterpillars by serving as

501
00:28:14,960 --> 00:28:18,200
Speaker 1: a head tail decoy for hungry birds. So a bird

502
00:28:18,400 --> 00:28:21,439
Speaker 1: swoops in SE's, oh there's something tasty, I'm gonna try

503
00:28:21,480 --> 00:28:24,520
Speaker 1: and snatch it away, But instead of snatching onto its

504
00:28:24,520 --> 00:28:27,520
Speaker 1: head or tail, it just takes off some crunchy exoskeleton debts.

505
00:28:27,920 --> 00:28:30,120
Speaker 1: So in a way, this would be a form of autotomy.

506
00:28:30,240 --> 00:28:32,480
Speaker 1: So it would be like when a lizard that is

507
00:28:32,520 --> 00:28:35,840
Speaker 1: being attacked by a predator can detach its own tail,

508
00:28:36,080 --> 00:28:38,920
Speaker 1: sort of as a as a consolation prize to the predator,

509
00:28:39,040 --> 00:28:42,160
Speaker 1: allowing the rest of the lizard to escape, Except in

510
00:28:42,200 --> 00:28:46,000
Speaker 1: this case it doesn't even have to be living tissue.

511
00:28:46,040 --> 00:28:49,440
Speaker 1: If this interpretation was correct, it would be an example

512
00:28:49,480 --> 00:28:52,880
Speaker 1: of autotomy, or what you're giving away is like dead

513
00:28:53,200 --> 00:28:56,960
Speaker 1: former exoskeleton material that you is not even a living

514
00:28:57,000 --> 00:28:59,560
Speaker 1: part of your body anymore, right, But it's it's a

515
00:28:59,600 --> 00:29:02,120
Speaker 1: perfect replica of your own anatomy because it used to

516
00:29:02,120 --> 00:29:05,160
Speaker 1: be part of your own anatomy. So there is this

517
00:29:05,320 --> 00:29:09,320
Speaker 1: weird genius to it. However, um, one of the our

518
00:29:09,440 --> 00:29:12,600
Speaker 1: counter arguments here is that this is already a pretty

519
00:29:13,400 --> 00:29:16,560
Speaker 1: well armored little caterpillar. I mean, it's a caterpillar, so

520
00:29:16,640 --> 00:29:18,200
Speaker 1: you know it's not going to you know, stand up

521
00:29:18,200 --> 00:29:21,400
Speaker 1: against the Sherman tank or anything. But it's very briskly,

522
00:29:21,480 --> 00:29:23,840
Speaker 1: it does not look like it does not invite you

523
00:29:23,920 --> 00:29:26,440
Speaker 1: to touch it or stroke it with your finger, and

524
00:29:26,520 --> 00:29:31,040
Speaker 1: likewise it would potentially be a problematic meal for you know,

525
00:29:31,600 --> 00:29:35,240
Speaker 1: for just a casual predator. But but the the other

526
00:29:35,320 --> 00:29:38,520
Speaker 1: question is, well, okay, what about other enemies? Uh. You know,

527
00:29:38,720 --> 00:29:42,720
Speaker 1: clearly an insect in this world does not have to

528
00:29:42,760 --> 00:29:45,600
Speaker 1: worry just about the birds. It also has to worry

529
00:29:45,640 --> 00:29:50,400
Speaker 1: about other invertebrate predators and also things like parasitic wasps.

530
00:29:50,880 --> 00:29:54,560
Speaker 1: So Pedalow from the University of Sydney investigated to just

531
00:29:54,640 --> 00:29:58,760
Speaker 1: see how these uh, these caterpillars with or without hats

532
00:29:58,760 --> 00:30:03,120
Speaker 1: would stack up against some sort of an adversary, essentially

533
00:30:03,160 --> 00:30:07,880
Speaker 1: by conducting Petrie dish death matches, removing the head hats

534
00:30:07,880 --> 00:30:10,840
Speaker 1: on some specimens, leaving them on with others. So we've

535
00:30:10,880 --> 00:30:14,920
Speaker 1: got bug fights for science here exactly. So Young writes

536
00:30:14,960 --> 00:30:18,160
Speaker 1: about this and says, quote the bugs readily attacked, trying

537
00:30:18,200 --> 00:30:21,720
Speaker 1: to drive their stabbing mouth parts into the caterpillar's heads.

538
00:30:22,160 --> 00:30:26,440
Speaker 1: In response, the caterpillars thrashed, curled up, reared up, and vomited.

539
00:30:27,000 --> 00:30:30,160
Speaker 1: Those with hats use their stacks to deflect or absorb

540
00:30:30,240 --> 00:30:35,200
Speaker 1: the bugs attacks, leading to more protracted struggles. Okay, that's

541
00:30:35,240 --> 00:30:37,240
Speaker 1: pretty good, and I love the imagery there of this,

542
00:30:37,400 --> 00:30:40,239
Speaker 1: just because I feel like it just really escalated there,

543
00:30:40,280 --> 00:30:42,960
Speaker 1: especially with the rearing up and vomiting. Yeah, I would

544
00:30:42,960 --> 00:30:45,400
Speaker 1: say that's good fighting advice for anybody. If you get

545
00:30:45,440 --> 00:30:48,640
Speaker 1: into a scrap, curl up, rear up, thrash, and vomit,

546
00:30:48,760 --> 00:30:52,160
Speaker 1: and then use your own skulls from previous moltens to

547
00:30:52,280 --> 00:30:56,640
Speaker 1: deflect your attacker. Now, the interesting thing, though, is that

548
00:30:56,680 --> 00:30:58,520
Speaker 1: this sounds good, and one would be tempted to stop

549
00:30:58,560 --> 00:31:00,479
Speaker 1: reading there right and say, like, all right, well, that's it,

550
00:31:00,520 --> 00:31:04,280
Speaker 1: that's what they're for. But in the lab experiments, they

551
00:31:04,280 --> 00:31:07,120
Speaker 1: found that the head hats didn't actually make a difference

552
00:31:07,160 --> 00:31:11,440
Speaker 1: on survival rates. The predatory bug gladiators they were up

553
00:31:11,440 --> 00:31:15,080
Speaker 1: against still tended to win. So PETA checked in the

554
00:31:15,120 --> 00:31:18,240
Speaker 1: field and found the same thing, except that except that

555
00:31:18,280 --> 00:31:21,040
Speaker 1: when they battled in groups, that seemed to make the difference.

556
00:31:21,040 --> 00:31:25,040
Speaker 1: In groups, the hats double their chances of survival. And

557
00:31:25,080 --> 00:31:28,240
Speaker 1: this was mainly by providing a false target for attackers.

558
00:31:28,520 --> 00:31:31,640
Speaker 1: And in these cases, it seems like these this this

559
00:31:31,800 --> 00:31:36,719
Speaker 1: skull hats give the caterpillars a slide advantage. But it's uh,

560
00:31:36,800 --> 00:31:39,240
Speaker 1: you know, it's not gonna work against all predators, especially

561
00:31:39,320 --> 00:31:42,719
Speaker 1: highly motivated predators, but it will give them an advantage

562
00:31:42,760 --> 00:31:45,840
Speaker 1: if they're fighting in groups. I think something that's often

563
00:31:45,840 --> 00:31:48,920
Speaker 1: true about evolution is every little bit helps. Even if

564
00:31:48,960 --> 00:31:52,320
Speaker 1: something only provides a small advantage, it's often retained. Yeah,

565
00:31:52,400 --> 00:31:55,640
Speaker 1: and the really wonderful part about this, like ultimately the

566
00:31:55,760 --> 00:31:58,800
Speaker 1: evolutionary genius of it is that they're not producing they're

567
00:31:58,800 --> 00:32:01,720
Speaker 1: not expending reese hources to produce some sort of crazy

568
00:32:01,840 --> 00:32:05,400
Speaker 1: shell or a toxic secretion or some sort of weird

569
00:32:05,960 --> 00:32:09,280
Speaker 1: organic battle horn. They're simply making use of their own

570
00:32:09,320 --> 00:32:13,480
Speaker 1: bodily leavings. They're they're they're hanging on to an already

571
00:32:13,520 --> 00:32:16,320
Speaker 1: necessary byproduct of they're molting. They're just keeping it on

572
00:32:16,360 --> 00:32:20,920
Speaker 1: top of their head. This is recycling. Yeah, it's essentially recycling. Uh.

