Not currently on display at the V&A

The Stein Collection

Fragment
100 - 300 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

This rectangular fragment of monochrome plain weave is made of yellow wool. It is unclear what this textile would have been used for, although it is likely to have had a utilitarian function. It was recovered from the site of Niya, which dates from the 2nd to the 3rd century AD. Niya was probably the capital city of the kingdom of Shanshan whose people were of Indian origin. The site of Niya is remarkable for the carved wooden capitals, beams and balustrades that show similarities to the western classical decoration that filtered through Iran and Northwest India.

The site is also part of an area of Central Asia we now call the Silk Road, a series of overland trade routes that crossed Asia from China to Europe. The Silk Road was also important for the exchange of ideas. While silk textiles travelled west from China, Buddhism entered China from India along this route.

These textiles were brought back from Central Asia by the explorer and archaeologist Sir Marc Aurel Stein (1862-1943). The Victoria and Albert Museum 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 animals.


Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleThe Stein Collection (named collection)
Materials and techniques
Plain woven wool
Brief description
Fragment of plain woven yellowish wool.
Physical description
Rectangular monochrome plain woven yellowish wool.
Dimensions
  • Length: 18cm
  • Width: 9cm
Style
Credit line
Stein Textile Loan Collection. On loan from the Government of India and the Archaeological Survey of India. Copyright: Government of India
Historical context
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.
Production
Similar to other fragments found at the site Niya, although bears no identifying Stein number itself.
Association
Summary
This rectangular fragment of monochrome plain weave is made of yellow wool. It is unclear what this textile would have been used for, although it is likely to have had a utilitarian function. It was recovered from the site of Niya, which dates from the 2nd to the 3rd century AD. Niya was probably the capital city of the kingdom of Shanshan whose people were of Indian origin. The site of Niya is remarkable for the carved wooden capitals, beams and balustrades that show similarities to the western classical decoration that filtered through Iran and Northwest India.

The site is also part of an area of Central Asia we now call the Silk Road, a series of overland trade routes that crossed Asia from China to Europe. The Silk Road was also important for the exchange of ideas. While silk textiles travelled west from China, Buddhism entered China from India along this route.

These textiles were brought back from Central Asia by the explorer and archaeologist Sir Marc Aurel Stein (1862-1943). The Victoria and Albert Museum 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 animals.
Bibliographic reference
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: The Clarendon Press, 1921), vol. I.
Other number
Unknown - Stein number
Collection
Accession number
LOAN:STEIN.193

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Record createdJanuary 14, 2004
Record URL
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