Wool felt
Fieltro de lana
- Date
- c. 1800 BCE · confidence low
- Place
- Xiaohe Cemetery, Xinjiang, China
- Credited to
- Herders of the Tarim Basin and the steppes
- Field
- Tools
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A fabric made without spinning or weaving by matting wool fibres with moisture, heat and pressure. The felt caps in the Xiaohe tombs are among the oldest surviving examples; steppe peoples used it for clothing, rugs and dwellings.
The origin of felt cannot be fixed: Neolithic Anatolia (Çatalhöyük) has been proposed without surviving remains. The date takes the Xiaohe finds as the earliest solid example.
What it led to
- clothing, boots and tents of the nomadic peoples of the steppes
- rugs and insulating covers, such as the Pazyryk felts
- medieval and modern felt hats