XClose

Institute of Archaeology

Home
Menu

Sogdian silks? On the Representation of Textiles in Sogdian Wall Paintings

25 February 2025, 6:15 pm–7:15 pm

Picture of two building porticos merged together (UCL and the British Museum)

The next event in the 2024-25 UCL Institute of Archaeology/British Museum Medieval Seminar Series, will be given by Zumrad Ilyasova (British Museum) on 25 February.

This event is free.

Event Information

Open to

All

Availability

Yes

Cost

Free

Organiser

Prof Andrew Reynolds

Location

Room 612
UCL Institute of Archaeology
31-34 Gordon Square
London
WC1H 0PY
United Kingdom

Abstract

The Sogdians, an Iranian-speaking people that inhabited the territories of present-day Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, are known to some as traders along the Silk Roads active during the first millennium CE. They reached the courts of Justinian in the West and the Tang emperors in the East through their mobility and diplomatic skills. Lesser known are the rich pictorial worlds they have created on wall paintings that decorated nearly every temple, palace, and residency in their home cities and settlements and other artistic media such as wood carvings, metalwork, and terracotta. The question of whether Sogdians were also responsible for creating complex woven silk fabrics decorated with animals inside roundels is still debated. However, their numerous presence in the paintings testifies to their great appreciation by Sogdian elites. The talk will focus on patterned silk fabrics represented in the paintings from key Sogdian sites and situate them within the broader history of material, technological, and artistic exchange along the Silk Roads.

The Medieval Seminar Series is sponsored by the World Archaeology Section at the UCL Institute of Archaeology and the British Museum. 

Seminar Series Convenors: