Ancient treasure exhibited for the first time: Chalcidic helmet from Balș, 2,500 years old, presented to the public in Slatina

A museum in Oltenia exhibits the headquarters for the first time, and for only two days, a piece of extraordinary value: a chalcid helmet dating from the 4th century BC.

The Olt County Museum exhibited, on Friday, for the first time in Slatina, marking 73 years of existence, a Chalcidic helmet discovered 20 years ago in the town of Balș in Olt county. A local man made the discovery while digging a ditch on his property. Initially he thought he had a howitzer, but as he managed to get the object out of the ground he realized that he had a very old object, so he contacted the representatives of the County Museum. The 2500-year-old old helmet has arrived, transported to a bag, on the desk of the historian Laurențiu Guțică-Florescu. He later went through evaluations, restoration, and in the last year and a half he was exhibited abroad.

“I have prepared a human life so that I could cope with such a discovery and I bring it to the heritage of Olt County. When he took my bag and put me on the desk, I went to the Achilles and the famous Troy movie. But I realized that it was an authentic piece, without doing other investigations ”confessed to the history of the first visitors, high school students from the “Radu Greceanu” National College in Slatina accompanied by their history teacher, who had the opportunity to admire the artifact 20 years since the object was taught to the museum. The high school students learned both the story of the Balș helmet and the period when these objects were at a great price from the historians Cătălin Boragic and Cătălin Stănculescu.

The first visitors were students from CN “Radu Greceanu” Slatina Photo: I have

The object has gone through an extremely rigorous evaluation, establishing that it is made of bronze-copper-nanium alloy, 65% copper-35% tin.

“The presence of nickel, zinc, arsenic and traces of lead, iron, silver and gold was also highlighted in the Alloy of Balş. The traces of precious metals allow the hypothesis that the artifact had silver and/or golden portions ”, It is specified in the article “Chalcidic type from Balș, Olt county”, signed by historians Cătălin Boragic and Laurențiu Guțică-florescu, published on Encyclopedia-dacica.ro.

“Nine months only the expertise lasted. Analyzes have been done, including atomic physics analyzes, in Bucharest, in Măgurele. It was bombarded 1,000 seconds, to see the metallographic imprint, from what is done, until the last detail, and the medical analyzes are given today. Sabavţi took care of this matter ”, replied Laurentiu Guțică-Florescu to other curiosities of young people.

The helmet, the type of artifact that the museographers are waiting for a lifetime, and which once could be a sufficient guarantee for loans made by the state, is made from a single piece of metal and has certainly involved an extremely laborious work.

“I look at 2,500 years of history here. Think about that with such technology, at that time, from a single sheet from the lingo to the finished object it could be done, given that you did not have in that time, you had no computer and other facilities of contemporary civilization. So think that, at one point said Mr. Boragic, at this song he worked (no-in a approach of experimental reconstruction) at one point over 100 hours, only by hammering ”explained Guțică-Florescu to the young people.

Balș helmet, exposed for just two days

The Olt County Museum has decided to allow visitors to admire the Chalcidic helmet for only two days: Friday, May 16, respectively on Saturday, May 17, 2025, when between 18.00 -24.00 actions are carried out during the “Museum Night” event. The song, restored by a team of professionals and preserved, could be admired in the last year and a half in international exhibitions.

The helmet has not costed photo restoration: Alina Mitran

“We exhibit it for two days, today and tomorrow, the night of the museums, and in the autumn we will do a digitization project through which we will try to expose all the treasury pieces we have. Not only on this part of the Dacian period, we are well on the Neolithic, Treasury pieces.revealed Laurentiu Guțică-Florescu.

The pieces cannot be permanently exposed, young visitors have found, because they periodically need diagnosis and, if necessary, the intervention of the specialists if changes in the conservation state occur. Above all, especially in the case of extremely valuable parts, the problem of ensuring security intervenes. The Balș helmet benefits, in fact, the guard of the gendarmes during the period when it is exposed to the public.

