{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O90135"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O90135/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AF6687/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AF6687/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2006AF6687","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O90135/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O90135","accessionNumber":"LOAN:STEIN.111","objectType":"Fragment","titles":[{"title":"The Stein Collection","type":"named collection"}],"summaryDescription":"This bundle of dark blue silk thread and one small piece of plain woven buff coloured silk was recovered from the site of Endere, a fort site that had been occupied during the fifth century AD. It is unclear what these fragments would have been used for, although they are likely to have had a utilitarian function.\r\n\r\nEndere is part of an area 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.\r\n\r\nThese 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.","physicalDescription":"Piece of monochrome plain weave buff silk and tangled dark blue silk thread stitched together with site label.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Unknown","id":"A1848"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"silk (textile)","id":"AAT243428"},{"text":"silk thread","id":"x30127"}],"techniques":[{"text":"plain weave","id":"x37295"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Plain woven silk and silk thread","categories":[{"text":"Archaeology","id":"THES48874"},{"text":"Textiles","id":"THES48885"}],"styles":[{"text":"Central Asian","id":"AAT18281"}],"collectionCode":{"text":"EAS","id":"THES48596"},"images":["2006AF6687"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"005","id":"THES301593"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Textile fragment","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Endere","id":"x37745"},"association":{"text":"excavated","id":"AAT53702"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"400-1000","earliest":"0400-01-01","latest":"1000-12-31"},"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":"6.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"bundle","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"1.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"bundle","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"Attached to fragments is a circular tag label showing Stein number possibly in Stein's handwriting or that of his assistant, Miss F M G Lorimer.","historicalContext":"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.","briefDescription":"Piece of plain woven buff silk and tangle of dark blue silk thread","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"O'Neale, Lila.M., and Durrell, Dorothy F., 'An Analysis of the Central Asian Silks excavated by Sir Aurel Stein', reprinted from <u> Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, Autumn 1945 </u> Albuquerque, MX: University of New Mexico Press, 1945, pp392-446"},{"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: The Clarendon Press, 1921), vol. I, p. 291."}],"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.111"],"accessionNumberNum":"111","accessionNumberPrefix":"LOAN:STEIN","accessionYear":null,"otherNumbers":[{"type":{"text":"Stein number","id":"THES50251"},"number":"E.VII.ii.001.a-b"}],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-30","recordCreationDate":"2004-01-27","availableToBook":false}}