And I'm back!

So, life took some turns and I was unable both to do much research nor tell anyone about it.  I am back with a computer now, though, so I will hopefully be able to update more than the spurts-in-Winter that I've been doing.

BUT YEAH, we'll see.

Birka Garb 2015

Within the last few weeks, here in the East Kingdom we had a large event called A Market Day at Birka. It's a merchant-centered event, as the name suggests, at a hotel in Manchester, NH. Among many events, including an intensely popular armored, heavy combat tournament, is the annual fashion show where those who wish to can show off their duds to the oohs and ahs of the populace. My household, House Strangewayes, has been running the fashion show for the past several years and it's a big success. As a member of the household, I volunteered to help keep everything running smoothly from registration through the event itself. This means I'm in the background of a good amount of photos around Facebook. What that allows me, though, is the ability to show you the latest garb I've made and break down my inspirations and documentations for the decisions I made to construct it.

There I am holding the clip board after collecting entries to the fashion show.  I have no idea why it is I'm making that face, to be honest.

So, let's break things down, shall we?  I think it's best to start at the bottom and work to the top, since the hat is what you're probably looking at first.  It seems most people do (And it's super fun, and I love it).

The shoes is the least documentable part of my entire kit.  I needed a pair of shoes which would work in looking period-esque and Mongolian.  A few years back there was a vendor at Birka who's not been back since, named NYC Mongol.  They carry hand made goods imported from Mongolia.

The slippers are hand made and they are incredibly comfortable and warm.  I enjoy them, but until I get to make some gutal, they will do for now.  It's a stop gap, but beats the inauthenticity of wearing my steel toed boots or sneakers.

The pants are where I've been struggling the most with construction.  There are a few different patterns I've found on Pinterest.

These are the two best examples (direct link in alt text for attribution).  The top is directly traceable to Mongols and the bottom pre-date the Golden Age by a couple centuries, dating to the 7th-8th century in Sogdiana.

The black pants are modeled after the lower pair of trousers and the construction is simpler and the detailing is hidden.  They are similar to the Thorsberg Trouser and modern pyjama pants, so there is bountiful resource when I was making my very first pair, which busted in the crotch due to poor allowances for my not being waifish.  The Sogdian trousers above has crotch gussets, which I did also put in.

I do, eventually, want to make what appear to be the overall style pants, but I haven't gotten up the courage yet.  I'm a handsewer and I don't know if my skills are up to the task yet.  I'm especially concerned about the ballooning I'm seeing out from the waist.

The jacket, I have to say, I am the most proud of in certain regards, but is not completely where I would like it to be.

It's based off of what I have found out of China for Mongols during the Yuan dynasty.  The length is derived from it as is the cut to the opening at the top.  Here is a good example from the Met:

A couple things to note from the image.  First, the man in the center is hunched over, which gives some false length, so the man in white is a better show there.  The man is white does appear to be moving, however, thus the wrinkles.

The collar appears to be sewn into the body of the deel to create a standing collar that travels the length of the enter seam of the neck area.  This appears to be common across social class and location.  I've seen it in Persian miniature, Chinese landscapes and Chinese portraiture.

I constructed it by experimenting a little over a couple different overcoats I have made.  I found that making a double-wide strip, sewing that to the body of the deel, then folding over the "right" side to reinforce the seam and make a tube.

Now the hat.  I love that hat.  I can't take full credit for making it as I'm in no way a milliner. Iulia Agricola had constructed it for me for Birka 2014 when out household theme was "unusual but documentable".

It is based on this:

It is a hunting scene.  I've not been able to directly attribute it to any on collection, sadly, but I can tell it's most likely Yuan and depicts a royal hunting party, probably for Kublai Khan, but that last part is pure conjecture.

You can see that there are two men wearing hats made of snow leopard, center left and center right.  At some point, I do want to make the hat for center right with the "pouf" on top.  That was not in the cards for me last year, but I do have enough of the faux fur to make another hat on my own.

I did base my hat off of center left.  I substituted the black for brown as I can't tell if it was brown in the original and aged into black, or if the fur was black when created.  Brown also was cheaper when I went to the fabric store and so it won as brown fur is common on all continents and it's plausible.

And, there you have it!  The head-to-toe breakdown of my garb from Birka 2015.

