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Fragments - The Stein Collection

The Stein Collection

  • Object:

    Fragments

  • Place of origin:

    Niya, China (excavated)

  • Date:

    100-300 (made)

  • Artist/Maker:

    unknown (production)

  • Materials and Techniques:

    Braided wool

  • Credit Line:

    Stein Textile Loan Collection. On loan from the Government of India and the Archaeological Survey of India. Copyright: Government of India.

  • Museum number:

    LOAN:STEIN.157

  • Gallery location:

    In Storage

  • Image in copyright

These fragments of monochrome braided wool are in various shades of red with one piece of cream wool also attached. They were recovered from the site of Niya. The city dates from the 2nd to the 3rd century AD and was probably the capital of the kingdom of Shanshan, whose people were of Indian origin.

The site is part of an area of Central Asia we now call the Silk Road. This series of overland trade routes crossed Asia from China to Europe. The most notable item traded was silk but the Silk Road was also important for the exchange of ideas. While silk textiles travelled west from China, Buddhism travelled east, entering China from India.

The explorer and archaeologist Sir Marc Aurel Stein (1862-1943) brought this piece of fibre back from Central Asia. The V&A has around 700 ancient and medieval textiles recovered by Stein at the beginning of the 20th century. Some are silk while others are made from the wool of a variety of different animals.

Physical description

Pieces of monochrome braided wool in various shades of red tied together with Stein number label. One piece shows joining stitching. Also attached is a piece of cream wool.

Place of Origin

Niya, China (excavated)

Date

100-300 (made)

Artist/maker

unknown (production)

Materials and Techniques

Braided wool

Dimensions

Length: 33 cm longest piece, Width: 1.5 cm longest piece

Object history note

Attached to fragments is a circular tag label showing Stein number possibly in Stein's handwriting or that of his assistant, Miss F M G Lorimer.

Historical context note

Niya includes a group of towns in the southern region of the Taklamakan Desert, at the foot of the Kunlun mountains. Once a military post under the Kingdom of Khotan, Niya became an important oasis along the southern Silk Road. Stein excavated several groups of dwellings there and found hundreds of wedge-shaped wooden tablets, some laced together in pairs with string and affixed with clay seals. The appearance of Pallas Athena, Eros and other Greek deities on some seals showed the impact of western classical art on Khotan. The tablets were inscribed with Kharoshthi, an ancient script of northwest India. Stein identified some as Buddhist prayers and others as administrative documents and he dated them to the period of the Kushan empire, which thrived in the first three centuries AD. Among ruins of dwellings and orchards, Stein found numerous textile fragments, Roman coins, wooden furniture with elaborate carving, pottery, Chinese basketry and lacquer, and documents in Chinese script which he dated to the Han Dynasty (206 BC-220 AD). The V&A holds, on loan, a large number of textiles from Niya, including leather, wool yarn, appliquéd and stitched wool felt, and braided animal hair.

Descriptive line

Pieces of braided wool.

Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)

Stein, Aurel, Serindia: Detailed Report of Exploration in Central Asia and Westernmost China Carried Out and Described Under the Orders of H.M Indian Government , 5 vols (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1921), vol. I, p.250.

Associated names

Stein, Marc Aurel (Sir)

Materials

Wool

Techniques

Stitching; Braiding

Categories

Archaeology; Textiles

Collection code

EAS

Qr_O89230
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