国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

sidered as attached to our expedition is due to the fact that I was able to procure the funds with which the enterprise was in the main financed.

When Dr ARNE found himself obliged to give up his plans for excavations in Russian Turkistan (cf. p. 65 note) he turned his attention to Iran, where in 1930 a new law concerning the country's antiquities had been enacted. According to this law, foreign archaeological enterprises in Iran were assured one half of the objects that were excavated, while the government reserved the other half to itself.

In the autumn of 1932, then, Dr ARNE set off with his helpers for Iran. By the beginning of April 1933 he was able to commence the excavation on a large scale of a mound of ruins called Shah Tepé on the Turkoman steppe, 16 km N. N. W. of Asterabad. The rich and highly important finds, especially of pottery, that were unearthed cannot even be mentioned in this connection. The oldest date from the early copper age (first half of the 3rd millenium B. C.), while the topmost layers in the mound contained burials from Mohammedan time. Dr ARNE's highly meritorious work in Iran was concluded during the summer of 1933.1

FIRST TRANS-ASIATIC FLIGHT BY CAPTAIN LUTZ

Early in the spring, Captain LuTZ of the Eurasia Company left for Berlin, intending to return to Peking by air, via Omsk, Urumchi, Hami and Suchow, with Herr WILHELM SCHMIDT, the Lufthansa representative in Peking.

This flight over the largest continent of the globe, a great aeronautical achievement, was carried out without a hitch; and on June 25th LUTZ was back in Peking. Unfortunately, however, he was without SCHMIDT, who had had an aeroplane accident in Germany from which he did not return alive.

On account of what he was told in Urumchi about the situation at Hami and MA CHUNG-YIN'S operations, LUTZ had not landed at Hami on his eastward flight, but had flown direct to Suchow. There he had met General HUANG MU-SUNG, who had been sent to Sinkiang with his staff by the Central Government in the middle of May to investigate the position and mediate between the combatants in the bloody civil war in the far-off province, the origin of which will be described in the following section. It seems that General HUANG had intended to seize the supreme power in Urumchi for himself; and with this end in view he attempted a coup that cost three high officials their lives. The most powerful man in Urumchi was at that time the military Governor-General, SHENG Simi-TS'AI, and it was he who frustrated General HUANG MU-SUNG's plans; though as a mark of respect for the Central Government he allowed him to return in safety to Nanking by air. Later, we were to make the acquaintance of this General SHENG SHIH-TS'AI, an acquaintance of a rather curious and exciting nature.

1 Preliminary reports have been published by Dr ARNE in Hyllningsskrift tillägnad Sven Hedin

1935 and Acta Archaeologica 6, Copenhagen 1935. A monograph concerning the results of the excavations is to be published at about the same time as the present work. F. B.

20I