Akhmim Silk
Description
The silk got its name after the town where it was first discovered, also at least twenty more fragments of it are known from the city named Akhmim, Egypt. However, it isn't 100% sure that these silks and the patterns were originally from Egypt. Examinations of this topic leads as far as Central Asia. So a possible Byzantine, Iranian or even Central Asian origin isn't impossible.1
This silk pattern remained to us in incredible many examples. Museums in Antwerp, Athens, Berlin, Boston, Brussels, Cleveland, London, Lyons, Maastricht, Paris, Riggsberg, Washington and Vienna keeping at least one piece of this Akhmim silk. There are more than 60 preserved examples for this pattern all around the world nowadays. Several pieces are carbon dated, which shows us that this was a popular pattern through the centuries. Various pieces of it could be dated from the VIIth to the Xth century.2
2 Antione De Moor - Sabine Schrenk - Chris Verhecken-Lammens: New Research on the So-called Akhmim Silks. in: Riggisberger Berichte 13, Textiles in Situ, Their Find Spots in Egypt and Neighboring Countries in the First Millennium CE. 2006 p 85-94.
Reconstruction project requested by: Evan Schultheis
Akhmim silks.
Source: Antione De Moor - Sabine Schrenk - Chris Verhecken-Lammens: New Research on the So-called Akhmim Silks
Akhmim silks from the Victoria & Albert Museum.
Source: Sarah E. Braddock Clarke (ed.) - Ryoko Yamanaka Kondo (ed.): Byzantine Silk on the Silk Roads, Journeys between East and West, Past and Present. 2022 p 141
Akhmim silk from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Source: Sarah E. Braddock Clarke (ed.) - Ryoko Yamanaka Kondo (ed.): Byzantine Silk on the Silk Roads, Journeys between East and West, Past and Present. 2022 p 242
Artwork: Balázs Szakonyi
Special thanks to: Tomáš Vlasatý (Projekt Forlǫg)
