The Stein Collection
Textile
300-400 (made)
300-400 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
These strips of painted plain woven fragments are made of red silk in two different qualities. Some of the strips are painted with broad stripes and dots in dark blue. It is unclear what these textiles would have been used for, although they are likely to have had a decorative purpose. They were recovered from the site of Miran Fort on the eastern edge of the Taklamakan desert. Material discovered at this site was found mainly among the remains of a fort held by the Tibetans during their domination of the southern Taklamakan in the 8th century.
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.
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 | |
| Title | The Stein Collection (named collection) |
| Materials and techniques | Plain-woven silk painted red, dark blue and white. |
| Brief description | Fragments of red plain woven silk, painted. |
| Physical description | Several strips of painted plain weave red silk of two different qualities. Some of the strips have been painted with broad stripes and dots in dark blue. One selvedge intact. Red colour is due to a dye, which was highly fluorescent when analysed by Raman spectroscopy and did not yield any Raman spectrum. The blue fibres gave the spectrum of indigo. The white areas were highly fluorescent and did not yield any Raman spectrum. [Analysis by Dr Lucia Burgio, 02 January 2006] |
| 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 |
| Object history | Attached to fragments is a circular metal-rimmed label showing Stein number possibly in Stein's handwriting or that of his assistant, Miss F M G Lorimer. |
| Historical context | Miran lies between Kargilik and kake Lop Nor on the southern Silk Road. Stein excavated an ancient fort and remains of a Buddhist sanctuary there in 1907 and uncovered spectacular Buddhist murals in its temples and stupas. These depicted winged figures with garlands; imagery which he identified with the mythology and style of Persia and Greece. The appearance of the signature "Tita" led Stein to conclude that the paintings were the work of an artist from the eastern Mediterranean. Temple sculpture, including a colossal Buddha head, was rendered in the opulent Gandharan style of northwest India. Stein called this fusion of regional styles Graeco-Buddhist and determined that the site had flourished in the first centuries of the millennium, when trade along the southern Silk Road had thrived. The V&A holds, on loan, from Miran, silk and wool fragments, and a group of lotus flowers made of cotton and silk and fragments of a painted cotton temple hanging. |
| Association | |
| Summary | These strips of painted plain woven fragments are made of red silk in two different qualities. Some of the strips are painted with broad stripes and dots in dark blue. It is unclear what these textiles would have been used for, although they are likely to have had a decorative purpose. They were recovered from the site of Miran Fort on the eastern edge of the Taklamakan desert. Material discovered at this site was found mainly among the remains of a fort held by the Tibetans during their domination of the southern Taklamakan in the 8th century. 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: Clarendon Press, 1921), vol. I. chp XII-XIII. |
| Other number | M.II.008 - Stein number |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | LOAN:STEIN.286 |
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| Record created | January 6, 2004 |
| Record URL |
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