Slight Change in Course

So, quick hit here.

I've decided that it would be most productive to me to also do the "what am I doing now?" with projects related to my persona.  It does all tie in together, but may mean there would be more that's not on the specifics of deciphering the manuscripts.

So, this'll be both a strict research and an experimental archaeology blog from here on out.

Hope to keep you along for the ride!

-E

Long Awaited Update

I fell off the blogging bandwagon for a while.  It's more of my picking up and putting down research and less of progressing research with no update.  My mundane life has taken a turn for the busy and, as a result, my research has suffered a bit.

That doesn't mean I've not doing anything.

I took a break from the class breakdown in Persian art and moved over to the Chinese manuscripts.  I had been finding that the non-acculturated Mongol's in Persia is difficult to find in the resources I've been able to recover from the public domain, as I'm a hobbyist and not a traditional academic.  My BPL card has also expired unexpectedly, which causes another bump in the road.

In China, though, it's easier for me to discern what I'm looking at.  Generally, I'm more familiar with the artistic styles of the Chinese through out time and have a greater understanding of the social structures and cultural nuance from my days before the SCA.

They paintings are more abundant because of cultural frictions intermixed with a stubborn lack of intercultural exchange in the upper echelons of Chinese Imperial society during the Yuan period.  Instead of working in tandem, like in Persia, the Chinese were ruled by the Mongols who did not "go local" but did learn the philosophies.

I've been able to become confident in nailing down that the fanciness of any given figure's fabric pattern/weave.  It does answer a fundamental question I came into this project seeking to answer.  Seeing that it is  consistent between China and Persia suggests that it was a Mongol social status rank marker and it is less likely that it is a convention of the respective cultures to derank certain positions over others.

At this point, I need to revisit the common themes and motifs documented in academic resources so I can begin to up my personal game futher.

On the Class Depiction Thesis

My early research into this theory is getting off to a little bit of a slow start, admittedly.  It's turned into a bigger undertaking than I was imagining.

As with any culture, I'm recoiling to treat it as a monolith.  Having seen the misconceptions of a monolithic and unchanging Mongolian culture permeate not only history texts but also SCA reenacting, I want to make sure I have a good understanding of the basic precepts, while also not getting into the real intricacies of a culture which isn't my entire focus.

As any hobbyist, I'm prone to fall down rabbit holes of research, as well, taking me off course.  I'm deeply and sincerely interested in all of the aspects of what I'm looking at, but I need to keep my focus so I'm not chasing ducks and losing where I want to go and what I really want to accomplish with this project.

To that end, I found a great article from my JSTOR searching which has given a great baseline for how Persians depicted social class during the transitional period into the Il-Khanate.

Not only does the author give the physical positioning and its relation to understood implications of social class, but also he describes the clothing (with the miniatures' images) which also help in decoding the ways in which differing classes dressed.  He does this with both Persians and Mongols within the text.

I plan to use this resource to compare with my own collection of Mongols in miniatures I've cultivated on Pinterest.

I'm hoping, using the same journal's archives, to find a more recent source which does the same breakdowns.  While fantastic, the source was published in 1959 and I'd like to find out if theories and practices for decoding miniatures has changed over the ensuing decades.

Research Resources and Chivalry

My father is currently involved in a Master's program and so I had asked him what academic databases he had access to for help with my current endeavor.  We're both residents in the greater Boston area and he told me that, with a Boston Public Library membership, I had access to JSTOR and other academic databases free of charge.

Back when I was first developing my persona, mostly doing research into names and Middle Mongolian grammar structures and naming practices (of which I'm still not entirely confident, but that is a project I will delve into at a later time), I spent a great afternoon in the records and journals archive of the BPL and, since I was there I joined the system.  My membership had, in all honestly, languishing as just another card in my wallet until he reminded me of this access.

That night, I went on a JSTOR binge and pulled resources on Persian miniatures, culture and biases before, during and just after the Il-Khanid period.

At the same time, I was reaching out to other contacts I had within Society for help in direction.  I owe a debt of gratitude to Facebook for making it so much easier for me to get going in everything.

From my contacts on Facebook who're playing in the SCA, I was able to get some help both directly and through "telephone".

