2-739-661 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Samite fragment with hunters, 800s. This silk preserves 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. This is one of many Sogdian silks that were traded to Europe and eventually preserved in church treasuries.