Sampul Tapestry: Mysterious Silk Road Textile Linked To Hellenistic Kingdoms Of Central Asia And Tarim Basin

A. Sutherland - AncientPages.com - This tapestry was unearthed during excavations in 1983/84 at an ancient burial site in the Tarim Basin's oasis settlement of Sampul (or Shanpula) in western China.

The Tarim Basin - one of the most remote places on earth - is mostly covered by Taklamakan Desert, a mysterious, huge mass of sand with an area of 337,000 km2 (130,000 sq mi).

Sampul Tapestry - Tarim Centaur. Public Domain

In Uigur language, ‘Takla Makan’ means ‘you can get into it but can never get out’ and that is why the desert is also called ‘the Sea of Death’.

Hazardous to cross and at the same time, very significant to the people in the region, the Taklamakan has many traces of the ancient civilizations. Many different people lived and passed through the Tarim Basin, before the Silk Road, and after its height.

This place is known of many archaeological treasures found in the Taklamakan’s sandy and forgotten ruins, especially - Tarim mummies, which date from 1800 BC to the first centuries BC.

See also:
Secret Ancient World Buried Under The Vast Takla Makan Desert

Lost Ancient Greco-Bactrian Kingdom Of 1,000 Cities

The Bayeux Tapestry: One Of The Great Historical Records Of The Middle Ages

Sampul Tapestry – a woolen 'wall hanging is made of 24 threads of various colors, and depicts a warrior and centaur - was discovered in a mass grave of the Sampul Cemetery, located east of the garrison town of Khotan.

Sampul is part of a gigantic concentration of ancient cemeteries extending over an area of 8 square miles.

Among the most important discoveries of this cemetery, there are two large shaft graves with the combined burials of 279 people, along with timber-built graves and boat-shaped coffins. Many bodies buried in the region look more Caucasian than oriental.

Additionally, archaeologists also found a tapestry that dates to the 3rd century BC to the 4th century CE) and is 48 cm wide and 230 cm long.

It depicts a warrior, who is believed to be a Greek soldier and the centaur in the background, is also a motif of Greek art.

The centaur fragment is 45 cm by 55 cm; warrior's face fragment is 48 cm by 52 cm.

Probably Greek soldier with blue eyes, Sampul, Urumqi Xinjiang Museum.

The recovered tapestry only constitutes the left part of the decorative border of what would be a much bigger wall hanging.

The tapestry depicts a man with Caucasoid features, including blue eyes, and a centaur.

If lost fabric is accounted for, the soldier would be about six times as tall as the centaur.

The subject is identified as a warrior by the spear he is holding in his hand as well as a dagger tucked on his waist. He wears a tunic with rosette motifs. His headband could be a diadem, a symbol of kingship in the Hellenistic world – and represented on Greek and Macedonian coins. The centaur is playing a horn while wearing a cape and a hood. Surrounding him is a diamond-shaped floral ornament.

Interestingly, archaeologists unearthed the tapestry fashioned into a pair of man's trousers, while all the other trousers discovered in the Sampul cemetery had no decoration.

It is believed that the tapestry probably comes from the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom in Central Asia. The artifact is on permanent display in the Xinjiang Museum, Ürümqi, China.

Written by - A. Sutherland – AncientPages.com

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