National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

73

from the last epidemic of small-pox in Leh, about a hundred years ago. These skulls from the small-pox graves appeared to be decidedly brachycephalic, when compared with those from the ancient grave. As dolichocephalic heads are a characteristic mark of the Dards of Hanu, Da, and other Dard places of Ladakh, we are led to believe that the people who built the ancient graves were probably of Dard stock ; at any rate they were not of Tibetan, but of North Indian origin.

Besides human skulls, a head of a sheep, and a horn of an ox were also found in the grave. These are apparently remains of a sacrifice, or gifts to the dead.

The grave contained also a number of bronze implements, some in fairly good preservation (Plate XXIX, a). Most of them were, however, much corroded, and covered with a thick layer of verdigris. First of all, I may mention small square leaflets of thin bronze furnished with an embossed ring, of which we found hundreds. Whether they were used for ornamental purposes, or as coins, I find it impossible to decide. Then there were numerous bronze beads, of round as well as of oblong shape, small and large, the largest thicker than a finger. Later on we discovered little pendants of bronze, of bell-like form, with triangular holes and a ring at the top. They were probably inserted between the bronze beads of the necklace. When we took photos of the bronze implements and other articles, we found a glass bead among the bronze beads. It was of mother-o-pearl colour, and looked like Roman or Greek glass. Dr. Marshall informs me, however, that this kind of glass is found all over Asia.

Once, when I had made arrangements to go to the grave and continue my exploration, I was prevented from doing so by an attack of malarial fever. Then Mr. and Mrs. Reichel of the Moravian Mission offered to go in my place, and they brought home several more very interesting finds. In particular, there were a number of bronze buttons of various sizes with a loop on the reverse. Some of them were of ordinary size, about half an inch in diameter, but others were much larger, nearlytwo inches in diameter. The largest had a scalloped edge, like an Indian one-anna piece. None of them contained an inscription. The smallest were quite plain, the largest had an elaborate spiral ornament, and those of medium size, a star ornament. I suppose that these buttons were worn by ancient officials as a distinguishing mark of rank, just as is the case in China nowadays.

Some other round pieces of bronze may have served as mirrors, such as are still found in Ladakh. Some fragments were probably the remains of bronze pots.

On the 28th August, three of our Christians went again to the graves of their own accord. They found many more bronze implements, several of them in fairly good preservation ; for instance, a can with a spout of excellent workmanship, though quite plain and without any ornament ; a seal with a cross-pattern engraved on it ; an entire bracelet with a pattern of little circles. Although we could trace decorative designs on several fragments, there was no vestige of any script.

In addition let me say that fragments of iron implements came to light also, and that Mr. and Mrs. Reichel discovered the only gold article that was in the grave. It is of a shape similar to the mouthpiece of a trumpet, but its purpose is not known. Its ornamentation is a curved form of the Greek key.

•

L