Research on Prehistoric Hats in Xinjiang (2000 BC-200 BC)

Based on archaeological evidence, this paper analyzes hats unearthed from prehistoric Xinjiang. Three typical categories of ancient hats can be recognized according to different styles and structures. And each of them represents the local dressing culture of different geographical areas of Xinjiang. Meanwhile, the similarities between prehistoric hats from Xinjiang and other Ancient tombs in Eurasia indicate early cultural communications between different civilizations from the Bronze Age to the early Iron Age.


Introduction
Located in the hinterland of Eurasia, Xinjiang, in Northwest China, has been at the intersection of eastern and western civilizations since ancient times. In recent years, a large number of corpses unearthed from Tarim Basin have provided an opportunity for the study of Xinjiang's prehistoric civilization. Hats played an important role in the lives of ancient inhabitants of Xinjiang, for practical functions, such as shielding and insulation and for deep-rooted spiritual reasons. Scholars have done some primary research on ancient hats from Xinjiang. For instance, Wu Yanchun discusses the high-peaked headgear culture in the West region of Ancient China (Yanchun & Libo, 2004, pp. 60-68) while Barber believes that there is a certain link between high-pointed hats unearthed from the Turfan area and witches (Barber, 1999, p. 200) And Karlene considers that the pointed hats in prehistoric Xinjiang have a certain ritualistic origin (Karlene, 2010, pp. 92-98). It is thus clear that the study of prehistoric hats of Xinjiang is of significant academic value. The early headgear culture not only unveils the lifestyle of prehistoric Xinjiang, but various bird-shaped or animal-shaped hats may be important symbols of different primitive ethnic groups.
Prehistoric hats unearthed from Xinjiang that are of such a wide variety, in large quantities, and in various unique forms and styles, are rare worldwide. According to released materials, there are over 120 prehistoric hats unearthed from Xinjiang in total, in areas with differing cultures, dating back from the Bronze Age in 2000 BC to the early Iron Age around the time of the beginning of Han Dynasty, mainly distributed in the Eastern area of Mount Tianshan and the vast hinterland of Tarim Basin. These include felt hats, fur hats, woolen cloth hats, wool knitting hats, hairnets and high-peaked hats.

Archeological Hats from Prehistoric Xinjiang
Prehistoric hats from Xinjiang can be generally divided into three categories: earflap hats, straight-edge hats and high-peaked hats. Earflap hats are fitted and light, with earflaps on both sides to shield wearers' cheeks and ears, characterized by strong protection and cold-proof functions; straight-edge hats feature straight edges and pointed or domed peaks without earflaps, but have a variety of shapes and certain practical functions. High-peaked hats feature higher and more exaggerated shapes, which are distinct spiritual indicators.

Earflap Hats
Earflap hats with two pieces of earflaps on both sides have been unearthed from multiple graves. Their sound protection and convenience resulted in their popularity in prehistoric Xinjiang. They have pointed or domed peaks, angular or lune earflaps on both sides with chin-cords for fastening below wearers' jaws to protect their ears and cheeks. Earflap hats are usually made of felt, woolen cloth and fur, and were used in autumn or winter to protect against the cold climate in prehistoric Xinjiang.

Straight-Edge Hats
Straight-edge hats are characterized by circular bottom edges at the same horizontal plane, without earflaps. They can also be divided into three categories: pointed-peak straight-edge hats, dome-peak straight-edge hats and flat-peak straight-edge hats.

Pointed-Peak Straight-Edge Hats
Pointed-peak hats feature a pyramid shape, with two kinds -upright pointed-peaks and curved pointed-peaks.

