{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O90692"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O90692/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AF7080/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AF7080/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2006AF7080","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O90692/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O90692","accessionNumber":"LOAN:STEIN.110","objectType":"Textile","titles":[{"title":"The Stein Collection","type":"named collection"}],"summaryDescription":"This bundle of various wool fragments was recovered from the site of  Farhadbegyailaki, which dates from the 8th to the 10th century AD. It is unclear what these textiles would have been used for, although it is likely to have had an utilitarian function.    \r\nThe site 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\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":"Several fragments of various colours and techniques including plain woven cream wool, cream wool felt attached to plain woven pale red wool, plain woven dark red wool and one piece of polychrome plain woven unidentified plant fibre in yellow with remains of three blue stripes along one edge. Above pieces have been stitched together with Stein number label. One piece of plain woven yellow silk is separate from the bundle.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Unknown","id":"A1848"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"wool","id":"AAT14074"},{"text":"silk (textile)","id":"AAT243428"},{"text":"plant fibre","id":"AAT14031"}],"techniques":[{"text":"plain weave","id":"x37295"},{"text":"felting","id":"AAT232049"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Plain woven unidentified plant fibre, silk and wool fragments, felting","categories":[{"text":"Archaeology","id":"THES48874"},{"text":"Textiles","id":"THES48885"}],"styles":[{"text":"Central Asian","id":"AAT18281"}],"collectionCode":{"text":"EAS","id":"THES48596"},"images":["2006AF7080"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"005","id":"THES301593"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Textile fragment","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Farhadbegyailaki","id":"x37852"},"association":{"text":"excavated","id":"AAT53702"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"700-1000","earliest":"0700-01-01","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":"20.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"11","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"largest piece","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"Attached to fragments is a rectangular tag label showing Stein number and the date '2.3.08'  possibly in Stein's handwriting or that of his assistant, Miss F M G Lorimer.","historicalContext":"Farhad-beg-yailaki lies on the southern Silk Road, in what was once the Buddhist Kingdom of Khotan. Here Stein explored the remains of Buddhist shrines, which he dated from the fourth to the sixth centuries AD. Among these he found Buddha statues wearing robes with bright floral designs. At their feet were piles of fabrics offered in worship. Artefacts from the site were evidence of contacts with many cultures. Murals depicted two figures important in Indian Buddhist mythology: Hariti, protector of children, and Avalokitesvara, god of mercy and compassion, draped in cloths with Sassanian motfis. Stein also found clay seal impressions and pottery fragments bearing classical imagery, such as a winged horse and a figure of the Trojan prince Ganymede. The V&A holds, on loan, from Farhad-beg-yailaki, fragments of woven plant fibre, silk and wool.","briefDescription":"Bundle of plain woven fragments of yellow, red and cream wool and unidentified fibre.","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: The Clarendon Press, 1921), vol. III, p. 1256."}],"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.110"],"accessionNumberNum":"110","accessionNumberPrefix":"LOAN:STEIN","accessionYear":null,"otherNumbers":[{"type":{"text":"Stein number","id":"THES50251"},"number":"F.I.009.a-c"}],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-07","recordCreationDate":"2004-02-02","availableToBook":false}}