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

The silk bag Pl. 16: 7, found near the shears, is of Chinese make, as are all the textiles in this grave. The colours are now pale, on a brown ground the elegant floral design is executed in blue and light green(?). The outlines are very delicate, and the pattern covers the whole surface. A line of a Chinese character runs through the flower scrolls along the length of the bag; it is hard to discern with certainty but it is probably meant to be a nien (year) cf. Stein's L. C. II. 03.

Grave 6 B.

Only 3 m. to the north of Grave 6 A, and parallel to it, lies Grave 6 B. The cof fin was dismembered but could easily be rebuilt, Pl. XII b. The construction of this type is the most elaborate among those used in the Lop-nor region. As seen

The lid is made of two long boards

from the drawing Fig. 26 it is built of four square corner posts in which the

broad boards forming the sides and the o   ~m

ends are inserted with tenons, which have been kept steady by two dowels through each one. The board forming the bottom rests on a special crossbar between the corner posts. The

ideal reconstruction Fig. 27 is to show   = how the different members werej oined. Fig. 26. sid CeoffinIn 6the B. Ftoprompicture abovethe, one extremisremoved.ity and one

joined to each other with small dowels. No marks could be seen showing, how the lid was fixed to the coffin. The big heap of brushwood on the right side in Pl. XII b was no doubt placed on top of the lid, and the whole thing was probably tied to the coffin with ropes.

The corner posts form real legs reaching 19 cm. below the bottom, thus giving the coffin the appearance of a bedstead. For comparison with the size of the identical, though less well-preserved, coffin from Burial place 7 (p. 104) I give the measurements here. Length of side boards 173 cm., size of end boards 44X34 cm., size of corner posts 55X 11X9 cm.

On Burial place 4 I saw some small fragments of this type of coffin, and STEIN found it in at least one of this cemeteries (L. H. Stein 1928, Fig. 169).

The coffin was lined with white felt, partly sticking to the boards. Of the skeleton only fragments remained, beside parts of the dress of the corpse : fragments of a silk coat and trousers, and a coat of cotton fabric. The latter may possibly have been the lining of the silk coat. The piece of a coarse mantle woven in four-leafed twill of hair, and having broad browns stripes, Pl. 27: I I, was probably some kind of matting or blanket. Both technique and material are different from those of the mantles from Cemetery 5.

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