The Astana graves outside Turfan preserved what every other Silk Road site lost: dye saturation. Zero humidity held the mustard ground of weft-faced compound twill — jin, or samite — woven where Sogdian and Tang workshops overlapped from the 5th to the 8th century.

The structure repeats: a ring of white beading enclosing confronted horses, deer, ducks, peacocks, a boar's head. Roundels tile tangent across an ochre field, lozenges filling the gaps. This system takes that grammar literally — medallion cards, woven bands for dividers, four colours to a composition.