textile; 紡織品(Chinese) BM-MAS.917.a

Period:Tang dynasty Production date:8thC
Materials:silk, 絲綢 (Chinese),
Technique:samite, 斜紋緯錦 (Chinese),

Dimensions:Length: 4.20 centimetres Width: 6.80 centimetres

Description:
These three fragments of samite are from one piece of weft-faced compound twill, with a pattern of pearl roundels, 8.2 cm high and 6.5 cm wide, within which are three branched palmettes. The roundels are arranged in staggered rows interspersed with flowers and scrolled clouds: the pattern is in white and light blue; the ground is in yellow. Stein found a piece of samite with a similar design, with linked pearls at Astana, but it is usually rare to find branched palmettes (or any tree-like designs) in Sogdian samite. Weave structures: Inner warp: silk, Z twisted, paired, yellow, 16 ends/cm; Binding warp: silk, Z twisted, single, yellow, 16 ends/cm; Weft: silk, untwisted, yellow for the ground, white and light blue for the pattern, 41 passes/cm. Weave structure: 1/2S weft faced compound twill. 斜紋緯錦殘片。三片出自同一織物，以黃色緯線作地，其上以淺藍、白兩色緯線顯花。根據殘留的織物保可拼出一高約爲8.2cm，寬約爲6.5cm的聯珠形團窠紋樣，窠內是一枝三叉的花樹圖案。這種花樹紋樣在中亞粟特織錦中並不多見，但與斯坦因在吐魯番阿斯塔發那挖到的一件團窠聯珠花樹紋錦多少有些相似（Ast.i.1.01）。團窠採用二二錯排的方式排列，團窠之間則裝飾以卷雲式的花卉。 組織結構： 經線：明經：絲，Z撚，單根排列，黃色，16根/cm；夾經：絲，Z撚，雙根排列，黃色，16根/cm；緯線：絲，無撚，黃、淺藍、白色，41副/cm；組織：1/2S向斜紋緯重組織。
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Comments:This fragment belongs to the same textile of MAS.917.b-c. When Stein recovered these three fragments, they were stitched together to form a strip from the back of a Buddhist devotional handbook printed in AD 949.