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

> > > >
Color New!IIIF Color HighRes Gray HighRes PDF   Japanese English
0265 Archaeological Researches in Sinkiang : vol.1
Archaeological Researches in Sinkiang : vol.1 / Page 265 (Grayscale High Resolution Image)

New!Citation Information

doi: 10.20676/00000195
Citation Format: Chicago | APA | Harvard | IEEE

OCR Text

 

ide), and furthermore with an alcoholic solution of guajacol in the presence of strong sulphuric acid. The mass also contains some lime (Ca).

It may therefore be assumed that the substance in question was once sour milk.

SHEEP WOOL FROM THE KUCHA DISTRICT.

This wool sample is of course not an archaeological specimen. Taken from a sheepskin in the market at Kucha, it is a simple product of to-day, to be compared to the wools of the grave finds. From this point of view, however, the sample is interesting.

The wool is pretty to look at : clean, dazzlingly white and good-sized. Moreover, it has an agreeable softness of handle. Is it then a more "cultivated" wool of a higher count than the two thousand years older wool from the graves ? The microscopic examination does not answer in the affirmative. On the contrary, it shows that the hairs are coarser, with a thickness between 20 and 55 ,a, that most of the hairs have a medullary core or pith like a white string, occupying half the breadth of the hair, and that the external scales (flattened horny cells) have a very irregular and split appearance. Most of the wool in the sample consists of overhairs taken from a sheep belonging to a good but none the less plain breed — producing a wool considerably inferior to the fine and dense wool used in the loin-cloth No. 5: 148.

239