Centaurs on the Silk Road: Recent

Discoveries of Hellenistic Textiles in

Western China
Robert A. Jones mental role in creating and sustaining the unity
University of Louisville of Afro-Eurasian history” (Christian 2000, pp.
1-2). Through the study of several specific cul-

A
mong historians, the last tural objects, this paper seeks
century and a half has to provide some clarity with
seen increased atten- regard to cultural diffusion and
tion paid to the role of the so- economic exchange along the
called Silk Road or Silk Roads west–to–east corridor which
in world history. Although linked the sedentary civiliza-
coined only in 1877, by the tions of the Mediterranean,
21st century the term has be- Persia, Central Asia and China.
come an all-embracing brand For the last century, ongoing
that permeates scholarship, archaeological work in west-
international commerce and ern China has produced some
the popular imagination. It is spectacular finds, including the
recognized that the network mummies of 3800–year–old
of economic and cultural ex- Caucasoid peoples, previously
change occurring across the unknown written languages,
Eurasian continent since about the remains of Buddhist king-
2000 BCE was part of a larger doms abandoned to the des-
world system which assuredly ert, and a plethora of early
included Africa. I am in agree- textiles and other artifacts.
ment with historian David Climate and other geographi-
Christian’s assertion that “the cal factors have provided for
Silk Roads played a funda- the excellent preservation of
organic and cultural material.
Fig. 1 (below). Map showing lo-
The Tarim Basin of Xinjiang in
cations of Sampul and Yingpan.
Photo source: NASA Visible Earth Tak-
western China is one of the dri-
limakan.A2002088.0525.500m.jpg. est places on earth, and within
the basin’s Taklamakan Desert
Fig. 2 (right). The Sampul textile human and animal remains,
depicting the centaur and warrior. clothing, food stuffs, and other
Photo © 2008 Daniel C. Waugh. organic material many thou-
sands of years old have been
preserved [Fig. 1].
Among these discoveries have
been rare textiles, the motifs
on some of which showing un-
mistakable Hellenistic origins.
At the site of Sampul (or Shan-
pula), near the southwestern
Tarim Basin oasis of Luopu, a
Saka grave has yielded a piece
of woven woolen cloth [Fig. 2]
that shows Hellenistic and Per-
sian inspiration in the depic-
tions of a centaur and a lance-

© 2009 by the Silkroad Foundation, the author,

The Silk Road 6/2: 23-32 23 and the holders of rights to the illustrations.
Fig. 3. The Yingpan man. After: Waugh 2008a, p. 4.
motifs, with special attention paid to mosaics.
bearing warrior (Xinjiang weiwu’er 2001). At The discovery of Hellenistic textiles in Inner
the site of Yingpan, in Yuli county in the north- Asia (comprising Mongolia, Tibet and Xinjiang)
eastern part of the Tarim Basin, a tomb re- is not unprecedented. The Russian explorer
vealed the wealthy male occupant wearing a Kozlov recovered such textiles during his ex-
fine woolen robe decorated with Hellenistic mo- pedition to Mongolia between 1923 and 1926.
tifs that include nude fighting figures, bulls and Aurel Stein discovered a number as well at the
goats, and pomegranate trees [Fig. 3] (Xinji- ancient sites of Loulan in the eastern Tarim in
ang wenwu 1999). the winter of 1906-07 and at Niya in the south-
central Tarim.3
While there is no doubt that the objects dis-
cussed in this paper are distinctly Hellenistic It is reasonable to assume now that at the time
in character, the question of Hellenistic artistic of the Han envoy Zhang Qian’s journey to Bac-
influence on local culture in ancient Xinjiang is tria in ca. 139 BCE one or more of these king-
not the focus of my research. That subject has doms in the Tarim was of Saka origin, a people
been belabored over the last century. I make closely related to those whom the Greeks called
no contention one way or another regarding the Scythians. The dating of the material from Sam-
possible influence of these objects on the indig- pul suggests that that trade contacts between
enous cultures, and I entertain the great pos- the Hellenistic kingdoms to the west and the
sibility that these are rare objects brought in by kingdoms of the Tarim Basin already had some
merchants or other travelers into the region.1 history. During the Hellenistic period (from the
death of Alexander in 323 BCE until the battle
Instead, I ask two questions. The first is, how of Actium in 31 BCE) and post-Hellenistic pe-
do these finds help determine the chronologi- riod up to the 7th century CE, trade in textiles
cal range of trade in western textiles between by sea and by land was an important economic
Greek (Seleucid) Bactria or regions farther activity in the West. While silk began to move
west and the intermediate Tocharian and Saka westward in ever increasingly quantities in the
kingdoms of the Tarim Basin that lay along the first century BCE, woolen textiles from across
trade routes to China? The second question is, the Pamir Mountains had already been moving
how do the motifs that these objects display eastward.4
compare to those of other works of art in the
Hellenistic tradition? Centaur and warrior from Sampul
The Chinese silk trade in Eurasia has been the The ancient cemetery of Sampul is just south
subject of much scholarship, but the study of of the modern oasis town of Luopu and east
trade in western textiles along the Silk Road of the important Silk Road city of Khotan in
caravan routes has not been so well addressed.2 western Xinjiang. The cemetery was excavat-
Here I will compare these woven objects with ed four times between 1983 and 1995 by the
artifacts found in western cultural contexts of Xinjiang Museum and the Xinjiang Institute of
the Hellenistic period in order to identify poten- Archaeology. Three separate grave areas were
tial derivative, or at least parallel, designs and located and in all 168 graves and two sacrificial