573
00:32:20,960 --> 00:32:23,760
Speaker 1: And and they're they're not alone. There apparently several other

574
00:32:23,800 --> 00:32:25,960
Speaker 1: species of caterpillar that do the same thing, and you'll

575
00:32:26,000 --> 00:32:29,040
Speaker 1: find them in India, Japan, in Europe. So if you're

576
00:32:29,080 --> 00:32:31,640
Speaker 1: in those areas and you ever find one of these

577
00:32:31,640 --> 00:32:35,320
Speaker 1: caterpillars that seems to have this bizarre head formation or

578
00:32:35,520 --> 00:32:38,640
Speaker 1: have some sort of weird hat, that's what you're looking at. Now.

579
00:32:38,720 --> 00:32:42,080
Speaker 1: In terms of human analogs for this, if we turn

580
00:32:42,120 --> 00:32:45,000
Speaker 1: it back on humans, uh, we don't really see anything

581
00:32:45,040 --> 00:32:47,480
Speaker 1: like this at all. I don't think we've ever seen

582
00:32:47,800 --> 00:32:49,800
Speaker 1: a human build, say, a suit of armor out of

583
00:32:49,800 --> 00:32:53,800
Speaker 1: their own nail clippings. Yeah. I was trying to find

584
00:32:54,120 --> 00:32:57,680
Speaker 1: another good example of an animal wearing a helmet that's

585
00:32:57,760 --> 00:33:01,240
Speaker 1: not generated by its own body, and I couldn't find

586
00:33:01,280 --> 00:33:05,480
Speaker 1: anything exactly like that, but there are some interesting comparisons. So,

587
00:33:05,600 --> 00:33:08,440
Speaker 1: of course you already mentioned the hermit crab um, but

588
00:33:08,520 --> 00:33:11,240
Speaker 1: that's not a helmet. There is another thing that's not

589
00:33:11,320 --> 00:33:13,280
Speaker 1: quite a helmet, but I did think was interesting. I

590
00:33:13,320 --> 00:33:15,960
Speaker 1: was reading about the catius fly, which is a widely

591
00:33:16,040 --> 00:33:20,080
Speaker 1: distributed order of freshwater flies. If you've ever seen a

592
00:33:20,280 --> 00:33:23,520
Speaker 1: somebody go fly fishing, Robert, have you ever been fly fishing? No,

593
00:33:23,640 --> 00:33:26,760
Speaker 1: but I've I've I've watched it and it's really cool looking. Yeah,

594
00:33:26,760 --> 00:33:30,600
Speaker 1: it is the hopping motion. I think. Apparently a lot

595
00:33:30,680 --> 00:33:34,080
Speaker 1: of fly fishing lures are designed on the basis of

596
00:33:34,160 --> 00:33:38,680
Speaker 1: catous flies because these are widespread freshwater flies and in

597
00:33:39,120 --> 00:33:42,800
Speaker 1: its larval stage, many species of catous fly will create

598
00:33:42,840 --> 00:33:46,200
Speaker 1: what are known as cases that they carry around with them.

599
00:33:46,240 --> 00:33:49,520
Speaker 1: These are rigid, protective structures that they wear sort of

600
00:33:49,520 --> 00:33:53,600
Speaker 1: like clothes. Most examples I've seen are roughly tube shaped.

601
00:33:53,720 --> 00:33:57,480
Speaker 1: They're made out of silk weaving that comes from the

602
00:33:57,560 --> 00:34:00,360
Speaker 1: from the larva itself, but then it's rein four with

603
00:34:00,440 --> 00:34:05,440
Speaker 1: external material like sand rocks, plant matter like wood or bark.

604
00:34:06,200 --> 00:34:09,080
Speaker 1: Though it's not really a helmet, it seems like usually

605
00:34:09,120 --> 00:34:12,640
Speaker 1: the head protrudes and the four limbs are used to

606
00:34:12,719 --> 00:34:16,120
Speaker 1: kind of drag the case around over the body while

607
00:34:16,200 --> 00:34:18,680
Speaker 1: the larva is searching for food. So imagine like a

608
00:34:18,719 --> 00:34:22,720
Speaker 1: tube made out of rocks or plant matter or something

609
00:34:22,760 --> 00:34:25,799
Speaker 1: held together by silk, with part of a little fly

610
00:34:26,000 --> 00:34:28,560
Speaker 1: larva sticking out the front of it and crawling around.

611
00:34:29,120 --> 00:34:33,880
Speaker 1: It's pretty grim looking. I don't know, it's uh, I

612
00:34:33,920 --> 00:34:37,360
Speaker 1: don't know it's it's it's not an elegant design. It

613
00:34:37,360 --> 00:34:39,920
Speaker 1: looks a little bit trashy. Well, speaking of trashy, we're

614
00:34:39,920 --> 00:34:42,880
Speaker 1: about to get even trash here, because there are also

615
00:34:42,960 --> 00:34:46,440
Speaker 1: a number of lacewing species that are known to decorate

616
00:34:46,480 --> 00:34:51,520
Speaker 1: their bodies with various substances for defense against various predators

617
00:34:51,520 --> 00:34:54,840
Speaker 1: like ants and other things. For example, the larva of

618
00:34:54,920 --> 00:34:59,800
Speaker 1: the green lacewing, where the scientific name is Malata des ardenz.

619
00:35:00,760 --> 00:35:03,720
Speaker 1: This one has an interesting adaptation. It covers its back

620
00:35:03,840 --> 00:35:09,080
Speaker 1: with stuff mostly I think dead aphids and debris and uh,

621
00:35:09,160 --> 00:35:13,000
Speaker 1: and then also secretions from its own body, and this

622
00:35:13,080 --> 00:35:16,319
Speaker 1: forms in a way a type of defensive helmet which

623
00:35:16,360 --> 00:35:20,880
Speaker 1: protects it from attacks by one of its competitors and predators,

624
00:35:20,920 --> 00:35:25,719
Speaker 1: the Asian lady beetle or Harmonia exyritus. So I think

625
00:35:25,840 --> 00:35:29,279
Speaker 1: that the lady beetle and the lacewing or actually competing

626
00:35:29,400 --> 00:35:31,959
Speaker 1: for some of the same prey that they might both

627
00:35:32,040 --> 00:35:35,080
Speaker 1: be preying on aphids, but then also the lady beetle

628
00:35:35,120 --> 00:35:38,640
Speaker 1: can prey on the lacewing larva. Yeah. I'm looking at

629
00:35:38,640 --> 00:35:41,239
Speaker 1: a picture of this and it's it's like some sort

630
00:35:41,280 --> 00:35:45,640
Speaker 1: of weird insect necro armor. It's great. Yeah, I mean

631
00:35:45,680 --> 00:35:48,040
Speaker 1: this is the Lord of bones here. Uh so, so

632
00:35:48,080 --> 00:35:50,040
Speaker 1: this is a helmet in a way. Again, it's not

633
00:35:50,160 --> 00:35:52,719
Speaker 1: exactly covering the head, but I don't know if you

634
00:35:52,800 --> 00:35:56,160
Speaker 1: stretch the definition. It's a top down covering as the

635
00:35:56,200 --> 00:35:58,759
Speaker 1: animal would be crawling along on a leaf, say, and

636
00:35:58,840 --> 00:36:01,560
Speaker 1: you look down from above of its top part is

637
00:36:01,640 --> 00:36:05,560
Speaker 1: covered by this mound of stuff. It's sort of a

638
00:36:05,640 --> 00:36:08,800
Speaker 1: body helmet made out of dead a fits and other junk,

639
00:36:09,120 --> 00:36:11,439
Speaker 1: and it's referred to, at least by some researchers as

640
00:36:11,440 --> 00:36:16,600
Speaker 1: a trash package. I was looking at one paper. It

