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

346   TO TUN-HUANG AND AN-HSI   [Chap. X

appears probable that Po-hu was the name of the Limes portion lying to the east of Ping-wang which extended from Yü-mên as far as T. xxii. c.1' The slips T. XXII. d. 018, 019 record deliveries of grain on different dates of A.D. 64. The fragment of a calendar, T. XXII. d. 024, may belong either to io B.C. or A.D. I 15.]

Watch-   About three-quarters of a mile to the east, across the marshy reed-covered bay seen in Fig. 197,

tower   an eroded ridge stretched from east to west, occupied by the ruined watch-tower T. XXII. e. It

T. xxn. e

cleared.   measured about 14 feet at its base and stood to a height of 9 feet, where it showed the remains of

a small conning room about 6 feet square, as seen in the plan (Pl. 13). As the ridge itself rises to a height of fully 90 feet, a wide outlook was assured. The tower was built of sun-dried bricks measuring 14 by 7 inches and 4 inches thick. Reed layers divided every five courses. It commanded a distant view across the lake and along its southern shore, the watch-stations T. xxiii. c and T. XXIII. e to the east being clearly recognizable. The clearing of the conning room and of the refuse at the foot of the tower yielded eight Chinese inscribed slips of wood, as well as the miscellaneous relics described in the List below. Among these may be mentioned the broken piece, T. xxn. e. of I (Pl. XLVI), of a wooden bow or cross-bow bearing on its four faces a Chinese inscription in neat but almost effaced characters, and the well-preserved broom, T. xxii. e. 013 (Pl. XLVI). On the southern slope of the ridge, about 20 feet below the tower, five narrow recesses cut into the clay had evidently served as quarters ; one of them contained a fire-place and another a small niche meant for storage.

[Among the wooden documents from this watch-station, T. xxii. e. 03 is important as it contains fairly detailed instructions as regards the service of fire-signals to be maintained along the border line in case of attacks by raiders, & c. The references to this system of optical telegraphy in records previously found along the Limes had been of a more general character.l2 The slips T. xxii. e. 05, o6 are of interest as they mention the signal post ' Chih-chien [FA of Po-hu in a way which leaves little doubt about this very watch-station of T. xxii. e. being meant.]

Remains at   Less than a mile to the north-east of T. xxi1. e, a belt of erosion terraces curving round from

T. XXII. f. T. XXIII. a juts out into the marshy edge of the lake-bed, and reduced the expanse of this to the northward, so far as it was covered with water at the time, to only a mile or so ; see Fig. 196. The clay terrace forming the extreme end of this belt commands a distant view along the whole length of the lake and bears the ruined watch-station T. xxii. f.13 Its remains comprised a tower built of sun-dried bricks, after the manner of the two watch-towers previously described, and two rooms adjoining on the south and south-west. The plastered walls of these survived only to a foot or two above the ground (see the plan, Pl. 13). The tower, 16 feet square at the base, contained on its top, at about 8 feet from the ground, a guard-room 7 feet square. The entrance to it lay through a narrow passage at the south-east corner. From the refuse outside, two Chinese records on wood were recovered, one a tablet broken into three pieces.. [This, T. xxii. f. 1, has proved to contain portions of a Chinese calendar arranged differently from those to be found in other Limes records and taken by M. Maspero to belong to the year 13 B. c.] Among some miscellaneous small objects described in the List may be noticed the fragment of an iron horse-bit, T. xxii. f. oz (Pl. XLVII), resembling that found on the Lou-lan route, east of C. ci, and two bronze arrow-heads, of the barbed type not usual on the Tun-huang Limes but represented by finds in the Lou-loan area.14

Lake shore   Though the terrace crowned by T. xxii. f commanded a full view of the lake shore eastwards

E. of   and the scrub-covered marshy ground near it, no tower or other remains could be sighted along it

T. xxn. f.

11 Regarding the Ping-wang ` barrier ', see Serindia, ii.

pp. 691, 699, 720, 746.

12 For a synopsis of them, cf. Serindia, ii. pp. 752 sqq.

13 In Map No. 38. A. 4 the tower symbol of T. xxn. f ought to have been shown farther north by the lake shore.

14 See above, p. 274 ; also p. 327, for Kum. or.