24
Fig. 4. Detail showing the clutch a bow and arrows,
upper portion of the Sampul or a tree branch or club,
textile. Photo © 2008 Daniel C. as in the depictions of bel-
Waugh. ligerent and drunken cen-
horse pits were excavated taurs battling the Lapiths
(Xinjiang Weiwu’er 2001, on the Parthenon and on
Foreword, pp. 2, 4; text, the Temple of Zeus at
[second pagination] p. Olympia (Padgett 2003,
1). Radiocarbon dates for pp. 129-224).5 Here we
the cemetery fall between may have a weaver from
about 900 BCE and 300 the eastern provinces who
CE. Half of the ten sam- might not have been so
ples tested fell between familiar with Greek my-
the 3rd and 1st centuries thology and iconography,
BCE (Xinjiang Weiwu’er and who exchanges the
2001, p. 43). flute of the satyrs (who
are sometimes depict-
In 1984 one of four group ed playing the auloi, or
tombs was excavated in double flute) for one of
the cemetery. In the tomb the preferred weapons of
designated 84LS I M01 the wine-loving centaurs
were found 133 individual corpses, with adult (Padgett 2003, pp. 254-258; exhibits 11, 12).
men and women in the majority. The tomb
Above and to the right of the rosette is the
yielded many ancient textiles, especially arti-
end of an outstretched wingtip, but the body
cles of clothing. Fifteen pairs of trousers were
to which it is attached is missing. It could very
found. In one tomb was a pair of trousers (or
well have belonged to an erote, similar to Helle-
knickerbockers) made of a cut-up woven wool-
nistic winged figures seen in many works in the
en tapestry. What distinguishes the find is that
on the left leg fragment is a woven image of
a warrior holding a spear at his side, while on
the right leg fragment is the image of a running
centaur, cape flying while playing a flute, within
a rosette of flowers (Xinjiang Weiwu’er 2001,
pp. 37, 38, 188-189; pls. 360, 360-1, 360-4).
Both images are clearly western in style and
subject matter, and, given the C14 date of the
tomb of about 100 BCE, Hellenistic in chronol-
ogy.

Let us examine the centaur and associated im-

ages first [Fig. 4]. The centaur is running to the
viewer’s left, front legs raised in a gallop, and
of the two rear legs, at least one is firmly on Fig. 5. Erote in mural of Shrine M.III excavated by
the ground. The centaur is holding and blow- Stein at Miran. Source: Stein 1921, Vol. 4, pl. xl (Stein
inv. no. M.III.viii).
ing a vertical flute, his left arm outstretched
to grasp it firmly. A Hellenistic period mosaic
from Delos also shows centaurs with simi- Greco-Roman world. Stein found several simi-
lar dramatic poses (Pedley 2002, p. 377; fig. lar painted erotes in Miran in the southeastern
10.53). However, the Sampul piece seems to Tarim (Stein 1933, pp. 118-121; fig. 54) [Fig.
have a unique iconography. I am not aware of 5].
any other image that shows such a musically- The use of roundels and rosettes is a Persian
inclined centaur. Centaurs are usually depicted (Achaemenid, Sassanian and even Sogdian)
brandishing more threatening objects in Greek motif, as seen in many extant textiles and paint-
art, if they hold anything at all. Usually they ings from the first few centuries of the Common

