A jin silk fragment with grape-harvest scene, Eastern Han.
From Palmyra, Tower Tomb 65, 7.1 x 10.9 x cm.
Above, a drawing of the fabric decoration by Annemarie Stauffer.
Source: Schmidt-Colinet et al. 2000: cat. 240.
“Della presunta trasmissione dell’antica tecnologia della seta oltre i confini della Cina, » Sulla via del Catai 6 (2025), 83-105.
The discovery of Chinese silk fragments in Roman-era Palmyra in the early twentieth century led to tremendous excitement. For many, it confirmed their long-held belief in the caravan trade across Eurasia from China to the eastern Mediterranean coast. But heated debate among textile historians also ensued: did Chinese silk weaving technologies indeed also arrive and impact on that in the eastern Roman world? This work will examine the spread of the transmission of Chinese silks beyond China by both motifs and attendant technologies. Two hypotheses underlie the query. First, weavers physically embodied their knowledge of weaving complex patterns: unless they traveled, their knowledge remained immobile. Second, technological innovations can and do arise independently to meet culturally defined needs: many paths led to the invention of a draw mechanism for patterning, different for different looms.