641
00:36:16,680 --> 00:36:19,920
Speaker 1: was published in Applied Entomology and Zoology in two thousand

642
00:36:20,040 --> 00:36:25,920
Speaker 1: six by Kingo Nakahira and Rio Arakawa, and this paper

643
00:36:26,120 --> 00:36:29,360
Speaker 1: was experimenting on what are what are the differences in

644
00:36:29,440 --> 00:36:35,000
Speaker 1: survival when these these larva are attacked by ladybugs with

645
00:36:35,120 --> 00:36:38,400
Speaker 1: trash and without trash. These were the experimental conditions, or

646
00:36:38,440 --> 00:36:41,560
Speaker 1: actually I think it was naked and with trash. And

647
00:36:41,600 --> 00:36:43,600
Speaker 1: it turns out if you are a l a swing

648
00:36:43,680 --> 00:36:46,879
Speaker 1: larva and your options are naked or with trash, it's

649
00:36:46,880 --> 00:36:50,640
Speaker 1: better to be with trash because the attacks on the

650
00:36:50,640 --> 00:36:54,600
Speaker 1: ones with trash were fewer in number, and also they

651
00:36:54,600 --> 00:36:57,600
Speaker 1: were not as successful as quickly. I think there was

652
00:36:57,640 --> 00:37:00,200
Speaker 1: a similar thing going on where the the wind they

653
00:37:00,200 --> 00:37:03,600
Speaker 1: were attacked, they would survive longer if they had a

654
00:37:03,640 --> 00:37:05,759
Speaker 1: trash package, sort of like what you were talking about

655
00:37:05,800 --> 00:37:08,520
Speaker 1: with the caterpillars. But it looks like there's a double

656
00:37:08,520 --> 00:37:12,000
Speaker 1: function here. So the trash package on this larva, it

657
00:37:12,160 --> 00:37:15,480
Speaker 1: not only physically defends the body to some extent, it

658
00:37:15,560 --> 00:37:21,320
Speaker 1: also discourages recognition of the lacewing larva as prey. And

659
00:37:22,200 --> 00:37:24,920
Speaker 1: this mirror is the duality of some human helmets, doesn't

660
00:37:24,960 --> 00:37:27,520
Speaker 1: it like, Because some helmets, of course have a practical

661
00:37:27,520 --> 00:37:30,600
Speaker 1: purpose of shielding the head from physical blows, and then

662
00:37:30,640 --> 00:37:34,080
Speaker 1: other helmets are largely about signaling. They're trying to create

663
00:37:34,160 --> 00:37:37,120
Speaker 1: an idea or an impression in the in the mind

664
00:37:37,200 --> 00:37:39,839
Speaker 1: of the enemy or the subject. Yeah, to create the

665
00:37:39,880 --> 00:37:43,240
Speaker 1: idea of the fearsome warrior or the the warriors statue

666
00:37:43,280 --> 00:37:45,799
Speaker 1: is larger than that of a normal human right or

667
00:37:46,000 --> 00:37:49,440
Speaker 1: the warrior who has the attributes of some non human animal.

668
00:37:50,640 --> 00:37:54,680
Speaker 1: So another interesting candidate for animal helmets. Again, this isn't

669
00:37:54,760 --> 00:37:57,520
Speaker 1: quite a helmet. It doesn't fully work, but it gets

670
00:37:57,600 --> 00:38:00,960
Speaker 1: kind of close. Is the idea of decorator crabs. And Robert,

671
00:38:00,960 --> 00:38:03,239
Speaker 1: I think you and Christian actually did an episode a

672
00:38:03,280 --> 00:38:05,719
Speaker 1: long time ago where you talked about decorator crabs if

673
00:38:05,760 --> 00:38:10,040
Speaker 1: I'm not mistaken, but these are crabs that will mask

674
00:38:10,200 --> 00:38:14,160
Speaker 1: their bodies by adding foreign material from their environment to

675
00:38:14,440 --> 00:38:19,200
Speaker 1: their exoskeletons for various defensive and camouflage reasons. And one

676
00:38:19,200 --> 00:38:21,400
Speaker 1: of the interesting things is often what they put on

677
00:38:21,440 --> 00:38:24,279
Speaker 1: their bodies is not just like dead foreign materials, not

678
00:38:24,400 --> 00:38:27,160
Speaker 1: just like rocks or whatever. But they will sometimes put

679
00:38:27,280 --> 00:38:32,600
Speaker 1: sessile stinging organisms on their backs that will will play

680
00:38:32,840 --> 00:38:35,640
Speaker 1: an active role in defense, because if something comes down

681
00:38:35,680 --> 00:38:38,479
Speaker 1: toward them, perhaps to prey on the crab, these things

682
00:38:38,480 --> 00:38:40,719
Speaker 1: can actually sting it much in the way that if

683
00:38:40,719 --> 00:38:43,560
Speaker 1: you were to run at an animal with horns, the

684
00:38:43,560 --> 00:38:46,479
Speaker 1: horns could poke you. Yeah, I'd forgotten all about these

685
00:38:46,760 --> 00:38:50,480
Speaker 1: these critters, but yeah, there's some fabulous photographs of them

686
00:38:50,520 --> 00:38:52,920
Speaker 1: because it's it's not you know, it depends on what's

687
00:38:52,960 --> 00:38:57,240
Speaker 1: available to them. Uh, Like no one set of Decorator

688
00:38:57,320 --> 00:39:00,640
Speaker 1: crab bio armor is the same, and it really ultimately

689
00:39:00,760 --> 00:39:02,960
Speaker 1: is like, oh you know, it ups the game, right,

690
00:39:03,000 --> 00:39:06,879
Speaker 1: I mean, humans don't uh don't build armor that has

691
00:39:06,920 --> 00:39:10,759
Speaker 1: some sort of living component that then attacks people for you,

692
00:39:10,920 --> 00:39:14,480
Speaker 1: like this is this is something entirely from the world

693
00:39:14,560 --> 00:39:17,480
Speaker 1: of decapod wonder. That's a great idea, though, what if

694
00:39:17,520 --> 00:39:20,520
Speaker 1: you were to make a suit of armor that included

695
00:39:20,560 --> 00:39:25,839
Speaker 1: just your body was covered with king cobras, somebody gets

696
00:39:25,880 --> 00:39:29,040
Speaker 1: too close, you know, they're out of luck. Yeah, well,

697
00:39:29,120 --> 00:39:32,880
Speaker 1: you know, it might make functioning as a cohesive combat

698
00:39:32,960 --> 00:39:35,520
Speaker 1: unit difficult as well, though, I don't know. But that's

699
00:39:35,680 --> 00:39:39,280
Speaker 1: that's that's something to consider in the history of helmets,

700
00:39:39,280 --> 00:39:42,000
Speaker 1: and we'll get into that in our next section. All right, well,

701
00:39:42,000 --> 00:39:43,680
Speaker 1: maybe we should take another break and then when we

702
00:39:43,719 --> 00:39:46,560
Speaker 1: come back we can talk about helmets as an invention

703
00:39:46,640 --> 00:39:52,839
Speaker 1: in human history. Than all right, we're back. So the

704
00:39:52,880 --> 00:39:56,839
Speaker 1: origins of body armor in general are lost to prehistory,

705
00:39:56,960 --> 00:39:59,680
Speaker 1: like because ultimately they're tied up in the same movements.

706
00:40:00,080 --> 00:40:04,400
Speaker 1: That's all humans clothe themselves to begin with, because ultimately,

707
00:40:04,400 --> 00:40:07,640
Speaker 1: the line between body armor and clothing is very thin.

708
00:40:07,880 --> 00:40:11,239
Speaker 1: For instance, if you're going bicycling and you're thinking, oh, well,

709
00:40:11,280 --> 00:40:13,080
Speaker 1: you know, I might I might fall off this bicycle.

