Fragments from wool twill, plain woven green silk, plant fibre and silk fibres.

Five textile fragments, including piece of twill woven brown wool, one fragment of plain woven unidentified plant fibre showing remains of joining seams and stitching, tiny piece of plain woven green silk, heap of silk fibres, and unidentified woven fabric tied around a twig.

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

These fragments may be connected with Stein number T.XIV.iii.0012.

The Limes are a line of defensive walls and beacon towers north of Dunhuang. They extend the wall completed by Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi (259-210 BC) in 214 BC as a barrier against the Xiongnu. Under the Han Dynasty (206 BC-220 AD) the walls were carried 1,000 miles to the west, to the easternmost edge of the Tarim Basin. The Limes protected China's trade and military colonies and served as a base for expansion into Central Asia. They were made of stamped clay and gravel, alternating with layers with wood, to protect against corrosion by wind-blown sand. They were completed in less than a century with water carried over huge distances. Behind the walls lay a series of watchtowers. These housed small numbers of soldiers who watched the desert and signalled to armies stationed at nearby Dunhuang through a system of couriers and fire signals. Within the towers Stein found an astounding range of artefacts, which provide a glimpse of garrison life and military operations under the Han empire, including bronze mirrors, coarse pottery, tools, leather armour, weapons, shoes, and clothing. Ancient documents included personal letters on silk and wood; military directives and supply lists; and treatises on a range of subjects, including medicine and astrology. The V&A holds, on loan, several utilitarian textile fragments, parts of shoes and several pottery shards from the sites, dating from the Han Dynasty (206 BC-220 AD) to the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 AD).

Similar to other fragments attributed to the Limes Watchtowers, although bear no identifying Stein number itself.

It is unclear what these fragments of wool twill, plain woven silk and a piece of twig would have been used for. They were recovered from an area 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.
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 650 ancient and medieval textiles recovered by Stein at the beginning of the 20th century. The textiles range in date from the 2nd century BC to the 12th century AD. Some are silk while others are made from the wool of a variety of different animals.

LOAN:STEIN.54