Sampul grave goods
Type:
Cemeteries,
Grave goods,
Textiles,
Jewelry,
Garments,
Mirrors,
Tapestries,
Skeletons and mummies
Date:
206 BCE–220 CE
Location or Findspot (Modern-Day Country):
China
Description:
These items were excavated from a burial site at Sampul (Shanpula) in what is now the northwestern Chinese province of Xinjiang. The cemetery is associated with a Tarim Basin settlement, located between the Taklamakan Desert and the Kunlun Mountains. Excavations during the eighties and nineties uncovered a wealth of grave goods in roughly seventy graves, two of which were horse graves. The dates of these objects range roughly from the second century BCE to the third century CE (Han Dynasty). The finds include household wooden vessels; household ceramics (e.g., jugs); iron tools (e.g., knives, sickles); hunting equipment (e.g., arrows, spears, stone bolas); and a large number of textiles and garments made from wool, leather, and silk.
A woolen tapestry with a centaur and a blue-eyed soldier, originally a wall hanging dating to the third or second century BCE, was cut down to create a pair of men's trousers and buried with the wearer in the first century BCE. Among the other artifacts reproduced here are several skirts with camel ornament, wooden spools for thread, a bracelet with glass beads and shells, a silk and wool case for a comb and mirror, a pair of leather and wool children's shoes, a bag of millet buns from a child's grave, and a three-legged platter that was found stacked with the remains of a sheep's skeleton.
A woolen tapestry with a centaur and a blue-eyed soldier, originally a wall hanging dating to the third or second century BCE, was cut down to create a pair of men's trousers and buried with the wearer in the first century BCE. Among the other artifacts reproduced here are several skirts with camel ornament, wooden spools for thread, a bracelet with glass beads and shells, a silk and wool case for a comb and mirror, a pair of leather and wool children's shoes, a bag of millet buns from a child's grave, and a three-legged platter that was found stacked with the remains of a sheep's skeleton.
Relevant Textbook Chapter(s):
1
Repository and Online Resources:
• Read about the Tarim Basin on the Secrets of the Silk Road website.
Image Credits:
Daniel C. Waugh, Wikimedia Commons