710
00:40:13,120 --> 00:40:15,759
Speaker 1: What are you gonna wear? You're gonna wear um, a

711
00:40:15,760 --> 00:40:18,640
Speaker 1: tiny pair of shorts. Are you're gonna wear blue jeans? Well,

712
00:40:18,719 --> 00:40:21,239
Speaker 1: I'd say in the shorts you have more mobility, But

713
00:40:21,280 --> 00:40:23,320
Speaker 1: in the blue jeans, if you get into a wreck,

714
00:40:23,400 --> 00:40:26,399
Speaker 1: you're less likely to scrape yourself up really bad. Yeah,

715
00:40:26,560 --> 00:40:29,080
Speaker 1: there's certainly a trade off there. But but and I

716
00:40:29,080 --> 00:40:31,080
Speaker 1: don't know, maybe you're not supposed to wear blue jeans

717
00:40:31,120 --> 00:40:33,880
Speaker 1: when you're riding bicycles. I don't know the rules about bicycles,

718
00:40:33,920 --> 00:40:36,160
Speaker 1: but you don't want your cuffs getting caught in the right,

719
00:40:36,200 --> 00:40:38,880
Speaker 1: there's the cuff thing. But blue jeans in and of

720
00:40:38,920 --> 00:40:42,680
Speaker 1: themselves are a kind of body armor and function that way.

721
00:40:42,719 --> 00:40:45,560
Speaker 1: From time to time. I think we've all had situations

722
00:40:45,600 --> 00:40:48,200
Speaker 1: where you know, you dropped something, or it's you know,

723
00:40:48,280 --> 00:40:50,239
Speaker 1: it's I don't know, dinner knife, I don't know. But

724
00:40:50,280 --> 00:40:53,920
Speaker 1: you know, sometimes we we can catch our clothing behaving

725
00:40:54,480 --> 00:40:57,239
Speaker 1: as body armor, and uh, and so that's something to

726
00:40:57,280 --> 00:40:59,680
Speaker 1: keep in mind when considering the history of people just

727
00:41:00,560 --> 00:41:03,279
Speaker 1: taking up the hides of animals, taking up parts of

728
00:41:03,440 --> 00:41:05,560
Speaker 1: part you know, what is a thick hide, but also

729
00:41:05,719 --> 00:41:09,200
Speaker 1: bodily protection, taking the bodily protection of another organism and

730
00:41:09,280 --> 00:41:13,160
Speaker 1: making it our own, protecting ourselves not only from uh,

731
00:41:13,239 --> 00:41:16,640
Speaker 1: from the elements, but then ultimately from potential attacks. Yeah.

732
00:41:16,680 --> 00:41:18,600
Speaker 1: And this comes through and the fact that a lot

733
00:41:18,640 --> 00:41:20,880
Speaker 1: of things that I think are reasonably thought of his

734
00:41:21,160 --> 00:41:24,720
Speaker 1: armor aren't made out of rigid hard material like plate

735
00:41:24,800 --> 00:41:27,719
Speaker 1: metal or stone or bone or anything like that. I

736
00:41:27,760 --> 00:41:30,200
Speaker 1: mean a lot of things that I think could reasonably

737
00:41:30,320 --> 00:41:33,200
Speaker 1: be thought of his armor are just made of leather. Yeah. Yeah.

738
00:41:33,280 --> 00:41:35,600
Speaker 1: Like one of the the examples we're gonna get to

739
00:41:35,640 --> 00:41:39,080
Speaker 1: in a second comes down to essentially leather capes. And

740
00:41:39,080 --> 00:41:42,200
Speaker 1: it's easy to just to just dismiss a cape because

741
00:41:42,520 --> 00:41:44,440
Speaker 1: these days, because we think of a cape is doing

742
00:41:44,480 --> 00:41:48,560
Speaker 1: just purely something decorative, you know, uh something. Batman has

743
00:41:48,560 --> 00:41:50,279
Speaker 1: a cape, and yeah, he can do some weird things

744
00:41:50,360 --> 00:41:53,200
Speaker 1: with it, but it's all we ultimately don't think about

745
00:41:53,239 --> 00:41:55,719
Speaker 1: it being an important part of his body armor. What

746
00:41:55,880 --> 00:41:58,839
Speaker 1: is the utility of Darth Vader's cape in a lightsaber

747
00:41:58,920 --> 00:42:01,239
Speaker 1: fight used to think about that, like, wouldn't that get

748
00:42:01,280 --> 00:42:03,879
Speaker 1: caught on stuff while you're running around swinging your arms

749
00:42:03,880 --> 00:42:07,640
Speaker 1: at things. Well, I don't know specifically about Vader, but

750
00:42:07,680 --> 00:42:10,120
Speaker 1: I think in general, I know from the Clone Wars

751
00:42:10,280 --> 00:42:14,680
Speaker 1: um era stuff the cloaks that are worn by Count

752
00:42:14,760 --> 00:42:17,759
Speaker 1: Dooku in general grievous are described to have like this

753
00:42:17,880 --> 00:42:21,360
Speaker 1: kind of meta material armor inside, so they actually do

754
00:42:21,560 --> 00:42:26,800
Speaker 1: function as as additional armor against blaster attacks. And I

755
00:42:26,840 --> 00:42:29,680
Speaker 1: don't know if they're actually functional against lightsabers. I haven't

756
00:42:29,680 --> 00:42:32,759
Speaker 1: gotten that deep into into the material, but I don't know.

757
00:42:32,840 --> 00:42:35,680
Speaker 1: Potentially at any rate they do. Some of the material

758
00:42:36,040 --> 00:42:38,840
Speaker 1: regarding the Clone Wars does get into the idea that

759
00:42:38,840 --> 00:42:41,960
Speaker 1: that one of these high tech capes is actually protective

760
00:42:41,960 --> 00:42:47,879
Speaker 1: in nature. So unresolved question for you Wikipedia editors out there, Philip, Oh, Yeah,

761
00:42:47,920 --> 00:42:50,080
Speaker 1: We've been spent a lot of time on Wikipedia in

762
00:42:50,120 --> 00:42:55,560
Speaker 1: this household. But before we had high tech um separatist

763
00:42:56,520 --> 00:42:59,480
Speaker 1: um capes to wear, you know, the first bits of

764
00:42:59,719 --> 00:43:03,000
Speaker 1: high it or vegetation that ended up serving as some

765
00:43:03,200 --> 00:43:06,640
Speaker 1: form of a cap or hat, these would have provided

766
00:43:06,640 --> 00:43:10,360
Speaker 1: at least some protection from animal attack, human weapons, or

767
00:43:10,400 --> 00:43:13,600
Speaker 1: just a general injury. Sooner or later, however, you would

768
00:43:13,600 --> 00:43:16,400
Speaker 1: have certainly had the emergence of a cap or a

769
00:43:16,480 --> 00:43:22,359
Speaker 1: heilm that was designed primarily for body armor. UH. Ultimately, though,

770
00:43:22,360 --> 00:43:24,399
Speaker 1: one of the things about this is that since these

771
00:43:24,400 --> 00:43:27,680
Speaker 1: were all inevitably made out of organic materials, items like

772
00:43:27,760 --> 00:43:31,040
Speaker 1: these are just lost to history are only real knowledge

773
00:43:31,080 --> 00:43:35,400
Speaker 1: of them comes from ancient depictions and ancient texts. Okay,

774
00:43:35,600 --> 00:43:37,840
Speaker 1: So I was reading about this in UH in a

775
00:43:37,880 --> 00:43:40,399
Speaker 1: text that I frequently turned to, UH the seventy Grade

776
00:43:40,440 --> 00:43:42,640
Speaker 1: Inventions of the Ancient World, And in this one Brian

777
00:43:42,640 --> 00:43:47,080
Speaker 1: and Vagan UH collaborates with Thomas Hoolett, who's an expert

778
00:43:47,080 --> 00:43:50,000
Speaker 1: on on these matters, and points out that some of

779
00:43:50,040 --> 00:43:53,680
Speaker 1: the earliest illustrations of body armor and of helmets dates

780
00:43:53,719 --> 00:43:56,160
Speaker 1: back to the middle and third millennium b c E.

