The Stein Collection
Fragment
200-800 (made)
200-800 (made)
Artist/Maker | |
Place of origin |
This textile are made up of several pieces of silk stitched together. The all over pattern of petalled rosettes are made by the technique of resist dyeing. It is unclear what the piece would have been used for, although it is most likely to have been part of a burial shroud. The textile was recovered from the site of Karakhoja. Karakhoja lies south of Turfan, towards the eastern end of the northern Silk Road. The Chinese established a military post at Karakhoja in the fourth century AD, but it fell to successive nomadic groups until the Chinese regained it during the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD). The Turkic Uygurs then made Karakhoja their capital. .
The site is 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 – while 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 Victoria and Albert Museum has around 700 ancient and medieval textiles recovered by Stein at the beginning of the twentieth century. Some are silk while others are made from the wool of a variety of different animals.
The site is 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 – while 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 Victoria and Albert Museum has around 700 ancient and medieval textiles recovered by Stein at the beginning of the twentieth century. Some are silk while others are made from the wool of a variety of different animals.
Object details
Categories | |
Object type | |
Title | The Stein Collection (named collection) |
Materials and techniques | Plain woven silk with resist dyed pattern, stitching |
Brief description | Plain woven silk with clamp-resist dyed pattern, excavated in Karakhoja (Gaochang), 200-800 |
Physical description | Rectangular piece consisting of six separate pieces of textile stitched together. All pieces of plain weave silk but with two different clamp-resist dyed patterns. Two pieces in red leaving a cream coloured repeating design of five petalled flowers and four pieces in red leaving a cream coloured design of repeating four petalled floral lozenges. |
Dimensions |
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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 | Karakhoja lies south of Turfan, towards the eastern end of the northern Silk Road. The Chinese established a military post at Karakhoja in the fourth century AD, but it fell to successive nomadic groups until the Chinese regained it during the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD). The Turkic Uygurs then made Karakhoja their capital. Stein excavated its Buddhist shrines and cave-temples, finding Uygur text fragments, a cast-bronze knife handle, a quilted shoe of buff cotton, and fragments of stucco Buddha, some of them painted. The V&A holds, on loan, from Karakhoja, two pieces of resist-dyed silks. |
Subject depicted | |
Association | |
Summary | This textile are made up of several pieces of silk stitched together. The all over pattern of petalled rosettes are made by the technique of resist dyeing. It is unclear what the piece would have been used for, although it is most likely to have been part of a burial shroud. The textile was recovered from the site of Karakhoja. Karakhoja lies south of Turfan, towards the eastern end of the northern Silk Road. The Chinese established a military post at Karakhoja in the fourth century AD, but it fell to successive nomadic groups until the Chinese regained it during the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD). The Turkic Uygurs then made Karakhoja their capital. . The site is 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 – while 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 Victoria and Albert Museum has around 700 ancient and medieval textiles recovered by Stein at the beginning of the twentieth century. Some are silk while others are made from the wool of a variety of different animals. |
Bibliographic references |
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Other number | Kao.III.E.01.a - Stein number |
Collection | |
Accession number | LOAN:STEIN.542 |
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Record created | December 11, 2003 |
Record URL |
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