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.