628 THE RUINS OF LOU-LAN.
of the structure is very indistinct; possibly it was nothing more than a closed-in courtyard. North of these two, and barely I oo m. away, are the faint traces of a third house, which was built of wood, but had a foundation-wall of brick; from which it may also be inferred that the first house was for the greater part built of wood and rested upon a brick foundation. A well-preserved beam has the following dimensions — 7.82 m. x 0.35 m. X 0.17 m., so that this locality must once have grown magnificent toghraks, quite as finely developed as any in the primeval forests of any part of the Tarim. Here we picked up various fragments of a hard stone-like earthenware, which had been burnt black and red, a small iron ball, an object of copper shaped precisely like a rowlock, some Chinese copper coins, and a couple of small red clay cups.
An hour east of this place is a solitary tower of sun-dried brick (adobe), of which I append a photograph. It is nearly I o m. high, and its skeleton consists of poles and faggots of kamisch; but in spite of being thus strengthened, it had fallen in at one or two places. But there was no other sign of human habitation in its neighbourhood.
The most important ruins we discovered lie rather more than an hour southeast of the tower I have just described. There I stayed from the 4th to the Loth of March (Camp No. CLIX). I propose to give now a chronological summary of the finds that we made during these days. A first preliminary examination resulted only in the garnering in of a heap of worthless rubbish. And yet it was not without its value as indicating the conditions under which these people lived. A massive and well preserved wheel of an arba (cart) sufficed to show that carts were formerly in use in that locality, and that there was then a driving road, although the entire country is now everywhere so furrowed by the wind that the use of even riding animals is difficult. Certain ornamental pillars were as regularly rounded as if they had been turned on a lathe. Amongst the remaining objects found were a piece of red cloth, like that which the lamas make their robes of; felt rags; a couple of bunches of brown human hair; jaw-bones and other parts of the skeletons of sheep and oxen; the droppings of both these animals, of horses, and of camels, though this last might also possibly have been left by wild camels, for it did not appear to be particularly old. The protective layer of sand and dust will explain why this manure was not pulverised to dust and blown away. Further, we also picked up a small lead vessel, with a wooden peg fixed in it — possibly a glue-pot; — portions of clay vessels, some with, others without, simple ornamentation; an ear-ring; a number of Chinese copper coins coated with verdigris.
Quite close to the high clay tower, at the foot of which we were encamped, there stands a relatively well-preserved house, with several posts still standing upright and plastered walls of interwoven tamarisk and kamisch. The interior of this house we dug out thoroughly, but without obtaining any result. One great difference between the ruins in the Desert of the Kerija-darja and these ruins of Lôu-lan is that the former are for the most part buried under sand and dust, so that nothing projects above the dunes except a post or a piece of wall here and there. Consequently there does exist some hope of finding there the objects that were left behind by the inhabitants when they abandoned their houses, and such reliefs and wall-decorations as there happen to be are, as Stein's excavations proved, very well preserved.
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