Sweet Sogdian Sogdia, Bonjour!

Background

I’m working from two particular garments, both from the Sogdian sphere of influence. The large tunic from Munchaktepe and the child’s caftan from Sanjar-shah. These two items are separated by approximately 200 years and about 230 miles, but they’re both in good enough condition to allow for a reasonable reconstruction.

For ornamentation, I am working from the murals in Panjakent, roughly 7.5 miles west of Sanjar-shah.

The map below shows the rough locations of the three sites I’m working with.

Sogdia

The Sogdian civilization, made up of a network of city-states, was a major player in central Asia between the 6th century BCE and the 11th century CE. They were speakers of an Eastern Iranian language, Sogdian, which has evolved today into the Yaghnobi language of the Yaghnob, Qul and Varzob river valleys in Tajikistan’s Sughd province.

In the 8th century CE, the Sogdians were playing a major role as middle-men in the Silk Road trade from China to the West. Their reputation as traders was so great that in some languages along the Road, the exonym for Sogdian was cognate with merchant.

Munchaktepe

Munchaktepe (also Munchaktepa, Munchak Tepe, Munchak Tepa, or Мунчактепа) is a 4th – 7th century fortification located in the Ferghana Valley, Namangan province. Two phases of construction were unearthed at the associated burial field, Munchaktepe I (pit graves and single graves) and Munchaktepe II (vault graves). The early phase of burials date to the 5th – 6th centuries and remains from this phase were found in vaults 1 and 5. Vault 5 is of particular interest here as finds included cotton and silk textiles.

I relied on fragments L-2-1a through L-2-3c to inform the cutting of my tunic. These fragments are made of silk fabric, estimated to be between 51-52 cm wide. The fragments suggest a simple, long tunic made using rectangular construction. The image below is from Fang Wan’s article “Costumes Unearthed from Vault 5 of Munchaktepa in the North of Ferghana Valley of Uzbekistan” (Asian Social Science, Vol. 5, No. 11, November 2009).

Sanjar-Shah

Sanjar-Shah is a 7th – 8th century site at the edge of the village of Sudzhina, Tajikistan. Unlike Munjaktepe, Sanjar-shah is properly within Sogdia, making this garment one of the few that survive from Sogdia itself.

The child’s caftan was found on the floor of Room 9 of the citadel. It is constructed of karbas, a cotton canvas tabby weave fabric with a density of roughly 18/14 threads per square centimeter. The garment is constructed with a pieced bodice and simple skirt. All seams are double lapped and sewn with a running stitch.

The images below are from Sh. Kurbanov and A. Teplyakova’s article “Textile Objects from the citadel of Sanjar-shah” found in the Bulletin of Miho Museum, Volume 15 (2014).

A clearer photo of the caftan is available from the Sogdian digital exhibit from the Freer|Sackler Gallery (https://sogdians.si.edu/).

Panjakent

Panjakent (also, Панҷакент, Panjikent, Panjekent, Panjikant, or Penjikent) is a city in the Sughd province of Tajikistan on the Zeravshan River. Sogdian Panjakent was inhabited between the 5th and 8th centuries CE and is particularly famous for the well-preserved wall paintings depicting various scenes from daily life. Of these images, two in particular inspired the design of my garments.

The other image I am working from is the daughter, from the Story of the Old Man, his Daughter, and the Spirit of the Ocean. Room in a Panjakent house, 41/VI. This image can be found on Eran ud Turan’s patron feed at: https://www.patreon.com/posts/womens-fashion-22533455. Sergey Yatsenko’s re-drawing of this image is shown to left. Note, Yatsenko interprets this image as having applied trim extending over the shoulders and along the sleeves. I don’t see this in the image available on EuT’s patreon.

Process

Ultimately, this project is not my most accurate undertaking. Instead, it is intended of an exploration of styles and methods to encourage me to make something better in the future (with better fabric).

Decoration

THIS INACCURACY NUMBER THREE (3). I have no evidence that Sogdian garments were decorated with block printing. Additionally, my review of Sogdian art suggests that tunics were not quite as loud as my tunic came out (inaccuracy #4). Caftans, sure, but tunics seem to be a bit more sedate.

To create the decoration on my caftan, I used the design on the woman’s caftan in the detail of Shiva with Tristula (above), created a stamp of the design, and then applied the stamp using opaque white screen printing ink (inaccuracy #5 should be pretty obvious here. Or is it #3.5?). Note, the pattern came out way bulkier than the original in the mural. My bad?

On the tunics pictured at Panjakent, trim can be seen in a column at the neck and around the end of the sleeves. For my trim, I used a bright gold linen. Yum!

Construction

The majority of the construction on the tunic is machine-work. Mostly because hand-work makes me cry. All visible stitching is by hand using whip stitch and hem stitch.

Accessories

Accessories are they key to making an outfit look good. The tl;dr of this section is that I need more of them.

Shoes

I didn’t have time to make boots, but I believe that is what would be most correct. A good pair of boots is becoming a thing I need in my life. In the interim, I’m wearing my Slavic bag shoes (Mecklenburg shoes) from Barefoot Cordwainer.

Belt

I haven’t done a lot of research on women’s belts in Sogdia. There is a strong record of men’s plaque belts, and the image of the Daughter from Panjekent seems to show some sort of plaque belt on the left-hand woman.

None of the belts I have seen on women seem to have pendants or any particular length. The Orlat belt, a man’s belt found roughly 50 kilometers north of Samarkand and dating to somewhere between the 2nd century BCE and 5th century CE, is postulated to have fastened in the front with a short, narrow piece of leather.

This type of connection might provide a clue on how the women’s plaque belts were closed.

Unfortunately, I don’t have a good plaque belt right now. Instead, my options are: woven belt with Saxon fittings, leather belt with Merovingian fittings, and woven belt with no fittings. I think I’m going to go with the plain woven belt because there’s no weird fittings to mess things up.

Jewelry

Yeah, I have none and I’m going to need some. A lot. With pearls?

Gold seems to be the predominant metal on the Panjakent murals, decorated with various pearls and precious stones. Bronze pins have been found at Sanjar-Shah and Panjakent, meaning that, despite what the murals would have you believe, gold wasn’t the only material being used to create personal adornment (my pocketbook says “thank the maker!”).

Hair

As can be seen in the image of the Daughter (above), Sogdian women (at least some of them) wore their hair in multiple braids. I will not be doing that many braids as it is a LOT and my head will look funny. My current plan is two braids in the front (temple area) and one large braid down the back.

I have also seen references to kerchiefs or other headcoverings, but I’m not sure I understand what I’ve read and don’t want to present something wrong. (Or more wrong than I’ve done already.)

Conclusion

This was a fun outfit to work on and I’m looking forward to doing more in the future! After this weekend, I’ll make a follow-up post with pictures of the complete outfit.

A note about the title of this post. My favorite line from a Golliard song translates to “Sweet Swabian Swabia, adieu.” I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to do a little lifting.