Central Asia
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Glasgow Museums has a collection of approximately 80 artefacts from Central Asia. These date broadly from 1700 to 1900. This collection contains objects primarily from Afghanistan, with others originating from Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and East Turkestan in western China. It includes carpets, embroidered wall hangings, costume, footwear and headdresses, coins, and objects of paper, ceramic, metal and semi-precious stone. The collection contains an important group of embroidered suzani wall hangings from Uzbekistan, ethnographic material relating to the British–Afghan War of 1878–1880, a pomegranate carpet from western China and a group of individually important miscellaneous items from Turkmenistan. The objects collected during the British–Afghan War are of particular intellectual importance and illustrate Britain’s interest and involvement in Central Asia. A number of the items retrieved from the battlefield represent the beliefs and values of the Afghani soldiers, while others serve to highlight the experiences of the Scottish regiments of the British Army that were involved in the campaign. Other Afghani items in the collection, such as costume, footwear, tent cushions and carpets, have both an intellectual and aesthetic value. They represent Afghan society’s cultural norms with regards to dress and habitat, and Afghani taste for colourful floor coverings, textiles and embroideries.
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