25
 or lance held in his right hand and leaning
against his right shoulder. He is seen in three-
quarter view, peering out to the viewer’s right.
His long hair, pulled back behind his ear, is
bound with a headband or fillet. His black hair
recedes from the forehead in rows. The hair
style is reminiscent of that of the sculptured
male figure from Halikarnnasus in Asia Minor,
whose long hair is also pulled back in rows, Per-
sian fashion (Pedley 2002, p. 303; fig. 9.24).
The warrior is clothed in a red long-sleeved
blouse, open in a V at the neck. The front of the
blouse is decorated repeatedly with a double
quatrefoil, a petal-and-cruciform design of dark
blue and red. To the side is a vertical stripe of al-
ternating black (or blue) and white. Greek war-
riors in Classical and Hellenistic periods were
mostly rendered nude or at least with a cape.
Here we can presume that despite the Hellenis-
tic rendering of his face, the figure pictured is
non-Greek, perhaps Persian or Saka, due to his
hair style and the revealing fact that his upper
body is clothed, not nude in the Greek style.

Fig. 6. Drawing of silk textile with roundel pattern, The particular double quatrefoil design which
excavated by Stein at Astana. Source: Stein 1928/1981, decorates his blouse is one which is found in
Vol. 3, pl. lxxx (Stein inv. no. Ast. ix.3.02). many Hellenistic contexts, in both the West and
in the Tarim Basin, and in both earlier and later
Era, and found com- chronological contexts.
monly enough in China The oldest knotted car-
in contexts dating from pet extant, of Achaeme-
the Northern Dynasties nian origin and found in
to the Tang (Pope 1945, frozen Scythian kurgan
pp. 21, 47; pl. 31E; Rice V at Pazyryk, shows the
1965, pp. 111-113; figs. same motif repeated in
95-99; Compareti 2003; one of the borders, and
Luo 2004; Zhao 2004) dates from ca. 5th–3rd
[Fig. 6]. century BCE (Rice 1965,
pp. 34–35; fig. 26).
Now let us turn to the Stein recovered at an-
other piece [Fig. 7]. The cient Niya in the south-
two trouser legs were central Tarim a piece of
at one time one piece wooden furniture with
of cloth, with the lon- the same motif carved
ger left leg below the on it, dating from the
right leg fragment. This 3rd to 4th centuries CE
lower fragment depicts (1933/1982, p. 84; fig.
a standing warrior, spear 41; Whitfield and Far-
rer 1990, p. 153; fig.
Fig. 7. Detail of lower part 124; Rice 1965, p. 177;
of woolen textile from fig. 163) [Fig. 8, facing
Sampul depicting a warrior page]. Farther to the
with a spear. Photo © 2008 west it is found among
Daniel C. Waugh. the mosaic designs from

26
 Fig. 8. Wooden base for an altar or table
(detail). Niya, 1st-4th c. CE. Collection of
the British Museum OA 1907.11-11.85
(N.vii.4). Photo © 2007 Daniel C. Waugh.

from the well-known mosaic of ac-

tors from the Villa of Cicero at Pom-
peii, which dates from the late 2nd to
early 1st century BCE (Pedley 2002,
pp. 377, 379; fig. 10.55; Ling 1998,
p. 15; fig. 6), but the portrait of a
woman from a Pompeii mosaic shows
a closer resemblance in style and ex-
pression (Ling 1998, p. 124; fig. 88)
[Fig. 9]. The right side of the warrior’s
face is shaded, as is his neck, and the
use of shading elsewhere on his face
contributes to the three-dimensionality. It is
a domestic building at Aphrodisias in western
much more realistic than the textile fragment
Turkey dating as late as the mid-fifth century CE
with image of Hermes and associated cadu-
(Campbell 1991, pp. 20-21, pl. 72). The motif
seus (herald’s staff) found by Stein at Loulan
is very likely Persian in origin, and spread both
(1928/1981, Vol. 1, p. 241; Vol. 4, pl. xxx),
west and east through Hellenistic contacts.
which may possibly have been part of a shroud
The face itself seems almost painted, as the (Baumer 2000: 134).6 [Fig. 10]
superb use of hue and tone in the threads re-
Through radiocarbon dating, we are certain of
veals a three-dimensionality usually associated
the absolute chronology of the interment of the
with paintings employing chiaroscuro. The ren-
dering, in the use of shading, highlighting and
polychromy, is highly reminiscent of the faces

Fig. 9 (left). Mosaic portrait, House IV 15.14, Pom-

peii. Late 1st century BCE. In collection of Museo
nazionale di Napoli. Source: <http://farm3.static.flickr.
com/2088/2108423733_f7df0ceeda_o.jpg>.