781
00:43:56,719 --> 00:44:00,640
Speaker 1: On the standard of ER, a Sumerian war pan. Also,

782
00:44:00,800 --> 00:44:05,319
Speaker 1: this would include illustrations from the ancient world of what

783
00:44:05,440 --> 00:44:09,040
Speaker 1: the warriors of the time looked like. Yeah, and and

784
00:44:09,120 --> 00:44:12,280
Speaker 1: interestingly enough, heavy cape seemed to be the body armor

785
00:44:12,280 --> 00:44:15,920
Speaker 1: of choice, as depicted in in this standard, and they

786
00:44:15,920 --> 00:44:19,400
Speaker 1: also appeared to be wearing helmets. In fact, well made

787
00:44:19,480 --> 00:44:23,400
Speaker 1: metal helmets appear as early as twenty d b c

788
00:44:24,000 --> 00:44:26,799
Speaker 1: in or six of these were actually found on the

789
00:44:26,840 --> 00:44:30,200
Speaker 1: heads of guards interred with their ruler. And these were

790
00:44:30,320 --> 00:44:32,840
Speaker 1: very much like the ones depicted in the standard and

791
00:44:32,880 --> 00:44:35,880
Speaker 1: according to who It and Fagan, were likely a metal

792
00:44:36,000 --> 00:44:40,680
Speaker 1: upgrade of the same design traditionally used UM composed entirely

793
00:44:40,719 --> 00:44:43,439
Speaker 1: out of leather. Now the metal caps here they would

794
00:44:43,440 --> 00:44:46,560
Speaker 1: have made they were made out of copper. And interestingly enough,

795
00:44:46,920 --> 00:44:50,680
Speaker 1: no metal body armor was found. Uh. And again this

796
00:44:50,760 --> 00:44:54,600
Speaker 1: is a burial pit, providing a plenty of examples of

797
00:44:54,600 --> 00:44:58,600
Speaker 1: metal artifacts, you know, things that were like chariots and

798
00:44:58,680 --> 00:45:01,239
Speaker 1: other artifacts of war. We're going to go with the

799
00:45:01,320 --> 00:45:04,600
Speaker 1: ruler into the afterlife. So if there, if they're been

800
00:45:05,280 --> 00:45:08,480
Speaker 1: metal body armor in use, uh, the argument is that

801
00:45:08,520 --> 00:45:12,280
Speaker 1: we would see it here, but apparently, uh, the body

802
00:45:12,360 --> 00:45:14,880
Speaker 1: armor technology had not reached that point yet. Like the

803
00:45:14,880 --> 00:45:18,640
Speaker 1: first place we see metal uh augmenting the body is

804
00:45:18,880 --> 00:45:22,200
Speaker 1: with the skull. That's really interesting. And I'm also just

805
00:45:22,239 --> 00:45:24,120
Speaker 1: thinking about the fact that they were made of copper.

806
00:45:24,160 --> 00:45:26,960
Speaker 1: I might be conceiving of this wrong, but okay, so

807
00:45:27,000 --> 00:45:30,560
Speaker 1: I'm thinking you're you're out in the desert marching with

808
00:45:30,600 --> 00:45:34,200
Speaker 1: an army, and you're wearing a copper helmet. Copper is

809
00:45:34,239 --> 00:45:37,560
Speaker 1: a great conductor of heat and heats up really fast.

810
00:45:37,600 --> 00:45:39,600
Speaker 1: It seems like under a desert sun that would get

811
00:45:39,640 --> 00:45:43,359
Speaker 1: amazingly hot. Yeah. Well, you know, this gets into the

812
00:45:43,400 --> 00:45:45,920
Speaker 1: idea again, into the idea of when when is the

813
00:45:45,960 --> 00:45:48,719
Speaker 1: helmet purely practical, and when is it all about the

814
00:45:49,040 --> 00:45:50,759
Speaker 1: look of the helmet, and when is it all about

815
00:45:50,840 --> 00:45:54,600
Speaker 1: the thing you become when you wear it. There's actually

816
00:45:54,840 --> 00:45:58,200
Speaker 1: umh one of the tombs in this time period, the

817
00:45:58,239 --> 00:46:02,240
Speaker 1: tomb of m mess A Lumdug, gives us an example

818
00:46:02,280 --> 00:46:05,480
Speaker 1: of a golden helmet that is of the same style

819
00:46:05,560 --> 00:46:09,319
Speaker 1: we're discussing here, and it's it's pretty interesting to me

820
00:46:09,400 --> 00:46:11,640
Speaker 1: because it certainly it has the shape of a helmet,

821
00:46:11,640 --> 00:46:13,200
Speaker 1: and we can see how this would go over an

822
00:46:13,200 --> 00:46:16,360
Speaker 1: individual's head and provide some degree of protection. You also

823
00:46:16,400 --> 00:46:20,680
Speaker 1: see that it they're a little um regular um um

824
00:46:20,680 --> 00:46:23,040
Speaker 1: perforated holes around the edge of it, as if there

825
00:46:23,040 --> 00:46:26,319
Speaker 1: were additional like leather tastles or some other kind of

826
00:46:27,200 --> 00:46:30,600
Speaker 1: aspect to it that you know that that involved organic material.

827
00:46:31,320 --> 00:46:34,880
Speaker 1: But also this helmet has ears. Yeah. It almost reminds

828
00:46:34,920 --> 00:46:37,160
Speaker 1: me of the Sutton Who helmet, which has like a

829
00:46:37,239 --> 00:46:41,160
Speaker 1: mustache on it. Yeah. Yeah, when we were discussing the

830
00:46:41,160 --> 00:46:43,440
Speaker 1: Sudden Who helmet, just it reminded me of this. So

831
00:46:43,480 --> 00:46:46,160
Speaker 1: with Sutton Who, there's a mustache and here we have

832
00:46:46,280 --> 00:46:50,319
Speaker 1: ears and also, um uh it looks like hair. So

833
00:46:50,440 --> 00:46:53,680
Speaker 1: it's it's really weird to imagine, like the conversation that

834
00:46:53,760 --> 00:46:56,600
Speaker 1: goes into the design of this helmet, where a general

835
00:46:56,680 --> 00:46:58,960
Speaker 1: or king is putting in their request for the helmet,

836
00:46:59,000 --> 00:47:01,560
Speaker 1: he gets the prototype back and he's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait,

837
00:47:01,640 --> 00:47:04,680
Speaker 1: where are the ears? Where is the mustache? I can't

838
00:47:04,719 --> 00:47:06,719
Speaker 1: go out there looking like I don't have ears or

839
00:47:06,760 --> 00:47:14,399
Speaker 1: a mustache? Are you crazy? This is war? That's very good.

840
00:47:14,440 --> 00:47:17,120
Speaker 1: I I am. I'm thinking about like what would call

841
00:47:17,200 --> 00:47:19,440
Speaker 1: I mean, so obviously this had to be difficult to

842
00:47:19,480 --> 00:47:21,759
Speaker 1: produce at the time, right, I mean, it can't have been.

843
00:47:22,239 --> 00:47:24,840
Speaker 1: It can't have been easy or cheap or a trivial

844
00:47:24,880 --> 00:47:28,399
Speaker 1: investment of resources to make ears on these helmets. Why

845
00:47:28,400 --> 00:47:32,200
Speaker 1: aren't these just the most basic utilitarian kind of domes

846
00:47:32,280 --> 00:47:34,960
Speaker 1: you could imagine? Yeah, I mean, well, you know, obviously

847
00:47:35,000 --> 00:47:38,520
Speaker 1: this is um the Golden helmet was not for everybody here,

848
00:47:38,600 --> 00:47:43,360
Speaker 1: but uh, and certainly it's about status. But we we

849
00:47:43,400 --> 00:47:45,719
Speaker 1: see also a status playing a key role in some

850
00:47:45,760 --> 00:47:49,880
Speaker 1: of the earliest examples in the Greek traditions, tradition of helmets.

851
00:47:50,239 --> 00:47:53,920
Speaker 1: So the history of Greek helmets is it is a

852
00:47:53,960 --> 00:47:57,320
Speaker 1: fascinating area to look at because, uh, for one, on

853
00:47:57,400 --> 00:47:59,440
Speaker 1: one hand, there's just there's a lot of a lot

854
00:47:59,480 --> 00:48:02,160
Speaker 1: of research and scholarship that has gone into into looking

855
00:48:02,200 --> 00:48:04,799
Speaker 1: at them, and we have some, you know, wonderful examples

856
00:48:04,840 --> 00:48:08,480
Speaker 1: of them that have survived either physically or in depictions.

