An unusual hat crocheted from ancient woolly mammoth hair has reportedly gone on sale for $10,000 in Yakutsk in Far East Russia.
Woolly mammoths are believed to have gone extinct some 4,500 years ago.
The mastermind behind the hat is Yakutsk builder Vladimir Ammosov, who said he had the headgear made after buying a bag full of mammoth hair from a relative who found the fur in a mammoth graveyard, The Siberian Times reported.
The authenticity of the material was confirmed by Semyon Grigoryev, the director of the Mammoth Museum at North-Eastern Federal University in Yakutsk.
“This was the prickliest hat I have ever worn,” Grigoryev was quoted as saying Thursday. “Wearing the hat felt like I was having a head massage.”
Ammosov, 44, said the inspiration behind the one-of-a-kind knitwear came from traditional round hats made with horse hair and worn on special occasions in the Sakha republic.
Eighty percent of the mammoth remains discovered in Russia were found in the Sakha republic, which is known to be a goldmine for archeological and paleontological finds.