Fig. 10 (above). Woolen textile fragment depicting

Hermes, found by Stein in a grave pit at Loulan.
Source: Stein 1928/1981, Vol. 3, pl. xxx (Stein inv. no.
L.C.iii.010.a).

27
 shaft tomb, Number 15, contained
plentiful relics including the body of
an unusually tall (1.9 meters) male
occupant buried in a richly decorated
coffin and dressed in splendid attire
[Fig. 3]. The corpse is of a young man
about 30 years old. He was not buried
with the usual collection of funerary
items found in other Yingpan tombs.
However, what he is buried in seems
to make up for the paucity of accom-
panying funerary objects. The wooden
coffin was sumptuously painted and
covered with a pile carpet depicting a
lion. Placed upon the occupant’s face
was a painted hemp mask with gold
foil [Fig. 11]. The quality and decora-
tion of his coffin and his attire indicate
a high social status while he was still
Fig. 11. Detail of head and shoulders of the Yingpan alive. He is dressed in several layers
man. Photo © 2008 Daniel C. Waugh. of woolen clothing and he wears a pair of red-
dish-purple wool pants decorated with chain-
Sampul textile, bracketing ca. 100 BCE. Deter- stitched embroidered double quatrefoil floral
mining how old it was when it was buried in the designs inside lozenges made up of circles and
tomb would require further testing of a sample flowers (Li 2001, p. 155) [Fig. 12].
of the garment itself. I sug-
gest a date of the mid-second
century BCE, firmly within the
early Hellenistic period in the
East.

The Hellenistic robe from

Yingpan

Han dynasty (206 BCE – 220

CE) sources record a number
of small kingdoms which dot-
ted the local trading and com-
munication routes, including
those of ancient Kroran (Lou-
lan) and Yingpan. Many lay di- Fig. 12. Detail of the legs and feet of the Yingpan
rectly athwart the caravan routes from China man. Photo © 2008 Daniel C. Waugh.
to the west and because of their advantageous
locations were the recipients of various cultural The design of the silk-lined caftan is com-
influences from China, India and the West. posed of six different sets of nude figures and
animals (goats and cattle), with pomegranate
The Yingpan site which lies in the northeast- trees standing between them [Fig. 13, p. 29].
ern Tarim Basin [Fig. 1] was visited by Kozlov, The character and poses of the nude puttis are
Hedin and Stein in the late 19th and early 20th clearly Western in style. Each of the six sets
centuries. In 1995 the Xinjiang Institute of Ar- is composed of a balanced pair of confront-
chaeology undertook emergency excavations at ing figures, with spear or sword, either leaning
Yingpan. Thirty-two tombs were excavated and away from or toward each other. Capes swirl
over two hundred relics were recovered. The from their shoulders. The pomegranate tree is
tombs date roughly from the Han dynasty to the perhaps a Persian motif, while the motif of con-
Jin (206 BCE – 420 CE) (Li 2001, p. 149). One fronting pairs of animals, in this instance goats

28
 The report also suggests a late
Eastern Han dynasty date (25
– 220 CE), which falls comfort-
ably within the post-Hellenistic
period (Xinjiang Wenwu 1999,
p. 16).