857
00:48:09,320 --> 00:48:12,440
Speaker 1: And if we go back to the late Bronze Age

858
00:48:12,480 --> 00:48:14,960
Speaker 1: of my Siny in Greece roughly uh, this would have

859
00:48:14,960 --> 00:48:19,800
Speaker 1: been roughly twelve fifty b C. We encounter these um,

860
00:48:19,920 --> 00:48:26,080
Speaker 1: these bore tusk helmets, and these were leather caps reinforced

861
00:48:26,120 --> 00:48:30,880
Speaker 1: with slices of boor tusk. I recommend everyone look up

862
00:48:30,920 --> 00:48:34,360
Speaker 1: a picture of this as well, because whatever you're picturing

863
00:48:34,400 --> 00:48:38,640
Speaker 1: in your head is probably not quite what the reality was.

864
00:48:38,920 --> 00:48:42,600
Speaker 1: Like I was initially imagining some like weird tusk based

865
00:48:42,920 --> 00:48:47,360
Speaker 1: skeletal system, but it's really you you really get the

866
00:48:47,400 --> 00:48:51,320
Speaker 1: idea more of like I'm someone made an entire helmet

867
00:48:51,480 --> 00:48:55,799
Speaker 1: out of these these tusks and these slices of tusks,

868
00:48:55,840 --> 00:48:59,239
Speaker 1: and it creates this really an impressive looking helmet, and

869
00:48:59,280 --> 00:49:03,279
Speaker 1: apparently impressive aspect of it would have been key. Uh.

870
00:49:03,280 --> 00:49:06,279
Speaker 1: Tim Everson in Warfare and Ancient Greece points out that

871
00:49:06,280 --> 00:49:09,319
Speaker 1: these tut slices would have easily shattered on impact, So

872
00:49:09,360 --> 00:49:13,120
Speaker 1: the dot design didn't actually afford much more protection, but

873
00:49:13,200 --> 00:49:16,000
Speaker 1: it was better than nothing, and an improvement over just

874
00:49:16,120 --> 00:49:19,040
Speaker 1: mere leather or felt. And we also see the early

875
00:49:19,960 --> 00:49:23,920
Speaker 1: advancement of adding cheek guards as well, so that the

876
00:49:24,000 --> 00:49:27,160
Speaker 1: history of of helmet design is is is rife with

877
00:49:27,200 --> 00:49:31,040
Speaker 1: examples of of add ons and additions and and and

878
00:49:31,280 --> 00:49:33,879
Speaker 1: the designers realizing, well, okay, we can protect the head,

879
00:49:33,920 --> 00:49:36,720
Speaker 1: but we also need to protect the cheek, or maybe

880
00:49:36,719 --> 00:49:38,320
Speaker 1: we need something down the bridge of the nose to

881
00:49:38,400 --> 00:49:41,920
Speaker 1: better protect the face. And then how about the exposed neck. Yeah,

882
00:49:41,400 --> 00:49:44,960
Speaker 1: it looks like this helmet with the boar tusks. It's

883
00:49:45,000 --> 00:49:48,959
Speaker 1: got sideburns basically, I mean just dangling down on the sides. Yeah,

884
00:49:49,000 --> 00:49:53,120
Speaker 1: big protective side sideburns made out of boar tusk. And

885
00:49:53,160 --> 00:49:55,560
Speaker 1: they say that horse hair crests were likely added as

886
00:49:55,600 --> 00:49:59,360
Speaker 1: a motif to this as well, but again it probably

887
00:49:59,520 --> 00:50:04,719
Speaker 1: wasn't entirely about protection, but more about signaling hunting excellence,

888
00:50:04,960 --> 00:50:07,680
Speaker 1: because apparently you need to you need about forty to

889
00:50:07,800 --> 00:50:11,279
Speaker 1: fifty bores uh to make one of these things, and

890
00:50:11,360 --> 00:50:14,920
Speaker 1: so it in it of itself, it's signals that you

891
00:50:14,920 --> 00:50:17,440
Speaker 1: are a mighty hunter, or perhaps that you know you

892
00:50:17,480 --> 00:50:20,600
Speaker 1: are powerful enough that you command the resources that emerge

893
00:50:20,640 --> 00:50:25,040
Speaker 1: from these hunts. Either way, a certain signal is being

894
00:50:25,040 --> 00:50:28,000
Speaker 1: put forth when you donne this helmet on your head.

895
00:50:28,560 --> 00:50:30,440
Speaker 1: It's kind of it's like the deer head mounted on

896
00:50:30,480 --> 00:50:32,560
Speaker 1: the wall or the you know, it's a it's a

897
00:50:32,600 --> 00:50:36,680
Speaker 1: trophy as much as a practical protection. Right and his

898
00:50:36,800 --> 00:50:40,000
Speaker 1: bronze technology improved. Bronze sheeting was used in these helmets

899
00:50:40,000 --> 00:50:42,920
Speaker 1: as well, generally in spots. At first, you know, you

900
00:50:42,920 --> 00:50:45,000
Speaker 1: add a little bit of bronze plating here or there

901
00:50:45,080 --> 00:50:48,120
Speaker 1: to make it fancier, but eventually this led to full

902
00:50:48,200 --> 00:50:52,200
Speaker 1: bronze plated helmets around the eighth century BC. I was

903
00:50:52,239 --> 00:50:55,240
Speaker 1: reading about all this in an article by classical archaeologist

904
00:50:55,280 --> 00:50:58,719
Speaker 1: and military historian Jesse Obert, and he points out that

905
00:50:58,760 --> 00:51:00,719
Speaker 1: they're there are really too. He wants of note that

906
00:51:00,800 --> 00:51:04,080
Speaker 1: immediately come out of this. In the eighth century BC,

907
00:51:04,719 --> 00:51:09,360
Speaker 1: So there's the the Illyrian helmet, which covered the entire head, cheeks,

908
00:51:09,360 --> 00:51:11,240
Speaker 1: and even part of the throat, and it was foraged

909
00:51:11,280 --> 00:51:14,080
Speaker 1: in two pieces. You can look up pictures of this.

910
00:51:14,239 --> 00:51:16,840
Speaker 1: I find that it looks a lot like Magneto's helmet,

911
00:51:17,360 --> 00:51:18,960
Speaker 1: at at least the version that we see in some

912
00:51:19,000 --> 00:51:21,799
Speaker 1: of the recent movie movies. So the face remains open,

913
00:51:21,840 --> 00:51:23,160
Speaker 1: but it does cover a lot of the rest of

914
00:51:23,200 --> 00:51:26,160
Speaker 1: the head. And then the other one is the Corinthian helmet,

915
00:51:26,239 --> 00:51:28,760
Speaker 1: which was foraged from a single piece of bronze, covering

916
00:51:28,800 --> 00:51:32,480
Speaker 1: the face with a long nose guard and two cheek guards. However,

917
00:51:32,560 --> 00:51:35,319
Speaker 1: it leaves the neck vulnerable and it was apparently known

918
00:51:35,360 --> 00:51:38,719
Speaker 1: to be quite uncomfortable. It was heavy. It was you know,

919
00:51:38,760 --> 00:51:40,520
Speaker 1: this big chunk of metal that goes on top of

920
00:51:40,520 --> 00:51:43,680
Speaker 1: your head and weighs you down and then also impacts

921
00:51:43,840 --> 00:51:46,680
Speaker 1: vision and hearing. Yeah, this has been knocking around in

922
00:51:46,719 --> 00:51:48,799
Speaker 1: my mind while we've been talking about this, the in

923
00:51:48,920 --> 00:51:52,600
Speaker 1: helmet design, and I guess this is true throughout the body,

924
00:51:52,640 --> 00:51:55,319
Speaker 1: that you've got a trade off between the level of

925
00:51:55,360 --> 00:51:59,719
Speaker 1: protection offered and then what costs come associated with that

926
00:52:00,040 --> 00:52:02,560
Speaker 1: full of protection, and throughout the body, I imagine it

927
00:52:02,600 --> 00:52:07,000
Speaker 1: would be things like like weight, heat, uh, you know,

928
00:52:07,120 --> 00:52:09,919
Speaker 1: ease of movement, but around the head. I especially think

929
00:52:09,920 --> 00:52:13,440
Speaker 1: of the limitation of the senses. Yeah. Absolutely, this is

930
00:52:13,480 --> 00:52:16,319
Speaker 1: a major concern in helmet design. Uh as far as

931
00:52:16,320 --> 00:52:20,239
Speaker 1: the Corinthian helmet goes Obert Wrights quote the wear was

932
00:52:20,360 --> 00:52:24,480
Speaker 1: partially blinded and practically deaf when he wore the helmet.

