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

Abstract

We describe a richly decorated iron helmet owned by the Moscow Kremlin Armoury. The specimen has never been analyzed in detail before. As we found out, it was one of the gifts sent by the Khotogoid Lama Erdene Dajan mergen Lanja to the Russian Tsar Mikhail Fyodorovich Romanov on 14 January, 1635. The helmet had been handed over to the State Treasury no later than 29 November, 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 liner, and yellow satin ribbons, which were tied under the warrior’s chin. All the organic parts have been missing since the early 1700s. The dome of the helmet has a patterned applied strip and a visor with the Simhamukha Mantra written in Sanskrit and meant to protect the warrior from adverse charms and weapons. The technological analysis suggests that letters on the band were gilt, and those on the visor, silvered. Initially, the Armoury experts identifi ed 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 battle and ceremonial headgears worn by late medieval and early modern Central Asian nomads.