Cleveland Museum of Art

Samite fragment with hunters

Date

800s

Medium

Silk: compound twill

Culture

Eastern Iran or Central Asia

Department

Textiles

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

This silk depicts pairs of horsemen hunting ibexes (mountain goats). The ibexes and two pairs of rabbits originally filled the spaces between rows of large floral roundels. Portions of the roundels are preserved at the top and bottom. Although the design was greatly influenced by silks from Egypt and Syria, the abstract style is typically Sogdian, from an area in Central Asia. This is one of many Sogdian silks that were traded to Europe and eventually preserved in church treasuries.

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