2000-year-old needlework

Jack Campin - bogus address ,in rec.crafts.textiles.needleworkwrote: and entertained us with

Thanks, very interesting. I am trying to imagine how the embroidery is done from your description. Lovely to see it but unfortunately I am an ocean away !

Sheena

I am quite close to Turkey , but don`t think i will be there so soon , but many of my aquaintances travel there quite regulary. Several years ago we had an exhibition with many with many OTTOMAN Carpets , [ catalog says 1999]. The carpets were woven [not embridered] with 900 [nine hundred Gjordash knots per square of 10 cm x 10 cm. , The rug you describe looks [from your description ] more like a 'Suzanni" ,,,which were made all along the `The Silk Road` , for several centuries and indeed combine embroidery and applique. The animals included in the pattern [again by your description ] might show of a more eastern [China ? India ? ] source .. where did you get the date from? Cloth dating 2000 years have beeb found all over the middle east [esp in dry places] but not with Animal embroideries, mirjam

I was fascinated by your website, particularly about the poor (but apparently contented!) train fanatic!

Pat

I saw this piece when the exhibit was in Munich -truly wonderful. It is actually quilted, you can see some batting where the surface is damaged. I didn't buy the Munich catalogue -the picture of this was too small to be really useful IIRC. The curators seemed much more interested in the more "traditional" archeological treasures. The label was particularly disappointing and IMO not even accurate. Can't remember at this point exactly how they described it, but do remember feeling that it did not adequately explain fiber content or techniques. Roberta in D

"Jack Campin - bogus address" schrieb im Newsbeitrag news: snipped-for-privacy@news.news.demon.net...

It wasn't a rug, definitely a wall hanging (shaped to fit the sloping sides of a yurt).

They had a sort of shamanistic feel to them, you get similar imagery in the ancient metalwork of Scythia and Dagestan.

That part of the exhibition was mostly the result of multinational archaeological projects. I imagine they threw every dating technique known to science at it, but the labeling didn't say what.

: I saw this piece when the exhibit was in Munich -truly wonderful. : [...] The label was particularly disappointing and IMO not even : accurate.

The labels in Istanbul were bilingual in Turkish and English (with exactly the same content in both), and I thought they were pretty good on the whole (until the rather sinister political motivations behind the whole show came into play with the more modern stuff). Perhaps the German labelling was an afterthought?

It seemed clear enough to me how it was made, though I'm not so sure about the neat double stitching. Did they use a double needle for it, maybe? Presumably the technique is still in use.

In Istanbul, the hanging was given a prominent position (as far as possible, the lighting had to be subdued) and was described as one of the most prized exhibits of the museum it came from.

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