Of these three fragments of various shapes and techniques, two are monochrome plain weave of brown silk, while the third is a polychrome gauze weave made of resist-dyed buff coloured silk with small floral shapes and roundels reserved in cream colour. The roundels are printed with floral designs in yellow and black. 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 Buddhist site of Kharakoto, which dates from the 11th to the 13th century. The name Kharakhoto means 'The Black Town', this probably refers to the massive walls and bastions that were still visible above ground when excavations on this site began.

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.