933
00:52:24,840 --> 00:52:27,919
Speaker 1: This has led some authors to speculate whether the popularity

934
00:52:27,960 --> 00:52:33,160
Speaker 1: of the Corinthian helmet effectively postponed the invention of battlefield tactics,

935
00:52:33,200 --> 00:52:38,359
Speaker 1: as communication on the battlefield was almost certainly impossible. That's

936
00:52:38,400 --> 00:52:41,319
Speaker 1: an interesting idea. Yeah, like you want it's like go

937
00:52:41,360 --> 00:52:44,399
Speaker 1: out there and kill boys, but but no discussion while

938
00:52:44,440 --> 00:52:46,640
Speaker 1: you're out there, because nobody can hear a damn thing.

939
00:52:47,200 --> 00:52:49,799
Speaker 1: Um you know that would that would impact the way

940
00:52:49,840 --> 00:52:52,279
Speaker 1: you carry out your battles and and how and to

941
00:52:52,360 --> 00:52:55,960
Speaker 1: what extent you could even have a flexible battle plan.

942
00:52:56,080 --> 00:52:58,520
Speaker 1: And and you know there's that that famous saying that

943
00:52:58,640 --> 00:53:01,280
Speaker 1: like all what all battle lands fail when the enemy

944
00:53:01,320 --> 00:53:04,160
Speaker 1: is actually encountered, So you know that would that would

945
00:53:04,239 --> 00:53:07,080
Speaker 1: really limit what you could do? I would think, yeah,

946
00:53:07,120 --> 00:53:09,320
Speaker 1: And it also makes me think back to the ears.

947
00:53:09,560 --> 00:53:13,120
Speaker 1: The ears on the Mesopotamian helmet. Yes, if you look

948
00:53:13,200 --> 00:53:15,480
Speaker 1: at pictures of that, not only is there a motif

949
00:53:15,600 --> 00:53:17,840
Speaker 1: of the ear, there appears to be an ear hole.

950
00:53:18,600 --> 00:53:21,879
Speaker 1: So in that tradition they had realized, Okay, this looks great,

951
00:53:21,880 --> 00:53:23,360
Speaker 1: but I can't hear a damn thing out of this.

952
00:53:23,440 --> 00:53:26,480
Speaker 1: Somebody cut some ear holes in my fake ears on

953
00:53:26,600 --> 00:53:29,640
Speaker 1: my golden helmet. Yeah, I wonder about both of those. Actually,

954
00:53:29,640 --> 00:53:33,160
Speaker 1: So the holes possibly for hearing, but also the rendering

955
00:53:33,400 --> 00:53:35,720
Speaker 1: of the you know, the external part of the ear.

956
00:53:36,520 --> 00:53:39,479
Speaker 1: I wonder if that could almost be like painting eye

957
00:53:39,600 --> 00:53:44,279
Speaker 1: spots on yourself. Yeah, letting letting your fellow soldiers know

958
00:53:44,440 --> 00:53:47,480
Speaker 1: that you can hear, or even enemies like this, this

959
00:53:47,560 --> 00:53:50,280
Speaker 1: is a dangerous opponent because they can actually hear what's

960
00:53:50,280 --> 00:53:53,080
Speaker 1: being said by others. They have enhanced sensor. They can

961
00:53:53,120 --> 00:53:55,880
Speaker 1: hear me coming if I'm trying to sneak up behind them.

962
00:53:55,880 --> 00:53:58,279
Speaker 1: So so I found that super interesting. I I, for one,

963
00:53:58,360 --> 00:54:00,799
Speaker 1: had never really thought that much of out the the

964
00:54:00,800 --> 00:54:03,080
Speaker 1: impact of the senses of when wearing these helmets. I

965
00:54:03,080 --> 00:54:06,160
Speaker 1: mean to a certain extent, I guess thinking about like

966
00:54:06,280 --> 00:54:09,840
Speaker 1: full plate male military nights. You know, it becomes obvious

967
00:54:09,880 --> 00:54:11,799
Speaker 1: when you look at something like that that this is.

968
00:54:11,960 --> 00:54:14,200
Speaker 1: It's like wearing a diving suit and riding a horse

969
00:54:14,239 --> 00:54:16,560
Speaker 1: into battle. You're gonna have you're gonna you're gonna be

970
00:54:16,920 --> 00:54:19,920
Speaker 1: more powerful in some respects, but they're gonna be some

971
00:54:20,040 --> 00:54:22,600
Speaker 1: severer constraints on what you can do and how you

972
00:54:22,600 --> 00:54:26,319
Speaker 1: can take in the battlefield. Now, another aspect to to

973
00:54:26,400 --> 00:54:29,919
Speaker 1: this design was that they were also expensive. Eventually, cheat

974
00:54:30,000 --> 00:54:33,479
Speaker 1: guards and uh in a rear were extended to rest

975
00:54:33,480 --> 00:54:35,960
Speaker 1: on the shoulders, and this was allowed the helmet to

976
00:54:35,960 --> 00:54:38,600
Speaker 1: cover the neck and throat a bit more, but also

977
00:54:38,680 --> 00:54:43,000
Speaker 1: dissipate the helmets weight um. Also of note, larger ear

978
00:54:43,040 --> 00:54:49,120
Speaker 1: holes were added eventually to allow battlefield communication, which is sensible, right, Like,

979
00:54:49,160 --> 00:54:51,120
Speaker 1: if you can add the up some holes there for

980
00:54:51,120 --> 00:54:54,200
Speaker 1: the ears, you know, I guess you could look at

981
00:54:54,239 --> 00:54:56,360
Speaker 1: them as stabbing holes if someone's really good at what

982
00:54:56,400 --> 00:54:59,560
Speaker 1: they're doing. But uh, but like what's the trade off?

983
00:54:59,640 --> 00:55:03,120
Speaker 1: Do you your ears absolutely protected and useless or do

984
00:55:03,160 --> 00:55:05,200
Speaker 1: you want some holes there and actually be able to

985
00:55:05,239 --> 00:55:07,239
Speaker 1: hear what other people are saying? Yeah, I guess it

986
00:55:07,280 --> 00:55:09,600
Speaker 1: depends on what kind of combat you're thinking about. I mean,

987
00:55:09,640 --> 00:55:12,719
Speaker 1: I imagine I'm not a combat historian or anything. But

988
00:55:12,760 --> 00:55:16,520
Speaker 1: I imagine in a lot of archaic battle there's a

989
00:55:16,680 --> 00:55:19,680
Speaker 1: there's a huge amount of sort of like gross motions,

990
00:55:19,960 --> 00:55:23,200
Speaker 1: the thrusting of large spears into groups of people, the

991
00:55:23,280 --> 00:55:26,560
Speaker 1: swinging of swords and axes, and a little hole on

992
00:55:26,640 --> 00:55:28,560
Speaker 1: the ear might be less of a problem. You're not

993
00:55:28,600 --> 00:55:31,160
Speaker 1: really imagining somebody's gonna come at you with a needle

994
00:55:31,719 --> 00:55:34,799
Speaker 1: right now. Beginning in the sixth century b c e.

