English
Silk Road Collection
Central Asia

Red Embroidery Decorated with a Pig Head

  • Central Asia
  • Central Asia
  • The later 6th century AD
  • Sogdiana
  • fabric
  • 24.4cm in width 62.2cm in length

Patterns of palm are sewn by using chain stitching between the head of the pig and patterns of beads. Patterns of beads of Bamiyan (6th-7th century A.D.) and Afrasiab murals of Sogd (around 650-655 A.D.) depict the clothes of the nobility and wall materials of Damgan (Iran) . This is one of the favorite sewing patterns spread along the Silk Road. Pig heads are similar to those of Afrasiab and palms to those of Damgan. Chain stitching of embroidery has been found in the excavations of Palmyra relics in China and the West in the 2nd century A.D., which is a very common technique in ancient times.