Textile with Horned Animals in a Pearl Roundel

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This piece, showing two confronted animals, likely bulls, is a composite of roundels from different parts of the same length of cloth. This category of textile moved with Sogdian merchants along overland trade routes that linked Central Asia with territories farther west. The tradition of setting animals in pearl roundels has its origins in the late Sasanian period and remained popular in Central Asia for many centuries.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met's collection of Asian art—more than 35,000 objects, ranging in date from the third millennium B.C. to the twenty-first century—is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world. Each of the many civilizations of Asia is represented by outstanding works, providing an unrivaled experience of the artistic traditions of nearly half the world.

Metropolitan Museum of Art