Fragment

This irregularly shaped silk fragment features a design in beige and gray-blue. The piece can be divided into four sections, each with a repeating unit that is mirrored left to right and top to bottom. Each unit features riding horsemen wearing tunics and holding staffs or spears above small helmeted figures in short tunics. A long-necked bird appears beneath the horse’s back hooves, and a small eagle flies over the rider’s shoulder. Two of these repeating units preserve the remains of an inscription in Greek, or possibly Coptic, reading ΙΟCΗΦ (Joseph). A narrow band at the center of the design features medallions filled with dots, while the left and right frames consist of abstracted floral motifs resembling waves.

Two-colored silks like this (see also BZ.1946.15, BZ.1953.2.126, and BZ.1977.2) are usually associated with Akhmīm, Egypt, where they were found in large numbers; silks with equestrian scenes are a significant subgroup.For a list of many examples, along with radiocarbon dating and dye analyses, see A. De Moor, S. Schrenk, and C. Verhecken-Lammens, “New Research on the So-Called Akhmim Silks,” in Textiles in situ: Their Find Spots in Egypt and Neighbouring Countries in the First Millennium CE, ed. S. Schrenk (Riggisberg, 2006), 85–94. Such riding figures were popular on artworks of all kinds in the late antique and Byzantine periods, where they represented imperial figures and military saints alike. A number of related fragments similar to the Dumbarton Oaks example survive, and differ only in small iconographic details and in background color.For related examples and iconographic discussion, see T. K. Thomas, “Silks of the Panopolis (Akhmim) Group,” in Byzantium and Islam: Age of Transition, 7th–9th Century, ed. H. C. Evans and B. Ratliff (New York, 2012), 154–59, no. 103A–G. However, while the silk’s iconography features many familiar elements, it is difficult to assign precise meaning to the imagery. In this example, the inscription naming Joseph above the head of the riding figure is peculiar, since the iconography does not correspond to any representations of the biblical Joseph. Another silk, in the British Museum in London, features the same scene but is labeled “Zachariah,” thwarting any easy association between inscription and imagery.London, British Museum, 1904, 0706.41, https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/search.aspx. Indeed, the vast number of surviving pieces are not labeled at all, a point further confounding interpretation. One possibility is that the labels referred to the name of the individual who ordered the silk, or perhaps the person who made it. A partially preserved tunic at the Victoria and Albert in London features an inscribed silk band reading “Zachariah” along its sleeve, giving an indication of how these inscribed silks were deployed as garment decoration.London, Victoria and Albert Museum, 820-1903, http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O248677/tunic-unknown: A. F. Kendrick, Coptic Period, vol. 3 of Catalogue of Textiles from Burying-Grounds in Egypt (London, 1922), 75–76, no. 794, plate I.

—Elizabeth Dospěl Williams, May 2019

New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Byzantium and Islam: Age of Transition, 7th–9th Century, March 14–July 8, 2012.