A pair of 2000-year-old trousers was reported in Antiquity this quarter; and you wouldn't think it, but the story of their construction is a fascinating one that illustrates the crossing of cultures in the 2nd century BC along the Silk Road between the Han Dynasty capital of Chang 'An and a west central Asia thoroughly changed by the exploits of Alexander the Great.
Head of a Greek-Macedonian Lancer on the Sampul Tapestry. Photo by Shizhao
In 1984, four mass graves were discovered in a cemetery near the village of Sampul, an oasis in the Tarim Basin of western China north of Tibet. In one of them was discovered a pair of ornamental trousers, cut from a tapestry that once hung in a princely residence of west central Asia. The story of the Tapestry Trousers of Sampul illustrates a complex combination of cultural imagery, and at the same time highlights the less-than-cordial aspects of cultural exchange along the Silk Road.
- Read more about The Tapestry Trousers of Sampul
- Wagner, Mayke, et al. 2009 The ornamental trousers from Sampula (Xinjiang, China): their origins and biography. Antiquity 83(322):1065-1075.
Comments
Tapestry trousers! Will we be seeing these at the next Fashion Week?
BTW, your site comes up first when googling tapestry trousers!
These pants were ahead of their time as a fashion statement !!
You gotta love that !!
Greco – Roman influences are easily visible in those.
i assume the implication is noticed bu the archeologists, but it is quite clear that the former new owner of teh tapestry must have been impressed by teh artistic quality. (as in from a much less sophisticated culture and a probably rather recent(then) contact)interesting