Earliest felt piece.

Earliest felt piece saved until nowadays was collected by British archaeologist Sir Marc Aurel Stein within his expedition to Chinese Turkmenistan at the end on XIX century (O’neale, 1936). Noteworthy, the felt has been dyed and painted with tempera paint, which implicates knowledge of specific colouring techniques in the region. Slightly later Stein has discovered thin felt shoes in Siberia region (ibid.). Such findings provide scientific and anthropologic evidence Felting as art technique has been used since ancient times. Animal skins were undoubtedly employed for matting and clothing after the domestication of sheep, which coincided with the establishment of farming communities during the so-called agricultural revolution of around 8000 BCE (Eiland III, 2007). First written mention could be found back to 1400 B.C. in Chinese manuscripts highlighting that the Giung-nu Turkic tribe used leather as clothing and armour in their raids on China, as well as coats sewn from felt (Laufer, 1930). Felting became popular among population in China during Han Dynasty (201 BC – 220 AD) (ibid). Simultaneously, the technique was developing in Himalayan region: India, Tibet, Iran. Further felting widespread to other Asian countries and reached Europe. Greeks and later romans improved felting production via development of new more useful products and better utilization of such products (Laufer, 1930). 

https://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/media/documents/publication/ki_160304_occpapersmith-peter310_v1r7.pdf