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

The only personal ornament buried with this mummy was a rounded, flattened bead of opal, threaded on a thick white cord that was tied twice round the right wrist, Pl. 9 : 12, the fringes of the ends hanging down on the outside, the bead being placed on the inner side of the wrist.

Outside the mantle, and at the outer side of the right thigh, the small basket Pl. 14: 5 was found. It has a rounded bottom, is neatly woven of dicotolydonous stems, stiff grass and some root-fibres with a design made up of the glossy outside of split grass, forming horizontal and zig-zag bands. The mouth was closed with a layer of white felt tied on with woollen strings. There is also a string handle. The basket contained a small amount of a dried-up substance, which according to Mr. Hj. LJUNGH once was a porridge of millet.

Under the back, inside the mantle, a bunch of four arrows, about 70 cm. long, were found tied together, each of them with two tufts of feathers, but without arrow-head, Pl. 7: 13. Probably they were not real arrows but only symbolical ones.

In the right hand of the mummy there was a tamarisk twig, 52 cm. long.

At the throat there were found pieces of the ears of calves, and the whole front of the body was strewn with grains of wheat and twigs of Ephedra. These latter had sunken down on the open front of the 'body as seen in Pl. VI c.

Except for this opening in front the mummy was perfectly preserved. It was 170 cm. long. The teeth were not very much worn, showing that he must have died quite young. The brown-black skin stuck closely to the broad cheek-bones; the long eyelashes and thick eyebrows still remained, and the long dark-brown hair was tied at the back with a red string.

A big fracture on the forehead, clearly visible as a black spot in Pl. VI c, may have had some connection with his apparently early death. The expression on his face was that of a wild grimace as if he had suffered a violent death.

This burial is typical of all the rest at this place, and its close resemblance to several of the graves found by STEIN and to HEDIN'S Grave 36 is evident.

Coffin 5. B.

The planks of this coffin were practically straight, of nearly uniform thickness, and the end-boards were consequently broader than in coffin 5. A, cf. Fig. 13. Otherwise the construction follows the same principle and is an exact parallel to Stein 1928, Fig. 173.

Around this and the adjacent coffin 5. C, both lying in S 65 ° W—N 65°E at a depth of I m., the high posts stand close together. Three of t1 em had to be taken down during the excavations to prevent accidents, as they were standing in very shallow pits in spite of their height of 4.25 m. Pl. VII a.

The coffin was plundered so long ago that the shaft had been totally filled with drift sand, and contained only fragments of its former outfit. Only two cross-pieces

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