Silk Road notebooks

[hrj]

Posted several of the detail pages for the Yingpan Man display. To wit: the embroidered pillow, a bit of text description of the undersleeves (which will also be covered in a later bit), and an extremely brief description of the headcloth combined with the small visible portion of the undertunic.

Comments

[dame-cordelia.livejournal.com]

I've started following your posts and realize I need to go back and read the earlier ones.

[hrj.livejournal.com]

Fortunately, that's what tags are for!

[dame-cordelia.livejournal.com]

Going through your drawings and notes here, I keep thinking of the tall blonde mummies that Dr. Barber talked about in her book on the mummies of Urumchi.

[hrj.livejournal.com]

This is them. (Plus others from the same region.)

[aastg.livejournal.com]

The embroidered item is VERY interesting. Is it a pillow because its location in the grave, or is there other evidence (like what it was stuffed with)? Am I right that you didn't get to see the back of the work (which would help prove whether it was chain stitch or not)...?

Great notes and diagrams!!!!

[hrj.livejournal.com]

These are all VERY well preserved artifacts -- the Yingpan Man mummy is perfectly intact and the grave hadn't been disturbed at all when excavated. So we have location (under his head) and form. There wasn't any information on the stuffing (but we'll see what the exhibition catalog might say) and the precise cut of the fabric was impossible to discern since they had the artifacts displayed in situ and his head was in the way. But it was very clearly pieced together from fabric that had been embroidered for some other purpose (i.e., treated as "yardage" when making the pillow).

I'm about as certain as can be that it's chain stitch. The stitches are very neat and even (equivalent to machine-worked), and the rows of chain are distinct (especially, of course, when a single chain is used for the linear parts). More chain-stitch embroidery when I get to the wrist bracer and the pants!