7th Century B.C.E. Helmet

 

This helmet, which was discovered in Crete and was almost certainly military in function, indicates the existence of two different types of bureaucracy.


 First, the design of the helmet indicates that it is not one-of-a-kind; the seam running down the middle and pre-drilled holes through which nails have been inserted are telltale signs of a mass-produced product. Mass production indicates bureaucracy; it is more than likely that batches of these helmets were fabricated by multiple workers under the same set of instructions. For a project like this, groups of workers have to be managed, design plans have to be standardized, and materials have to be sourced; there is virtually no chance this helmet was created without the input of a bureaucratic oversight body. 


Second, the mass production of helmets only makes economic sense for an army of a certain size – and, more importantly, it is very useful for one to know approximately how many products must be produced before amassing the materials needed for production. At some point, somebody involved in the production of these helmets calculated how many helmets needed to be produced, and how much material and labor would be needed to produce that number of helmets. Large militaries require at least some bureaucracy to function, especially when it comes to properly equipping soldiers. This helmet indicates that, in 7th century B.C.E. Crete, military bureaucracy existed.


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