Upright Pointed-Peak Hats
Upright pointed-peak hats can be represented by the felt hats unearthed from Small River Cemetery in the Lop Nor Area, which are basically straight-edge round hats without earflaps, with peaks in different pointed degrees. Most hats are well preserved with exquisite modeling ( The peaks of curved pointed-peak hats are not inclined vertically, but have forward or backward folds, which form special curvatures. Only the bird-head-shaped pointed-peak hat unearthed from Zhagunluke is a genuine artifact ( Figure 8). It is seamed by two pieces of triangular brown felt materials, small at the top and wide at the bottom; the peak is seamed into the natural curve of a bird head. It is as high as 35 cm, with a bottom diameter of 24 cm and a top diameter of 5 cm. Its edge is whip-stitched by raw white woolen yarns. A slope shape is formed www.ccsenet.org/ass Asian Social Science Vol. 11, No. 7;2015 from hat brim to hat peak. It was even inlayed with black feathers when being unearthed. The turn-down brims on both sides are asymmetric, i.e. the right one is turned down in the front and the left one is turned down at the back; two turn-down brims in tandem with the edge in the middle of the hat peak forms a special decorative effect (Museum of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region [MXUAR], 2010, p. 19).
Birds and other animals acted as the spiritual indicators for ancient inhabitants. This kind of bird-head-shape curved pointed hats may be correlated with the religions and nomadic lifestyles of the inhabitants of ancient Xinjiang. Those hats are very rare in graves in prehistoric Xinjiang. However, the hat decorations of the bronze armor sculpture from Yili (Xinyuan County) and the jade sculpture from Altai ( Figure 9) are similar with the Zhagunluke Birdhead-shaped Felt Hat. They also have horizontal bottoms and forward-curved peaks (or backward-curved, depending on different styles of use) with different brim widths, showing that these curve-pointed peak straight-edge hats were once popular in prehistoric Xinjiang.    Figure 14 x horn shape t ound, which i Then a taper cm and an upp on has a highe 15. Fish-shap (Yanghai Ceme ere are only tw n a round shap ameter and 8 c the peak (Bay ur-piece brown Figure 13). The knitted pieces i le that the brow The hat shape similar struc the ring shape.

Fish-Shaped High-Peaked Hats
Fish-shaped high-peaked hats have only been unearthed from Yanghai Cemetery. They are wooden hats in a fish shape, bonded by thin wooden boards. The bottom opening is in a square shape. The hat has four facets, with one straight facet as the opening and the other three ones in a fish belly shape, characterized by the swelling bottom and smaller top. The hat peak is stretched upward into a high peak. The slope facet opposite the straight one is fixed with a triangular thin wooden board (Figure 15). These hats, usually utilized by females, are of a similar structure but different heights. All hats were blackened and in the form of empty shells when being unearthed. A well-preserved example among these wooden hat decorations is the M318:16, which is as high as 62.4 centimeters, with an opening length of 5.2 cm. When being unearthed, its shell was inserted with a square wooden strip, 26 centimeters in length and 1.2 centimeters in width; there are woolen ropes wound around the peak with human hairs inside (XIACR & Turfan Bureau of Cultural Relics, 2004, pp. 61-62). This stripe should be the holder to support the wearer's hair when using this fish-shaped decoration. And it is inferred that there is also a hairnet or internal hat in the bottom to support the high peak at the same time.

Double-Forked High-Peaked Hats
The peak of a double-forked high-peaked hat is bifurcated into two forks. Among five unearthed ones, two were from Subeixi and 3 were from Sangeqiao, with similar structures and different characteristics.
The double-forked high-peaked hats unearthed from Subeixi Cemetery shall be represented by the one worn by a female corpse from Graveyard I Tomb 11 ( Figure 16). The wearer's hair is braided into two parts, which are covered by a black wool knitted hairnet to be wound on her head and supported by a wooden hairpin. A tower-shaped double-forked felt hat is worn on top of the wound hair. It is in a barrel shape, as high as 45 cm, seamed by a piece of black fine felt. The seam is concave and decorated with fur. The peak is formed into two forks, inserted by a wooden stripe. A fur ring-like base is connected below the felt top, decorated by evenly spaced fine white vertical stripes. A leather rope is seamed at the center, front, left and right of the hat brim. The leather rope end in the center front is tied with a wooden hairpin, and the other two ropes are tied behind the wearer's head (Enguo, 2006, p. 245). To wear this hat, the wearer shall wind her hair, which is braided into two parts on top of her head and covered by the knitted hairnet, and fasten the ring-like base around her neck; and finally cover the top of her head with a double-forked high peak.
Three similar pieces of double-formed high-peaked hats have been unearthed from Sangeqiao Cemetery, close to Subeixi. For instance, let's look at the M9:10 ( Figure 17). Firstly, one piece of felt is seamed into a barrel shape, with a lower front and higher back. The back is seamed smoothly, with the upper part cut into two peaks in the shape of horse ears. The hat is as high as 27 cm, with a bottom diameter of 6.2 cm. The bottom part of the back is tied with fur stripes for fastening. The high-peaked hat M13:3 shares a similar shape with the former one, but it is seamed by two pieces of overlapped felt, with seam traces in the front and back of the center lines. But a half circle is cut in the front part, and a fur stripe is tied below for fastening. The incomplete hat is as high as 24.2 cm, with a bottom diameter of 7.4 cm (XIACR et al., 1997, p Vol. 11, No. 7;2015

