Textile with Confronted Camels Bearing the Invocation "O Compassionate"
Not on view
A decades-long controversy has centered on the authenticity of several textiles known as the “Buyid silks,” traded from the mid-1920s and allegedly dug up in Rayy, Iran. In 1924 archaeologists excavating twelfth-century tombs at that site unearthed authentic fragmentary shrouds. News spread, looting and commercial digging followed, and silk pieces appeared on the market. Carbon 14 analysis has confirmed the modernity of textiles at the Swiss Abbegg Foundation that were likely cut from the same cloth as theis piece. Atypical motifs and inscriptions also raise doubts about the works’ antiquity.
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