A length of woven silk. Egyptian, possibly Akhmim, ca. AD600-900. The warp is a dark cream and the weft is green and white. The centre of the piece is filled with geometric versions of a man with a raised hand (?) and animals and a tree and a floral icon. It is edged on both sides with a geometric order which appears to taper around the icon at one end of the column. The rest of this end is missing. The piece is stained and has some holes. Similar to 300-1891. Samite (twill woven silk) was thought to originate from Persia under Sassanian rule (AD224-651). It was commonly decorated with pairs of animals and birds and set in pearled lotus roundels. It is often found in Western burials, within church possessions and along the Silk Road. Byzantine weaving workshops took on the samite technique to make it an essential weave of the period. It was a luxury textile of the Middle Ages brought to Europe when the Crusades opened up direct contact with the East. It was forbidden to the middle classes of France under the sumptuary rules c. 1470.