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

Some very worn fragments of a pile-carpet of patterned wool call for attention as their technique is non-Chinese. STEIN has some better preserved fragments with nearly the same design (Stein 1928, Pl. XLIV, L. C. ii. o9 a, b, and L. C. iii. 014). He regards them as products of an early carpet industry in the Tarim Basin.

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In summing up the discussion of Mass-grave 1, we observe that most of the objects forming the sepulchral deposit can be labelled as Chinese. The silk fabrics are directly imported from China proper, and so, certainly, are the small objects of lacquered wood. The coarser wooden objects may as well have been manufactured locally, though mostly according to Chinese pattern. There are no goods common, however, with those of the autochthon Lou-lan people, as we found them represented for instance at Cemetery 5.

I am not going to enter into this question though I cannot but stress what others have said before : in the Chinese patterned silks from these Lou-lan graves we encounter the first traceable wave of expansion of Chinese art directed towards the Western world.

, LIST OF ANTIQUITIES FROM MASS-GRAVE i

34: I.   Pottery jar with flat bottom, squat dark-brown with some narrow red lines. The lid is

with narrow and short neck and well- convex on the top (where the bronze ornament defined rim. Upper part of body ribbed spirally. —:3 has been attached) and has a faint black Light-grey ware. H. 14.2 cm., diam. of bottom border ; the inside of the lid is concave; it is of infe-II cm., of widest part 15.5 cm., of mouth 6 cm. Pl. rior make compared with the rest of the box. One

21 : 3.   bottom is 99X43 mm., the other 102X47 mm., the

lid 100X46 mm. Pl. 20:6.

body faintly ribbed spirally, and lower part scraped   wood, probably elm. The outside has
34:2.   Pottery jar of same ware as —: I but

off vertically. H. 17.8 cm., diam. of bottom 6.8 been brown-black, the inside red. Repaired with cm., of widest part 12.2 cm., of mouth 5.7 cm. Pl. with another material. Diam. 16.5-17 cm. Diam. 21 ' 2.   of the low foot ring II cm. H. 4.5 cm. PI. 19: 8.

of more slender shape. Upper part of 34: 5'   Round shallow bowl of lacquered

two iron plates. Has possibly had the rim covered

34: 3.   Symmetrical ornament of thin bronze. 34: 6.   Two adjoining pieces from the rim of

From a straight central part emerges   a round vessel of lacquered wood. The
a two-leafed volute at each end and from each outside has been dark-brown, the inside red and side at the middle. Between the "leaves" a small the rim has probably been black on the inside. point. One of these shows traces of having been Diam. about 15 cm.

gilt. The object has apparently been placed on top

of the lid of 34 : 4. 71 X 38 mm. Pl. 20 : 6, Fig. 28 c. 34 : 7.   Large wooden cup, squat ; cut, not

turned, in one piece with a ring-handle

34 : 4.   Fragm. of a small oval wooden box, flattened on top. Three low feet, from which flat

once lacquered. It was apparently a parts stretch upwards along wall, terminating a double-bottomed box with one part divided into little below the widest part of the body. Repaired three partitions by means of two transverse walls. with bronze rivets in two places. Painted black The inside seems to have been lacquered red all with a red border round the mouth, red inside. The over. The outside of the walls have been lacquered feet are yellow. Contains a dried-up substance.

I28