Legacy of the Desert
King
Textiles and Treasures Excavated at Niya on the
Silk Road
edited by Zhao Feng and Yu Zhiyong
published by ISAT / Costume Squad, 2000
| Marriage of the families of the king and the marquis /
The Five Planets all appear in the east / Favourable to parents and to descendants
/ Auspicious to China for a thousand autumns and ten thousand years / Peaceful
and content, wishes fulfilled, unedning longevity - a collection of inscriptions on textiles from Niya | ||
| ||
| This catalogue of an exhibition at the China National Silk
Museum, Hangzhou, October-November 2000, presents a selection of the treasures
found at Niya. The ancient site of Niya is located in the south of the Taklamakan
desert in far northwest China. About 2,000 years ago, it was the centre
of the Jingjue kingdom, one of thirty-six kingdoms in the region. The population
was small, and lived in peace and prosperity. By the end of the Eastern
Han dynasty in the second century AD, Jingjue was annexed to the Shanshan
kingdom, and the city of Niya was abandoned in the third or fourth century. In 1901, Sir Aurel Stein came upon the site of Niya, and in 1988 Japanese and Chinese scholars began to make joint expeditions to the site. The graveyard of the royal family was found in 1995, and large quantities of objects and mummies have since been excavated. Among them, in tombs no. 8 and no. 3, were found the double burials of two successive generations of rulers of the Jingjue kingdom, the so-called 'Desert Kings'. This discovery ranks as one the ten most important archaeological excavations in China in that year, and some of the inscribed silk textiles found are among the most significant Chinese cultural relics extant. The selection of stunning textiles and objects presented in the catalogue allows us to learn about the daily life and wealth of the Jingjue nobility, the important achievements of silk production in central China in the Han and Jin dynasties (206 BC-AD 420), and the cultural exchange between East and west in ancient times. - Entire text in both Chinese and English - Illustrated glossary of textile terminology - Chronology of archaeology at Niya - Full colour printing | ||
PRICE: UKPound 20.00 (including postage and packing) Available from: Please click here to access an Order Form, to print out and send or fax to us. All major credit cards accepted | ||
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© China National Silk Museum, Hangzhou, and the Xinjiang Institute of Archaeology, Urumqi; all the photo rights reserved by the Xinjiang Institute of Archaeology: not to be reproduced without permission. |
Recent Excavations of Textiles in China
edited by Zhao Feng
published by ISAT / Costume Squad, 2002
| ||
Catalogue of the exhibition of the same name held at the China National Silk Museum, Hangzhou, to coincide with the International Conference on Textile Archaeology in China, 5-6 November 2002. The exhibits were selected from textiles found at seven sites, mostly within the last decade, ranging in date from the Han to the Ming dynasty: the Yumi kingdom site at Keriya River, near Khotan; the Han/Jin tombs at Niya in Xinjiang; the Han/Jin tombs at the Yingpan burial ground near Loulan; the Dulan burial ground in Qinghai province; the Liao dynasty tombs at Daiqintala, Inner Mongolia; the Yuan dynasty finds at Dove Cave in Hebei province; the Ming dynasty tomb of Lady Wu at Nanchang. - All 85 exhibits illustrated in full colour plates, with
numerous details and macro details showing the designs and the technical
construction. | ||
Published ISAT / Costume Squad, Hong Kong, 2002. ISBN 962-85691-4-7. PRICE: UKPound 35.00 (including postage and packing) Available from: Please click here to access an Order Form, to print out and send or fax to us. All major credit cards accepted | ||
Distributed by
© 2002-6: not to be reproduced without permission. |
Published ISAT / Costume Squad, Hong Kong, 2000. ISBN 962-85691-2-0.