Intriguing connections and

conclusions

From even before the time of

the establishment of the ear-
liest urban centers in Eurasia,
the weaving arts provided tex-
tiles for functional purposes
and to adorn the human body.
Records indicate that textiles
were bartered and sold along
the trade routes throughout
Fig. 13. Detail of the caftan of the Yingpan man. Pho- the ancient world. Discoveries of ancient textiles
to © 2008 Daniel C. Waugh.
in arid western China have given us a window
and oxen, is reminiscent of the animal art of into the manufacture and especially trade in
Central Asia. textiles along the trans-Eurasian trade routes.
A relationship between the Hellenistic art of
The stance and composition of the figures are the Greco-Roman world and the textiles found
not without precedent. A mosaic from the Villa in western China is seen clearly in the shared
of Good Fortune at Olynthos (4th
century BCE) shows a similar,
though female, pairing with weap-
ons (Pedley 2002, p. 299; fig.
9.17). A floor mosaic (325 – 300
BCE) from Pella, the Macedonian
capital, also shows two dramatic
scenes of two nude youths, capes
flying and weapons in hand, about
to slay a lion in one instance, and
a stag in the other (Pedley 2002,
pp. 324, 333; figs. 9.58, 9.68;
Ling 1998, p. 22; fig. 12) [Fig.
14]. Fig. 14. Floor mosaic from Pella (325-300 BCE)
That the robe was valued by the wearer in life depicting two youths about to slay a lion. Source:
<http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3d/
there is little doubt, as he was buried in it. How-
Lion_hunt_mosaic_from_Pella.jpg>.
ever, whether it was a newly woven item or an
heirloom piece is impossible to determine at
motifs and subject matter. Motifs derived from
this time. It can be tentatively concluded that
Persian art are not so foreign to Hellenistic art,
the cloth was the work of a weaver familiar with
as seen in the sculpture of great architectural
both Greek and Eastern motifs, perhaps in an
monuments of the period such as the Mauso-
eastern Hellenistic kingdom. Whether the robe
leum at Halikarnassos in Caria. The art of the
was tailored especially for entombment is un-
Greek mosaic itself derives from Phrygia in Asia
known, though it may well have been, as the
Minor, where Eastern, including Persian, influ-
pieces that are sewn together are somewhat
ences were strong (Pedley 2002, p. 323).
mismatched (Waugh 2008b). According to the
excavation report, the deceased possibly may Of exceptional interest to the writer is the na-
have been a “rich merchant from the West.” ture of the relationship between the textile arts

29
and mosaics. It is accepted that a great mosaic it is reasonable to assume that these two ob-
like the Alexander Mosaic from the House of the jects were not local products and are manufac-
Faun in Pompeii (ca. 100 BCE) was a more du- tures of Hellenistic-era weavers who lived and
rable version of a monumental wall painting by worked in one of the eastern kingdoms (Zhao
Philoxenos of Eretria, painted around 310 BCE. 2004, p. 71). Baumer, to the contrary, suggests
Indeed, Pedley addresses their relationship, al- the Yingpan robe was not imported but “made
beit briefly, when he discusses the importance by artists in the eastern Tarim Basin familiar
of the textiles of the time: “[I]t may be that the with western patterns” (Baumer 2000, p. 136).
more striking of the woven textiles were influ- Stein suggests that certain weavings which
ential and also provided a stimulus to the cre- bear more purely Hellenistic motifs (such as the
ation of mosaics, particularly border designs” figure of Hermes cited above) because of the
(2002, pp. 322, 326). There is an admission similarities to the Miran frescoes found in situ,
that scholars are were “…produced
ill-informed about within the Tarim
these perishable basin and not an
objects, but it may import from the
be just as reason- distant West”
able to suppose (1928/1981, Vol.
that mosaics (and 1, p. 241). Further
paintings as well) scientific analysis
provided as much may reveal more
stimulus and in- about this in the
spiration for the future.
creation of textile
motifs as the oth- The remarkable
er way around. textiles we have
looked at are evi-
Ling acknowledg- dence that Helle-
es the possibility nistic and Greco-
of the connection Persian influenced
between the two Fig. 15. Dionysus mosaic in the Villa of Good Fortune, Olynthos. woolen textiles
media, especially After: David M. Robinson, Excavations at Olynthos, Pt. xii (1946), pl. 1. were being trans-
with regard to mo- ported eastward
tifs seen in the Olynthian mosaics (Ling 1998, along the trade routes between Central Asia
pp. 20-21) [Fig. 15], while Dunbabin is con- and the Tarim Basin kingdoms from about 100
vinced that mosaics share more than a pass- BCE, just as silk was being carried west. While
ing resemblance to similarly two-dimensional the knowledge and history of such contact is
carpets. She says, “Some of the common or- widely accepted, and while much study on the
namental motifs [in mosaics] are among those question of Hellenistic influences on the art and
found in textile decoration or [are] suitable culture of ancient Xinjiang has already been
for weaving; and it has been argued that the done, new and sophisticated techniques in tex-
(apparent) sudden appearance of such floors tile analysis will point “in directions which ul-
should be seen as a translation into perma- timately are going to tell us a lot we did not
nent forms of the luxurious textiles from the know” (Waugh 2008b). Nevertheless, the spec-
Near East fashionable in the later fifth century” tacular nature of these particular discoveries
(Dunbabin 1999, pp. 9-10). described above is compelling, and while it is
easy to show that the textile motifs demon-
It is not possible at this time to determine where
strate strong parallels with similar art motifs
the two woven items that I have described in
from the Hellenistic world, further investigation
this paper (and others) were originally manu-
in other analytical directions is warranted.
factured. There is much disagreement over the
origins of the textiles. Despite the likelihood
that many textiles with Persian motifs — partic-
ularly pearl roundels — found in Xinjiang were
woven by Chinese weavers (Compareti 2003),