Discussions
This is a preliminary classification and consolidation of hat styles in prehistoric Xinjiang, which can be divided into earflap hats, straight-edged hats and high-peaked hats. The first two kinds of hat were utilized prior to the high-peaked ones, and are very common among garment relics, while high-peaked hats were mostly distributed in the Tianshan Mountain area of Eastern Xinjiang in 5-3 centuries BC, and were a unique style of hat in the prehistoric Turfan Basin. From a chronological perspective, most early hats in 2000-1300 BC are unearthed from the Lop Nor Area, and were used for practical functions, featuring simple and plain styles, textures and colors. While mid-period hats from 1300-600 BC, represented by the hats of the Zhaguanluke area feature complicated styles and diverse textures, with a texture composed of a mixture of felt, woolen cloth and knitted cloth. Hats from 600BC to the Han Dynasty, beginning in 206 AD, were mainly unearthed from the Turfan Basin.
High-peaked hats have become the main characteristic of this area. These hats feature three different types, which function as unique spiritual indicators: cone-shape, fish shape and double-fork shape.
Peak shape and style has become an important feature of hats in prehistoric Xinjiang, and can be a symbol of certain ethnic or religious groups. The excavated felt hats have shown the limitations of the excessive focus on high-peaked hats by the academic field when referring to the hat history of Western China. Despite high-peaked hats taking up a great portion of all the hats in prehistoric Xinjiang, there are also dome-peaked, round-peaked and flat-peaked hats, as well as hats with special animal shapes. Dome-shaped earflap hats had the longest period of popularity as well as the widest distribution and have been unearthed from multiple graves, showing that this style of hat was commonly used in ancient times. Pointed hats featured more surface decorations with straight or curved top styles and uneven heights, which were more likely utilized on formal occasions. High-peaked hats were seemingly used for special ceremonies and religious rituals or as coffin decorations, rather than for daily use.
These three categories of hats in prehistoric Xinjiang, from the Bronze Age to the early Iron Age, were unearthed from other places in Eurasia. For instance, the statue of Phoenicia Prayer from 4000-3500 BC unearthed from Byblos, Lebanon, wears a straight-edge hat with a peak point, while there is also a tribute bearer wearing a straight-edged hat in the Assyrian civilization 2800 years ago. The earflap hats often appeared later in the Persian and Scythian Nomadic Civilizations, such as the Scythian tribute bearers in the embossment in Persepolis Palace built by Darius 2500 years ago, and the Scythian warriors portrayed on the golden vase, unearthed from Kul-Oba Ancient Tomb in South Russia, wearing earflap pointed hats. The high-peaked hats also appeared in Central Asia and the South Russian grasslands in 6-3 centuries BC, such as the gold man unearthed from a grave in Issyk in 5 century BC in Kazakhstan, wearing a bird-shaped high-peak hat; or the female corpse unearthed from Pazyryk ancient tomb in South Siberia, Russia, wearing a cone-shaped high-peaked hat, similar to the ones unearthed in Subeixi Ancient Tomb in Xinjiang. These similarities seemingly suggest that from as early as 2000 BC to the Christian era, there were initial cultural exchanges in Eurasia, and more archaeological evidence is needed in order to fully unveil their origins and ways in which they spread around Eurasia.

Summary
These observations about hats unearthed from prehistoric Xinjiang may certainly expand our knowledge of the Bronze and Early Iron Age dwellers of Xinjiang, although some other important aspects need to be explored through further research.