{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O87425"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O87425/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AF8096/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AF8096/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2006AF8096","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O87425/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O87425","accessionNumber":"LOAN:STEIN.253","objectType":"Fragment","titles":[{"title":"The Stein Collection","type":"named collection"}],"summaryDescription":"This fragment is of monochrome gauze weave dark brown horsehair. It was recovered from the site of Miran Fort on the eastern verge of the Taklamakan desert. At this site  material was discovered in the remains of a fort held by the Tibetans during their domination of the southern Taklamakan in the 8th century AD.    \r\n\r\nThe 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.\r\n\r\nThis fragment 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.","physicalDescription":"Piece of monochrome gauze weave dark brown horsehair. The fragment is made from two groups of elements that are intertwined together. Pairs of elements form 2-ply, Z-twisted 'cords', with each 'cord' alternately enclosing, or being enclosed by, another perpendicular 'cord'. This structure could easily be made using ply-split techniques, though there are other possibilities; such as, loop-manipulation and free-end braiding. This structure is called 'double oblique twining' by Irene Emery and 'plain oblique twining' by Peter Collingwood. The intertwining of the fragment might not be oblique.\r\n\r\nThe twining forces the enclosed pair to sit flat, so that the two enclosed elements are parallel to each other. \r\n\r\nEach element of the fragment consists of approximately 10 strands of horsehair that have been twisted together in an S direction. 4 pairs of these elements are dyed red (of the 30 pairs along the length, they are the 11th, 12th, 22nd and 23rd pairs), and there is a single strand of red in the tenth pair.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Unknown","id":"A1848"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"horsehair","id":"AAT11819"}],"techniques":[{"text":"gauze","id":"x37290"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Gauze weave horse tail hair. Identified from the regular, wide diameter; wide, sometimes interrupted medullae; and a scale pattern which is waved mosaic with margins which are mostly smooth but sometimes crenate.","categories":[{"text":"Archaeology","id":"THES48874"},{"text":"Textiles","id":"THES48885"}],"styles":[{"text":"Central Asian","id":"AAT18281"}],"collectionCode":{"text":"EAS","id":"THES48596"},"images":["2006AF8096"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"002","id":"THES301590"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Textile fragment","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Miran Fort","id":"x37281"},"association":{"text":"excavated","id":"AAT53702"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"8th century","earliest":"0700-01-01","latest":"0800-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Stein Textile Loan Collection. On loan from the Government of India and the Archaeological Survey of India. Copyright: Government of India.","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Length","value":"8.8","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"6","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"Attached to fragment is a circular tag label showing Stein number possibly in Stein's handwriting or that of his assistant, Miss F M G Lorimer.","historicalContext":"The Miran fort lies midway along southern Silk Road, at the foot of the Kunlun Mountains. When Tibetan troops occupied the area in the late eight century AD, they built the fort to guard one of many routes through which they moved into Central Asia. In 1907, Stein excavated rubbish heaps at the fort and found wood slips, dating from the eight to the ninth century AD, which provided early examples of Tibetan writing. He also found fragments of wool rugs in bright colours and pieces of silk. The V&A holds a large number of textiles from the Miran Fort on loan, including spun wool, pattern and plain woven silk and wool, woven and spun hemp, woven horsehair, cords and painted silk.","briefDescription":"Fragment of dark brown gauze weave horsehair","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Wilson, Verity. 'Early Textiles from Central Asia: Approaches to Study with reference to the Stein Loan Collection in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London', <u>Textile History 26 (1) </u>.  Devon: David & Charles/Pasold Research Fund Ltd, 1995, pp.23-52."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Stein, Aurel, <u> Serindia: Detailed Report of Exploration in Central Asia and Westernmost China Carried Out and Described Under the Orders of H.M Indian Government </u>, 5 vols (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1921), vol. I, p.480. Vol. IV, pl.L."}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[{"text":"Stein, Marc Aurel (Sir)","id":"N2850"}],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["LOAN:STEIN.253"],"accessionNumberNum":"253","accessionNumberPrefix":"LOAN:STEIN","accessionYear":null,"otherNumbers":[{"type":{"text":"Stein number","id":"THES50251"},"number":"M.I.iv.0010"}],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-12","recordCreationDate":"2003-12-16","availableToBook":false}}