CH. XVII STUCCO FIGURINES IN TOMBS 267
The chronological evidence is supplied by Chinese funeral inscriptions on bricks which were found intact near the approaches of numerous tombs. As interpreted by Dr. Giles and Professor Maspero, they record the names of the dead, with exact dates of the burials and details about their life, etc. With that evidence agree also the dates found on a mass of Chinese documents which turned up in certain of the tombs. Judging from their contents, which deal with petty matters of official routine, such as records on establishments of horses kept on postal routes; registers of correspondence; reports on malpractices of subordinates, etc., they could have found their way into the tombs only as waste papers. In fact, in one of the few coffins which had remained unopened such a packet of miscellaneous papers was clearly seen to have been used as a `filling'.
The dryness of the climate accounts for the remarkable state of preservation in which most of the bodies and the objects deposited with them were found. The variety of such objects was great, and almost all of them help to acquaint us with many aspects of the daily life led in Turfan at that period. They included neatly worked models of household furniture and utensils as well as many painted stucco figurines intended to represent the attendance to be provided for the dead in another world. Among them were found carefully modelled figures of ladies showing interesting details of dress (Fig. I 2 I) ; armed horsemen in numbers to serve as a cortège; native servants in characteristic costume.
There were also spirited and well-executed representations of horses, recalling the elegant type of the present Badakhshi breed still highly prized on both sides of the Pamirs. Richly caparisoned, they show us the `horse millinery' then in use,
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