I've been a longtime internet friend with Jabra'il Attar, who currently resides in the Outlands but is originally from Calontir.  As you can imagine from his persona name, he has a Persian persona and I knew he draws his inspiration for garb from Persian miniatures, with many books -- whether academic or "coffee table" -- on the artform.  He has provided me with some images of foreigners, in particular Mongols, from miniatures.

At the same time, I'm close friends with (the newly) Mistress Elinor Strangewayes.  She's already proven to be a great moral support, given the size of the project I'm undertaking.  I owe the ambitiousness of the project, really, to her encouragement.  She's been a great sounding board for me, especially about my nerves about the project (which will get its own post).

As a recently elevated Laurel, she is still has strong contacts with her former Apprentice Siblings, some of whom are also researching Mongol cultural and arts aspects, and she is close with her former Mistress, Mistress Bess of the Northern Shores.

Mistress Elinor was chatting with Mistress Bess about my research interests and my intentions, and Mistress Bess was kind enough to send some of her research using Persian Miniature as a reference for my research.

I've chatted occasionally with Mistress Bess, but never anything in depth or serious, so I am sincerely thankful for her help, as well.

I'm finding this process, already, to be an eye opening experience regarding the helpfulness, the community and the chivalry of the Society.  I've reached out for guidance and reassurance and I've gotten more than I could even ask for.

I'm humbled by the amazing qualities of everyone who's help me.

Genesis

This blog is dedicated to my research exploits related to the Society for Creative Anachronism.  In Society, I go by Erdene Qadajin, a resident of the East Kingdom residing in the Shire of Quintavia but primarily playing in the Barony of Stonemarche.  I currently have the persona of a 14th to 16th century Mongol from deep in the Asian steppe, but no particular location as of yet.

My latest project came about from a couple different areas.  First, I am admittedly a junky for being authentic.  I like to know what I'm creating and putting on my body is as accurate as can be or can be afforded.  I like to know that that I'm doing and how I'm doing it is a best can be represented in the culture I'm displaying.  It's especially compounded by being one of a small number of the populace with a primary of persona from the Mongol tribes.

Second, I haven't been able to find very many specific resources in the SCA.  Many are introductory and, while that is useful for someone who's "dipping their toes" into making Mongol garb, it becomes less useful as I've tried to develop my persona.  There is extensive research and exampling on European cultures, especially Western Europe and there's a fair amount of research in Islamic cultures (Persian, Mamluk, Abbasyd, Ottoman) with its recent surge in popularity.  However, the resources on an important European contact culture like the Mongols are difficult, if not impossible to find without academic library and database access.

So, I turned to Pinterest for initial inspiration.  Pinterest has a wide array of visual information on Mongols in period (pre-1600) -- from extant examples to Chinese and Persian manuscripts.

As I have assembled my army of resources I noticed something peculiar:
in depictions of Mongols, they are typically shown in plain clothing.  A single color deel, sometimes even lacking the second (short sleeved) deel layer.
in extant Mongol clothing from grave finds, the clothing is rich in color and pattern, often blindingly so even after centuries of degradation of fabric.

My goal in my research is two-fold and broken into large "stages".

Goal one is to figure out why the miniatures depict the Mongols in the way that they do.  My primary focuses are on Persian and Chinese manuscripts -- in particular paintings -- contemporary to the Mongol invasions and occupations of those cultures.

My current theories, which are based on general guidelines, are three-fold.
First, did the artist have enough space to make the patterns associated with extant finds, in the case of miniatures
Second, did the Mongols have Court versus "Day Wear" clothing depending on the task at hand, or is this a symbolism of an emergent Mongol class system
Third, is this propaganda on the part of these cultures to prove their superiority through the arts they created.

My plan is to first start with Persian miniatures, as my personal connections within the SCA are stronger for finding examples.  I need to learn how the Persians depicted social classes and foreigners within their miniatures, and how those models are transplanted onto the pictured Mongols.

If necessary and possible, I will then take that information and cross-compare the miniatures with size dimension to determine if space may also be a factor in details.

Second, I will repeat the process through learning about the Chinese style and applying the same precepts and principles and that culture.

Third, I will take those two cultures and what I've learned and apply it to the extants and what can be learned about the social circumstances of those who wore the garments.

Finally, is an analysis for what this means in terms of SCA persona building and Mongol re-enactors for the focus time period in general.