30
About the author Li 2001
Li Wenying. “Yingpan gushi” [The mummies
Robert A. Jones is Adjunct Instructor in the of Yingpan]. In: Wang Binghua, ed., Xinjiang
Humanities Department of the University of Gushi: Gudai Xinjiang Jumin ji Qi Wenhua [The
Louisville. He has a B.A. in Chinese Studies from Ancient Corpses of Xinjiang: The Peoples of An-
San Francisco State University and an M.A. in cient Xinjiang and Their Culture]. Urumqi: Xin-
Anthropology from National Taiwan University. jiang renmin chubanshe: pp. 144-165.
He has studied and traveled the Silk Road for
almost 25 years, and as an archaeologist he Ling 1998
is especially interested in the early history of
Roger Ling. Ancient Mosaics. Princeton: Princ-
the trade route. His research interests are Silk
eton University Press, 1998.
Road archaeology and seals of Bronze Age Chi-
na. He may be contacted at <rajone09@louis- Luo 2004
ville.edu>.
Luo, Feng. “Persian Style of the Lacquered Cof-
fin of Northern Wei Dynasty.” In: Hu-Han zhi
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which has been the subject of numerous short ar-
Waugh 2008a ticles, many in Chinese, but until very recently of
Daniel C. Waugh. “Beyond the Sensational: The no major treatises in a Western language. That is
Reiss-Engelhorn-Museums’ ‘Origins of the Silk changing as knowledge of these textiles becomes
Road’.” The Silk Road 5/2 (2008): 1-6 <http:// more widespread through exhibitions such as that
www.silkroadfoundation.org/newsletter/vol- published by Wieczorek and Lind 2007. For a review
5num2/>. of this exhibition, see Waugh 2008a.

Waugh 2008b 2. A good overview of exchange in silk textiles, weav-

ing techniques and styles is Zhao 2004.
Personal communications, June 21 and June
26. 3. Kozlov’s discoveries are discussed by Schaefer
1943 and Rudenko 1962, esp. Chs. 4, 6, 11. Stein
Wieczorek and Lind 2007 (1928/1981) reports on his textiles in Innermost
Asia, and discusses them briefly and illustrates some
Alfried Wieczorek and Christoph Lind, eds. Ur-
in his book On Central-Asian Tracks (1933/1982, pp.
sprünge der Seidenstraße: Sensationelle Neu-
153-154; figs. 64B and 65). Stein’s materials are
funde aus Xinjiang, China. Stuttgart: Konrad
surveyed by O’neale 1936.
Theiss Verlag, 2007.
4. Silk in smaller quantities had been moving west
Whitfield and Farrer 1990 far earlier than this, judging from its discovery in
Roderick Whitfield and Anne Farrer. Caves of ancient Egyptian, Siberian and Bactrian tombs. It is
the Thousand Buddhas: Chinese Art from the likely though that some of the silk found in the West
Silk Road. New York: George Braziller, 1990. is “wild” silk and not imported from China.
5. The centaur apparently has Assyrian antecedents,
Xinjiang Weiwu’er 2001 as seen on cylinder seals of Middle Assyrian date
Xinjiang Weiwu’er Zizhiqu Bowuguan, Xinjiang (13th century BCE) (Padgett 2003, pp. 129-133; ex-
Wenwu Kaogu Yanjiusuo [Xinjiang Uygur Au- hibits 11 and 12).
tonomous Region Museum, Xinjiang Institute 6. The object next to the figure of Hermes in this
of Archaeology], comps. Zhongguo Xinjiang fragment has been identified as a caduseus (or
Shanpula: Gudai Yuzhen Wenming di Geshi yu kerykeion), one of the attributes of Hermes. Howev-
Yanjiu [Sampula in Xinjiang, China: Revela- er, it appears to be a knotted rope, in the intertwined
tion and Study of Ancient Khotan Civilization]. form of the deity’s rod. Further research might es-
Urumqi: Xinjiang renmin chubanshe, 2001. tablish the object’s true nature, caduseus or not.

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