Coptic textiles and tapestries They evoke the history of the first Egyptian Christians. The clothes and upholstery fabrics were found in tombs during excavations at the end of the nineteenth century. Eastern textiles Sassanid Persian textiles, carpets, Byzantine and Muslims items, Buyid silks, Fatimid tapestries, sixteenth to eighteenth century Persian silks of an Asia Minor and Ottoman provenance, give an insight into Oriental civilisations from early times. Far-Eastern textiles The Chinese and Japanese collections displayed in the museum are mainly eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Western textiles Woven or printed textiles, ecclesiastical ornaments, embroideries, costumes, laces and passementerie give a wide outlook over the history of European textiles, Spain, Italy, England, Germany, France and chiefly Lyons.