{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O134677"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O134677/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2009BX9868/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2009BX9868/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2009BX9868","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O134677/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O134677","accessionNumber":"LOAN:INDIA.79","objectType":"Monkey fragment","titles":[{"title":"The Stein Collection","type":"named collection"}],"summaryDescription":"This fragment is the upper part of a terracotta figurine of a monkey. The right arm is raised above the level of the shoulder, but broken away above the elbow. The left arm, top of the head and all below the breast is lost. After moulding, the features were deeply incised including the body hair which is marked by rows of incisions.\r\n\r\nFound in the west passage of a ruined Buddhist shrine at Akterek, east of the present-town of Khotan on the Silk Road branch along the southern edge of the Taklamakan desert in Xinjiang, China.  The monkey probably supported a small pottery bowl with his arms above his head as illustrated by similar objects brought back from Khotan.\r\n\r\nThe Victoria and Albert Museum has more than 70 ceramic fragments and fragments of Buddhist sculptures, as well as around 600 ancient and medieval textiles recovered by Sir Marc Aurel Stein (1862-1943) during his second expedition (1906-8) into Chinese Central Asia, where he once again visited and excavated sites on the southern Silk Road, before moving eastwards to Dunhuang.  At Dunhuang, he studied and excavated the Han-dynasty watchtowers to the north of the town, as well as the Mogao cave temples to the southeast, where he acquired material from the Library Cave. From there he moved on to the northern Silk Road, stopping briefly at Turfan sites but not carrying out any excavations. He made a perilous north-south crossing of the Taklamakan desert in order to hasten to Khotan where he excavated more ancient sites, before finishing off his expedition with surveying in the Kunlun Mountains.","physicalDescription":"Upper part of a terracotte figurine of a monkey. The right arm is raised above the level of the shoulder, but broken away above the elbow. The left arm, top of the head and all below the breast is lost. The features were deeply incised after moulding with the body hair marked by rows of incisions.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"unknown","id":"A1848"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"clay","id":"AAT10439"}],"techniques":[{"text":"moulded","id":"x30076"},{"text":"incising","id":"AAT53847"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Fine clay","categories":[{"text":"Earthenware","id":"THES48964"},{"text":"Ceramics","id":"THES48982"},{"text":"Buddhism","id":"THES48984"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"EAS","id":"THES48596"},"images":["2009BX9868"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"137 (VA)","id":"THES49876"},"free":"","case":"2","shelf":"5","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Fragment","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Xinjiang Uygur Zizhiqu (autonomous region)","id":"x29909"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"4th century - 5th century","earliest":"0300-01-01","latest":"0500-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Stein Loan Collection. On loan from the Government of India and the Archaeological Survey of India. Copyright: Government of India","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"8.26","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"From the west passage of a Buddhist shrine.","historicalContext":"Akterek sits on the southern edge of the Taklamakan desert, near the modern city of Khotan. Stein excavated a Buddhist shrine and temple there in 1906, and found remains of elaborate reliefs and sculptures, which had once decorated the site. A wealth of stucco fragments, bearing traces of gold, linked Akterek to the gilded shrines of the Buddhist Kingdom of Khotan, which had flourished during the third and fourth centuries AD. Akterek's connection with other southern Silk Road sites was confirmed by the presence of small terracotta monkey figures, similar to those Stein had collected at Yotkan, dated to the third to sixth century AD. Stein found that the Buddha figures, lotus flowers, wreaths, and cloud scrolls he unearthed had been baked hard. He concluded that the site had ultimately been destroyed by fire. The V&A holds, on loan, from Akterek fragments of a stucco palmette and a terracotta monkey.","briefDescription":"Fragment of a monkey, China.","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Stein, Marc Aurel. <u>Serindia: detailed report of explorations in Central Asia and westernmost China</u>. Oxford: Clarendon, 1921, vol. 1, p.151"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Stein, Marc Aurel. <u>Serindia: detailed report of explorations in Central Asia and westernmost China</u>. Oxford: Clarendon, 1921, vol. 4, pl. IX"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Stein, Marc Aurel. <u>Innermost Asia: detailed report of explorations in Central Asia, Kan-su, and Eastern Iran</u>. Oxford: Clarendon, 1928, vol. 2, p.1053"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Stein, Marc Aurel. <u>Innermost Asia: detailed report of explorations in Central Asia, Kan-su, and Eastern Iran</u>. Oxford: Clarendon, 1928, vol. 3, pl. XII"}],"production":"From Akterek, near Khotan","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"monkey","id":"x30136"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["LOAN:INDIA.79"],"accessionNumberNum":"79","accessionNumberPrefix":"LOAN:INDIA","accessionYear":null,"otherNumbers":[{"type":{"text":"Stein number","id":"THES50251"},"number":"A.T.v.2"}],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-16","recordCreationDate":"2007-05-14","availableToBook":false}}