995
00:55:35,360 --> 00:55:38,000
Speaker 1: The chell city and helmet pops up, and this brings

996
00:55:38,000 --> 00:55:41,759
Speaker 1: improve visibility and comfort while also providing protection. And we

997
00:55:41,760 --> 00:55:44,680
Speaker 1: subsequently see the evolution of of various forms of helmets

998
00:55:44,760 --> 00:55:47,880
Speaker 1: in the Greek tradition, uh the idea, Ionian helmet, the

999
00:55:47,920 --> 00:55:50,759
Speaker 1: attic helmet, and others. And these were all about tweaking

1000
00:55:50,840 --> 00:55:54,960
Speaker 1: defensive and or tactical aspects of the previous models. So

1001
00:55:55,080 --> 00:55:58,160
Speaker 1: just you know, continuous tinkering with the design to figure

1002
00:55:58,160 --> 00:56:01,600
Speaker 1: out what offers the best hection, what is the most comfortable,

1003
00:56:01,719 --> 00:56:05,440
Speaker 1: what allows the individual to to utilize their senses on

1004
00:56:05,480 --> 00:56:09,480
Speaker 1: the battlefield, all of these concerns, and then also they

1005
00:56:09,640 --> 00:56:12,360
Speaker 1: all have variant they all look cool. I'll say that

1006
00:56:12,400 --> 00:56:15,200
Speaker 1: as well, Like there's a certain coolness to the design,

1007
00:56:15,280 --> 00:56:19,359
Speaker 1: So that's also inevitably part of the design evolution of these,

1008
00:56:19,400 --> 00:56:22,040
Speaker 1: Like you still want your warriors to look fearsome on

1009
00:56:22,080 --> 00:56:25,440
Speaker 1: the battlefield, so I will say none of these examples

1010
00:56:25,440 --> 00:56:28,640
Speaker 1: we're getting to look as cool as the leather helmets

1011
00:56:28,640 --> 00:56:32,000
Speaker 1: and Planet of the Vampires. Yes, those are pretty good.

1012
00:56:32,560 --> 00:56:36,640
Speaker 1: Um they they they essentially what they could. They cover

1013
00:56:36,920 --> 00:56:41,480
Speaker 1: everything but the face there their minimalists. They extend up

1014
00:56:41,520 --> 00:56:44,880
Speaker 1: from the dracula collar of the space suit, but they

1015
00:56:44,880 --> 00:56:47,160
Speaker 1: do get a lot of coverage there, and from from

1016
00:56:47,200 --> 00:56:50,000
Speaker 1: just a pure padding standpoint, they seem to like they

1017
00:56:50,000 --> 00:56:51,480
Speaker 1: would probably do a good job. And I don't know

1018
00:56:51,560 --> 00:56:53,720
Speaker 1: we I don't know in that film if we actually

1019
00:56:53,719 --> 00:56:56,360
Speaker 1: get any kind of glimpse inside them or a field

1020
00:56:56,400 --> 00:56:59,840
Speaker 1: for their structure. They have some sort of internal skeleton

1021
00:57:00,000 --> 00:57:02,759
Speaker 1: applied as well, I don't recall. I think at some

1022
00:57:02,760 --> 00:57:05,200
Speaker 1: point some of the characters take the hoods off. But

1023
00:57:06,120 --> 00:57:08,040
Speaker 1: that's about it now. Of course, this is just the

1024
00:57:08,239 --> 00:57:10,959
Speaker 1: Greek tradition that we've alluded to here. There are other

1025
00:57:11,239 --> 00:57:15,680
Speaker 1: um lineages of helmets and body armor that we see

1026
00:57:15,680 --> 00:57:18,480
Speaker 1: in other parts of the world. Um for instance, so

1027
00:57:18,600 --> 00:57:22,880
Speaker 1: we see scaled armor helms in China during the Warring

1028
00:57:22,920 --> 00:57:26,040
Speaker 1: States period of four five through to one b C.

1029
00:57:26,920 --> 00:57:29,920
Speaker 1: And and these are quite interesting. It keeps it's very

1030
00:57:29,960 --> 00:57:32,280
Speaker 1: much in keeping with the predominant body armor of the

1031
00:57:32,360 --> 00:57:35,440
Speaker 1: time as well the idea of having depending on this

1032
00:57:35,480 --> 00:57:40,040
Speaker 1: sort of scale male approach to armoring the body and

1033
00:57:40,240 --> 00:57:45,640
Speaker 1: less dependence on single large plates. And then um, the

1034
00:57:45,680 --> 00:57:49,760
Speaker 1: Manoan civilization of Creed used a basic helmet style as

1035
00:57:49,800 --> 00:57:53,520
Speaker 1: early as um Fo dred BC that would later, among

1036
00:57:53,520 --> 00:57:57,000
Speaker 1: other European designs such as those of the Celts, influence

1037
00:57:57,080 --> 00:58:00,920
Speaker 1: the iconic shape of the Roman Monte Farina style helmet.

1038
00:58:01,200 --> 00:58:04,000
Speaker 1: And generally these are are conical with a raised central

1039
00:58:04,080 --> 00:58:08,320
Speaker 1: knob with net guards and cheek plates. Oh okay, now

1040
00:58:08,320 --> 00:58:11,160
Speaker 1: with with this style of helmet, this is actually getting

1041
00:58:11,160 --> 00:58:13,560
Speaker 1: more into what you're going to see coming through into

1042
00:58:13,600 --> 00:58:17,959
Speaker 1: the modern age. Yeah, yeah, it's um, you know, it's

1043
00:58:18,080 --> 00:58:21,600
Speaker 1: pretty pretty straightforward helmet with a bit of a bit

1044
00:58:21,640 --> 00:58:24,720
Speaker 1: of a cap bill at the front which would have

1045
00:58:25,080 --> 00:58:27,400
Speaker 1: i guess you know, shaded the eyes a bit but

1046
00:58:27,440 --> 00:58:30,360
Speaker 1: also protected the eyes, and then you have some cheek

1047
00:58:30,400 --> 00:58:32,720
Speaker 1: plates as well. But this is this is generally when

1048
00:58:32,720 --> 00:58:36,400
Speaker 1: you see depictions of the Roman republic Um. You know,

1049
00:58:36,480 --> 00:58:38,960
Speaker 1: centurions and whatnot. This is generally what you see on

1050
00:58:39,040 --> 00:58:41,640
Speaker 1: their head, but not like the big horse hair adornments

1051
00:58:41,680 --> 00:58:45,360
Speaker 1: and stuff with all the fluff on top. Right. But

1052
00:58:45,360 --> 00:58:46,960
Speaker 1: but like you know, I guess the thing about any

1053
00:58:46,960 --> 00:58:48,880
Speaker 1: of these helmets is you can always add fluff to

1054
00:58:48,920 --> 00:58:51,120
Speaker 1: them if you want. You can always doll it up

1055
00:58:51,120 --> 00:58:54,440
Speaker 1: a little bit. So thus far wrapping it up here

1056
00:58:54,480 --> 00:58:58,080
Speaker 1: for this episode, anyway, we've discussed you know, the basic

1057
00:58:58,160 --> 00:59:01,880
Speaker 1: idea of what a helmet is, where that idea comes from,

1058
00:59:02,040 --> 00:59:04,760
Speaker 1: and to the extent to which we can really consider

1059
00:59:04,800 --> 00:59:08,880
Speaker 1: it a human phenomenon. And uh, you know, there's a

1060
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Speaker 1: lot more to explore here. So I think we're gonna

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Speaker 1: come back in a second episode. We we'll discuss some

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Speaker 1: more unique helmets from history. Uh, perhaps some findings on

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00:59:18,160 --> 00:59:21,960
Speaker 1: just how effective some helmets have been. Uh So just

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Speaker 1: strap in, strap your helmet on, and stick with us.

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Speaker 1: I can't wait. In the meantime, if you like to

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00:59:27,400 --> 00:59:29,560
Speaker 1: check out other episodes of Stuff to Blow your mind,

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Speaker 1: a review, rate us with some stars, and make sure

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Speaker 1: you have subscribed huge thanks as always to our excellent

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Speaker 1: audio producer Seth Nicholas Johnson. If you would like to

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Speaker 1: get in touch with us with feedback on this episode

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Speaker 1: to say hello, you can email us at contact at

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