I am creating a species of humanoid lizard, and want to find a type of helmet that would be feasible within the story.
Info: Tech level is basically hunter gatherer and nomadic, with a small bit of metalwork.
Lizards are approximately 6.5 to 7 feet tall and proportioned similar to a human.
They are a mashup of different types of lizards. Pointy scales like a Sungazer Lizard and some spikes along its spine like an iguana.
Sexual dimorphism: Is such that a male has a skull based on a marine iguana, while a female's head is more akin to a frilled lizard, more V shaped.
Approximation of what the head would look like.
Width (Outside of R. eye to the L. eye)- 18.6 Cm
Length (Back of skull to front of mouth) - 30 Cm
Height (Bottom of jaw to top of head above the eyes) - 22 Cm
Habitat: They live in a large, marshy wetland, with tribes of between 20-50 members. For food, they consume mostly fish, with some crab and turtle when they can be found. There are almost no large deposits of metal ores, so smelting is relatively non-existent. They can find iron nuggets in the rivers, which they can forge into spearheads and arrowheads, but not enough is available for making metallic armour.
Armour is made from the backplate of large turtle shell (similar to a snapping alligator turtle). Weapons will be mostly fishing spears used for combat.
Basically they use what they can find if it has a purpose.
The Question: What could be a viable material for a helmet for them with the following constraints;
- it can't be metallic or high tech fibers
- must be found naturally within the environment. (can still be modified slightly to work for them.)
I am currently picturing something like using a crab shell, but I would like a better or different alternative.