A Tunic from Eastern Anatolia

Some years ago while conducting research for a projected medieval Near Eastern costume book, I chanced to hear of a garment on display in the town Museum of Karaman, some distance to the east of Konya.An immensely kind museum attendant allowed me to examine and photograph the garment at leisure, albeit only through the glass. According to the information I had originally been given, the garment was attributed to the early seventh century. The local guidebook added that the tunic and the body which still wears it, along withsome 150 others, all apparently victims of a massacre, had been taken from a tomb complex nearby known as the Manazan Caves which contained a Greek inscription. A very high level of preservation had resulted from extremely dry conditions.