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organic materials– including full kaftans– amazingly survive from 6-9c CE Alanic cemeteries in the foothills and mountainous regions of the N. Caucasus. This autumn I traveled to the N. Caucasus to visit Alanic cemeteries and regional museum collections for research
BH

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The Alans utilized rock walls and rock terraces to built their cemeteries. Sometimes they carved niches in the soft sandstone rock walls, as for example here in the Khasaut valley
: those niches on the walls are individual burials (my husband Gleb is a great scale!)
BH

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Sometimes the Alans built cist tombs (a rock coffin) along rocky terraces and on rock ledges in forested gorges and mountain sides, as for example here at Moshchevaia Balka (: view of the western terrace of Moshchevaia Balka; the cist tomb formations are now destroyed)
BH

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organic materials, which rarely survive from this period, were preserved in these cemeteries b/c the rock kept the materials from resting up against acidic earth + the tombs were sealed which kept oxygen from seeping in
BH

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I studied kaftans at the Karachaevo-Cherkessk Regional Museum in Cherkessk (Russia). This is one of several nearly complete linen kaftans from Nizhnii Arkhyz that I closely examined (the header is a detail of the collar)
BH

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a closer detail of the collar w/ a frog, a cloth loop closure, that can hold the front panel closed around the neck. This double-axe/crescent motif silk is very likely locally produced by the Alans. Textile conservator Martina Ferrari @metmuseum & I are writing about it
BH

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some kaftans were made of 1 layer of fabric, while others were lined w/ fleece or fur– summer and winter models! Some kaftans were plain linen, some had silk trim & still others were covered entirely w/ silk: intact wool lining on lower hem of kaftan from Nizhnii Arkhyz
BH

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Moshchevaia Balka is esp. dear to me. A paper I wrote on the ‘senmurv’ kaftan from MB as an MA @NYUIFA 1st introduced me to the world of ancient fashion & all the things dress can do beyond cover & adorn
:at MB in 2019; 2012 w/ that kaftan on 1st visit @state_hermitage
BH

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for further on Alanic dress check out the work of Anna Ierusalimskaia, Zvezdana Dode & Olga Orfinskaia! See esp Ierusalimskaia’s 2012 Moshchevaia Balka ( https://cornell.on.worldcat.org/oclc/830310420 ) & Dode’s 2001 Srednevekovyi kostium narodov severnogo Kavkaza ( https://cornell.on.worldcat.org/oclc/49509343 )
BH