Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 51 (1) 2023   doi:10.17746/1563-0110.2023.51.1.119-126

Annotation:  Findings from the Paleolithic Studies in Siberia The Earliest Paleolithic Assemblages from Denisova Cave in the Altai Upper Paleolithic of the Yenisey: New Discoveries, Old Debates Middle Neolithic Burials in Baikal-Yenisey Siberia: Problems of Cultural Identity and Genesis The Most Important Archaeological Discoveries Relating to the Neolithic to Early Iron Age Cultures o Possibilities of Direct Dating of Rock Art in the Khakass-Minusinsk Basin On the Chronological Position of Siba Culture Metal Artifacts, Northwest China The Current Model of Historical and Cultural Processes in the Stone and Bronze Ages of the Ob-Irtysh The Pazyryk Dwelling D.G. Messerschmidt’s Collection of Siberian Antiquities in Drawings at the St. Petersburg Archive of The Final Bronze Age in the Minusinsk Basin A Study of Silk Fabric from the Xiongnu Age Under-Headdress Discovered at Yaloman II Mound 51 in the Origin and Evolution of the Earliest Iron-Smelting Technologies in the Khakass-Minusinsk Basin “D.G. Messerschmidt’s Cups” Use of Parts of Ram Carcasses in the Funerary Practices of the Baikal Region Population in the 13th–   

A Study of Silk Fabric
from the Xiongnu Age Under-Headdress Discovered
at Yaloman II Mound 51 in the Central Altai

A.A. Tishkin¹ and O.V. Orfinskaya²

¹Altai State University, Pr. Lenina 61, Barnaul, 656049, Russia

²Centre for Egyptological Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences, Leninsky pr. 29, bldg. 8, Moscow, 119071, Russia

We describe a large fragment of fabric from the under-headdress excavated from mound 51 at Yaloman II—a site on a high terrace near the place where the Bolshoy Yaloman flows into the Katun, Central Altai. Various criteria, including radiocarbon analysis, suggest that the burial dates to the Xiongnu Age (200 BC to 100 AD). The structure of the textile was assessed microscopically. On the basis of morphological criteria, the fibers were identified as silk. The fabric is described according to the accepted international standards. Results attest to the use of a treadle loom for producing polychrome silk fabric, from which the early nomads sewed a headdress in the form of a cap or bonnet. Such a prestigious material was produced in limited quantities in China to decorate details of clothing worn by the elite. Decorative silk items could have been imported from there to the Altai as gifts received by the leader of the nomadic Xiongnu Empire in Inner Asia. The Altai was part of this empire, as demonstrated by the entire assemblage of funerary items from Yaloman II.

Keywords: Central Altai, Yaloman II, Xiongnu Age, early nomads, under-headdress, decorative silk fabric