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“The Mystery And Myth of the Silk Road – the Puzzle of Ancient Garments” Seminar

2024-05-24

The Maritime Silk Road Society organized a seminar on “The Mystery And Myth of the Silk Road – the Puzzle of Ancient Garments” on 24 May. Dr Cheung Shin Yee, Professor of Shenzhen Technology University and writer, was the speaker to provide the audience a glimpse of the Silk Road through four mysterious cases.

Dr Cheung started with the discovery of the Chu Tomb at Mashan, where Chu silk embroidered garments were found, and explained in details the embroidery and patterns of the excavated silk fabrics, including dancers' costumes, cotton robes and quilts, etc., which revealed that the owner of the tomb was a female aristocrat in the middle to late Warring States period.

Dr Cheung thus raised four mysteries. Mystery1: The delicate patterns and embroidery on the clothes excavated from the Mashan Chu Tomb are reminiscent of those found at Bazerek in the Altai Mountains, which are far away from each other but have similar excavated artefacts. Did the silk fabrics from Bazarek come from Chu? If so, how were they transported there?

Mystery 2: In recent years, a case of grave robbing was uncovered. Two pieces of clothing which were allegedly stolen from Dulan, Qinghai Province. Comparing the clothing materials unearthed from the Mashan tomb, one can see the similar style and quality of the stripes and the same arrangement of patterns. However, many of the tombs excavated in the area were from the Tang Dynasty, which makes people wonder whether the clothing materials were from the Warring States period or Tang Dynasty.

Mystery 3: There is no record of silk trading with foreign countries in the judicial documents of the Han Dynasty Silk Road (JuYan Inscribed Slips), but in three cases in Changsha, which was not on the Silk Road, it was found that the trading of silk was a common thing.

Mystery 4: Comparing the patterns on the excavated materials from various places, it was found that the patterns on the robes from Qinghai were shoddy, suggesting that they might be forgeries.

Dr Cheung said that exploring the history of the Silk Road, and the Silk Road and non-Silk Road trades, was far more complex and interesting than people thought; and those grave robberies had made it difficult for scholars to explore deeply based on excavated artefacts, and that much of the truth had been lost. She raised several questions and discoveries about silk, exploring with the participants the details and the interesting aspects beyond the to understand the Silk Road in a three-dimensional way.

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