Several small fragments and one rectangular fragment of polychrome patterned weave made of blue, buff and pink silk. The pattern shows stepped rectangles, spots, eight-petalled rosettes and roundels with rayed edges. The edges are turned under and the whole piece is backed with a fabric of plain woven white unidentified plant fibre. This piece has a selvedge intact. It is unclear what this textile would have been used for, although it is likely to have been part of a burial shroud. It was recovered from the site of Astana, an ancient burial ground where the tombs date from the 3rd to the 8th century AD.

The sites are 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 most notable item traded was silk. Camels and horses were used as pack animals and merchants passed the goods from oasis to oasis. The Silk Road was also important for the exchange of ideas. Whilst silk textiles travelled west from China, Buddhism entered China from India in this way.

This textile was brought back from Central Asia by the explorer and archaeologist Sir Marc Aurel Stein (1862-1943). The V&A has around 650 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.