Only a couple of decades ago, the cloth seals were regarded as relatively rare finds, and were hardly present in the scholarly literature. Geoff Egan and Walter Endrei published the first relevant studies on this topic, emphasising the importance of these objects. Cloth seals can be considered as the first brand signs in the trade history. Their primary function was to display the quality and the origin of particular textile fabrics. An average merchant in the 16^th-17^th Centuries, after a closer look at such a seal, could differentiate even the very similar production. After the introduction of metal detectors the number of such finds has increased significantly. (For example, in Hungary, from approx. 250 in 2011 up to 3000 in 2023).

The practice of sealing the cloth was introduced in most of the textile producing centres by the end of the 15^th century. Therefore we know medieval cloth seals of Austrian provenance too, namely from Tulln and Vienna. Most of such seals are documented so far on the territory of medieval Kingdom of Hungary, which is understandable considering that Hungary was the primary market for most of the Austrian goods. This paper aims to present the main steps of how such seals were used, what were their main types and how well they fulfilled their function?

Maxim Mordovin, Assistant Professor at the Department of Medieval and Early Modern Archeology of the Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest. Started as a researcher of the early medieval strongholds and royal castles in Central Europe, participated and led many excavations of different medieval and early modern sites in Hungary, Slovakia and Romania. Among the most significant of them Castle Čabraď (Slovakia), Tarnóczy-Castle at Sânzieni (Romania) and Szécsény in Hungary. Main field of interest in the last decade shifted to the urban archaeology and material culture, including the archeological evidence of the international trade in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern time. Cloth seals are one of the objects considered to be such evidence.

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