Textile archaeological finds from a 10th-12th century Mongolian rock crevice tomb. Study of the oldest preserved Mongolian felt cloak and other felt garments to date

Abstract

A collection of finds from a rock crevice tomb from the Khitan culture dating to the 10th-12th century AD was brought to Germany within the scope of a Mongolian-German research project under the direction of Jan Bemmann and Cagaan Törbat. The corpus of finds included the oldest Mongolian cloak made out of felt to date, as well as a felt cap and an additional felt fragment. The three objects were the subject of a 2012 master’s thesis at the Cologne Institute of Conservation Sciences, Cologne University of Applied Sciences. All of the objects were investigated and analysed in order to classify their historical and cultural contexts.