Chalcidic helmet from Balș was exhibited at Slatina Photo: Alina Mitran

“After a period of exposure, the pieces to know that they rest, and our colleagues take care of their physical health. Notice any change, try to remedy the situation. A piece should not be permanently exposed, it has certain periods in which doctors, restorers, conservative Inestable. said historian Guțică-Florescu.

The high school students were very curious to find out what material value the special artifact has in the patrimony of the Olt County Museum. However, such information does not available, even if all objects have an inventory value. “All artifacts are quoted and have an object price, which does not always contain the historical value ”, The historian Cătălin Boragic came with further explanations.

What the general public should know instead is that, in the case of random discoveries, as was the case with the Balș helmet, the one who makes the discovery has the obligation to announce the local authorities in 72, and they will announce the cultural institutions (museum, culture direction).

“If you fall within the 72 hours and declare this object you receive up to 30% of the value established by experts for that object. Only by the fact that you have contributed to the protection of the Romanian heritage. If the piece is unique, you receive a bonus of up to 15%. Basically, you take up to half a certain value ”, explained Guțică-Florescu.

“The heritage value is cultural memory. Think tomorrow morning you wake up and remember anything”

However, not every time the discoverers realize that they hold a treasure in their hand, and to exemplify this the historian Cătălin Boragic reminded the history of another important helmet, discovered in the river Siret, who wandered for years and later the bridge of a local.

“A Corinthian helmet, aDica older than this, was discovered in the river of Siret about 10 years ago by a girl who do not know what she was looking for. He found it, took him home, gave the chickens in him, because he didn't know what he was, and for a while he was thrown into the bridge. After about five to six years, a cousin who had seen the world recognized, took two pictures and put them on Facebook. A friend of mine saw the photos and said-someone has a Corinthian helmet in the bridge. Of course, the heritage police went immediately, asked him where the helmet was and took him from the bridge. The man lost his right to reward, precisely because he knew what he found. He did not treat it as an artifact, he did not realize what that bent can be. It has finally reached specialists and is restored. He is the only Corinthian helmet in Romania, that is, even similar to the one in the Trojan wars, but has lost its right to reward. So if you have heard, you have seen, not only hats, there are a lot of artifacts in the ground, because this land has always been inhabited, the advice is – given to reach as soon as possible at the town hall or at a museum, but it is harder, or at the county directions. You need to understand what the patrimonial value of these artifacts means. It is huge, it is cultural memory. Think that tomorrow morning you wake up and remember nothing. How nice it will be to take life from scratch. It is part of our cultural memory, it assures us the psychic balance necessary for the functioning of the society we were talking about, which has such resorts, not only economic, social, political, they are also cultural ”, explained the historian Cătălin Boragic.

“It's the most beautiful and best preserved.”

And after the historian Cătălin Boragic explained that the artifact of an invaluable value is, as we say now, an import object, most likely brought to the Danube by a military with an important function, Cătălin Stănculescu, the researcher you can follow on his Vlog on YouTube, Mythologica and other elements.

“It is perhaps one of the most successful. I have seen such specimens both north of the Danube and in the south, in museums in Romania, but also in museums in Serbia and Bulgaria, and I can even assure you that it is the most beautiful and best preserved.” said Stănculescu.

Balș helmet was first exposed to Slatina Photo: Alina Mitran

Throughout the Mediterranean peninsula there are about 60 discovered hats. “It seems quite a lot, but most are in the Greeks, there is also the area of ​​origin – Greece, Southern Italy. We have almost 18 Bulgarian neighbors, and we have only five, with this exhibit from Balș which is, by far, the most successful. And in Zimnicea. South of the Danube Reasons similar to those from the North. Stănculescu added.

The gothic hats, the so-called princely hats, were, in fact, inspired by the hats like the one exposed by the Olt County Museum, historians explained.