Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 45 (4) 2017   DOI: 10.17746/1563-0110.2017.45.4.113-121

Annotation:  New Data on the Chronology of the Initial Neolithic Gromatukha Culture, Western Amur Region Holocene Fishing in the Big Sea Region of Lake Baikal (Based on Materials from Multilayered Habitati Comparative Characteristics of Stone Tools from the Neolithic Sites on the Upper and Middle Kama On the History of Asian Bosporus in the Early Byzantine Times: Excavations at Verkhnegostagayevskoye The Jomon Megalithic Tradition in Japan: Origins, Features, and Distribution A Morphological Analysis of Malyshevo Middle Neolithic Pottery from the Lower Amur New Absolute Dates for the Trans-Uralian and Western Siberian Neolithic Anthropomorphic Bronze Masks from the Timiryazevo-1 Burial Ground A Multidisciplinary Study of Burial Mounds and a Reconstruction of the Climate of the Turan-Uyuk De Classifi cation of 9th–13th Century Arrowheads Found in Azerbaijan Chinese Lacquerware from the Pazyryk Burial Ground Chineta II, Altai A Late 16th to Early 17th Century Mongolian Ceremonial Helmet from the Moscow Kremlin Armoury Dendrochronological Methods in the Architectural and Ethnographic Study of Russian Towns in Siberia Kinship Analysis of Human Remains from the Sargat Mounds, Baraba Forest-Steppe, Western Siberia Intragroup Variation of the Facial Skeleton in 16th–19th Century Rural Russian Populations in the W   

A Late 16th to Early 17th Century Mongolian Ceremonial Helmet
from the Moscow Kremlin Armoury

L.A. Bobrov¹ and S.P. Orlenko²

¹Novosibirsk State University, Pirogova 1, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia

²Moscow Kremlin Museums, Kremlin, Moscow, 103132, Russia

This article describes a richly decorated iron helmet from the collection of the Moscow Kremlin Armoury. The specimen has never been analyzed in detail before. It has been ascertained that it was one of the gifts sent by the Khotogoid Lama Erdeni Dai Mergen Nangso to the Russian Tsar Mikhail Fyodorovich Romanov on January 14, 1635. The helmet was handed over to the State Treasury no later than November 29, 1636, and later transferred to the Armoury. Apart from the helmet proper, the headgear in its initial condition includes a tripartite aventail made of narrow iron plates and decorated with colored velvet and silk, a cloth arming cap, and yellow satin straps, which were tied under the warrior’s chin. All the organic parts have been missing since the early 1700s. The base of the apex and the peak are covered with inscriptions in Sanskrit, containing the Simhamukha Mantra. This mantra was meant to protect the warrior from adverse charms and weapons. The technological analysis suggests that letters on the base of the apex were gilded, and those on the peak, silvered. Initially, the Armoury experts identified the helmet as a “Manchu hat”. The typological analysis suggests that the headgear was made by Central Asian (Mongolian or Oirat) artisans in the late 16th or early 17th century. The specimen may be used as a standard for dating and attributing randomly found and unattributed combat and ceremonial headgear worn by Late Medieval and Early Modern Central Asian nomads.

Keywords: Moscow Kremlin, Armoury, Mongols, Khotogoids, Oirats, protective weapons, helmets