Silk

Although wild silk was probably used in several early cultures, including India, the Silk Road is characterised by the movement of cultivated silk, developed in the north China plains long before the Silk Road. During the first millennium AD, cultivated silk products and the technology to produce them—sericulture and moriculture—travelled across the Silk Roads. By the end of this period, silk was being produced in southern Europe—in the Umayyad Caliphate in Al-Andalus—as well as in Korea and Japan.

Producing silk is a complex and sensitive process. The domesticated silkworm, Bombyx mori, is overbred and has little resistance to infection or disease: it is common for whole populations of silkworms to die. They require constant attention and feeding: fresh leaves of the Morus Alba, the White Mulberry, are preferred (although Morus Nigra, Black Mulberry, can also be used). Plantations of trees have to be nurtured and the hatching of the silkworm eggs timed to coincide with their coming into leaf in late spring. Sericulture was usually a female occupation.  

The technology spread to Korea before the Silk Roads but only became established later, when it also spread to Japan, probably in the Baekje period (18 BC–AD 660).  

Even when sericulture was established outside China, silk thread and woven products continued to be sourced from there. But silk was often reused, as seen in the tablet woven pieces from Viking tombs. Although silk started to be woven in Italy in the 11th century using imported thread, sericulture did not spread into Italy and France until the 15th and 16th centuries. There were various failed attempts at sericulture in England, notably under James I (1567–1625). It was not until the 20th century that sustained silk production was achieved— albeit in small quantities— by Zoe Hart Dyke at Lullingstone Castle in southeast England.  

It was similarly due to the determination of a woman, Queen Lovisa Ulrika (r.1751–1771) of Sweden, that silk was successfully produced in Scandinavia. Her silkworms were reared in her home, Drottningholm Palace near Stockholm. Production was also in small quantities: the White Mulberry could not thrive in the Swedish climate. 

Silk weaving was a skilled and complex technology. Few looms have survived from this period—the model loom from Okinoshima is a rare exception  [EXH49].  However, the 2012 discovery of working loom models in a 2nd century BC tomb in Laoguangshan in southwest China have greatly increased understanding of the technology at the start of the Silk Roads. The tomb was that of Madame Wang who ran a weaving workshop. Wooden models of her employees and the looms were buried with her for the afterlife.  

Silk was a material valued by all, used for clothing,  furnishings and other accoutrements by elites across Eurasia. Finished silk and silk thread were both imported into Europe or acquired through gifts: silk was the perfect diplomatic gift — rare, valuable and portable. For example, the silk for the slippers of Hubert, Archbishop of Canterbury  [EXH68] , was possibly a gift given by Salah ad-Din (d.1193) when Hubert was in Jerusalem negotiating a peace treaty with him on King Richard's (r.1189–1199) Third Crusade. 

Where silk clothes were not available or practical or too expensive, pieces of patterned silk were used for decoration, such as found in the Oseberg burial  [EXH138]  where silk was also used to line the coffin. The number of graves at Birka containing remnants of silk—over 60—indicates that it was part of Viking life. 

In Korea and Japan, silk was more readily available but, inevitably, most has decayed and, as in Europe, only fragments and traces survive in tombs. Shōsō-in (正倉院) in Japan, however, has managed to preserve some more complete pieces, such as striped skirts and Japanese imitations of Sasanian silk.  

Pieces also survive from their use in Buddhism and Christianity, especially those found in relic chambers. 

Despite proscriptions against wearing silk in Buddhism and Christianity, it is found in both traditions. A maniple  [EXH67] — an ornamental band or scarf worn on the left arm as a Christian vestment—was preserved in the tomb of St Cuthbert (634–87) from when he was reinterred in 995. The embroidery was made in England between 909–29 but using imported silk thread and on a silk base from north Africa or west Asia.  

In Buddhist tradition, the monk’s robe was meant to be made of patches of discarded cloth to show his poverty. However, as seen from surviving robes in Japan, such as those said to be used by Emperor Shōmu (聖武天皇, r.724–749)  [EXH70]  and Kūkai (空海 774–835)  [EXH109] , they were also be made from the finest silk. 

Silk was commonly used in both Buddhist and Christian reliquaries  [and see our Relics Story] , such as the Buddhist reliquaries at Tōshōdaiji (唐招提寺) in Japan  [EXH81]  and Mireusksa (미륵사)) and Bulguksa (불국사)) in Korea [ EXH80 ] and [ EXH60 ]. In Christianity, larger pieces were used to wrap the bones of saints, such as the skull cap from Turku Cathedral  [EXH79]  and a piece associated with the relics of Helena (d. c.330) at St Leu in Paris [ EXH78 ]. 

Silk was also used as a votive offering, to cloth Buddha statues and stupa–personifications of the Buddha  [and see our Stupa story] . An extremely rare survival was trapped between the collapsed roof and a stupa in the oasis town of Miran in the Tarim Basin, dating to the 2nd–4th centuries  [EXH103] . It contains prayers for named individuals and must have been one of millions of such pieces made as offerings. 

Silk was also used as the base for paintings and embroideries of sacred figures, such as the Buddhist Mandala embroidery [ EXH21 ] made to commemorate the death of Prince Shōtoku (聖徳太子, 574–622) and the 14th century Korean painting of Avalokiteśvara (pictured right). 

Silk played a central role in life—secular and religious—across the Silk Roads. Empires sought to establish domestic sericulture and weaving centres, and gifted and traded their finished silks, but some silk thread and cloth continued to be obtained from China. Weaves and patterns also travelled the Silk Road in all directions, showing the interactions among the elites of Eurasia.    

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