The Stein Collection
Textile
400-1000 (made)
400-1000 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
is bundle of blue and cream wool fragments was recovered from the site of Endere, a fort site that had been occupied during the fifth century AD. Their original use is unclear although they are likely to have had a utilitarian function.
Endere is in an area of Central Asia now referred to as 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 their 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.
These fragments 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 twentieth century. The textiles range in date from the second century BC to the twelfth century AD. Some are silk while others are made from the wool of a variety of different animals.
Endere is in an area of Central Asia now referred to as 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 their 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.
These fragments 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 twentieth century. The textiles range in date from the second century BC to the twelfth century AD. 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 | Woven wool and cord |
| Brief description | Bundle of blue and cream wool fragments |
| Physical description | Bundle of blue and cream wool fragments in plain and twill weave, and cord. Some pieces have been stitched with a cream thread of unidentified fibre. |
| 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 | Some of these textiles have previously been stored in a cream envelope which has been labelled 'E.Fort.0012' and 'blue piece: coarse and fine, Blue cord, Buff thread ' probably by either or both Marc Aurel Stein and his assistant Miss F M G Lorimer. |
| Historical context | Endere was once an important military post and centre of Buddhist worship on the southern Silk Road. Coins found there indicate that the Chinese controlled the area as early as the Han Dynasty (206 BC-220 AD). During the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD), Endere fell to the Tibetans and the city was abandoned in the ninth century AD, when the nearby Endere River changed its course. Stein excavated there in 1901 and 1906, locating remains of its great fort and a number of buildings devoted to Buddhist worship. In one shrine he found textile rags and fragments of Buddhist manuscripts deposited at the feet of stucco statuary, possibly as votive offerings. Written in Chinese, Tibetan and Sanskrit and other scripts, they suggested that the shrine had drawn worshippers from far and wide. The V&A holds, on loan, a number of textiles from Endere, including tanned leather, wool felts and yarns, woven silk, and braided plant fibres. |
| Association | |
| Summary | is bundle of blue and cream wool fragments was recovered from the site of Endere, a fort site that had been occupied during the fifth century AD. Their original use is unclear although they are likely to have had a utilitarian function. Endere is in an area of Central Asia now referred to as 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 their 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. These fragments 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 twentieth century. The textiles range in date from the second century BC to the twelfth century AD. Some are silk while others are made from the wool of a variety of different 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: The Clarendon Press, 1921), vol. I, p. 292. |
| Other number | E.Fort.0012 - Stein number |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | LOAN:STEIN.119 |
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| Record created | January 28, 2004 |
| Record URL |
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