IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| On Ancient Central-Asian Tracks : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
104 THE NIYA SITE REVISITED
CH. VI
found furnished very valuable indications. With a few exceptions, all the rectangular documents (Figs. 9, 39), of which
fully three dozen were cleared in the end, had their elaborate
string fastenings unopened and sealed down on the envelope. This manifestly confirmed the conjectural explanation I had
arrived at in the case of a few previous finds of this kind. These were agreements or bonds which had to be kept under their original fastenings and seals in order that in case of need their validity might be safely established.
Characteristically enough, the only two open records proved to be letters addressed in due form to the "Honourable Cojhbo Sojaka, whose sight is dear to gods and men", whose name and title I had previously read on many of the official notes dug up in the scattered files. The care which had been taken to hide the deposit and at the same time to mark its position—for that, no doubt was the purpose of the clay lump, as Rustam had quite rightly guessed—showed that the owner had been obliged to leave the place in an emergency, but with a hope of returning.
Great care had to be taken in the removal to save the clay sealings from any risk of damage. A number of them held impressions from two or three intaglios (Fig. 44) . My care was amply rewarded when I discovered on clearing them at night in my tent that almost all had remained as fresh as when first impressed, and that most of them were from seals of classical workmanship representing an archaic Zeus, Heracles with club and lion-skin, Eros, Pallas Promachos, helmeted busts, etc. It was strange how victoriously the art of the Greek die-cutter had left its marks in this distant region, and strange, too, to know myself the de facto possessor of Sojaka's deeds probably referring to lands and
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