152 ROUTE ACROSS DRIED-UP LOP SEA ci;. ix
thirty-five feet above the eroded ground. On the sides of the Mesa graves had been partially exposed and destroyed by wind erosion undercutting the banks and causing them to fall. But the top of the Mesa had been safe from this destructive agent, and there a series of large grave-pits, revealed by rapid clearing, yielded a rich antiquarian haul in quite bewildering confusion.
Mixed up with human bones and fragments of coffins, there emerged funeral deposits of all sorts, objects of personal use such as decorated bronze mirrors, wooden models of arms and household implements, Chinese documents on paper and wood, and, above all, a wonderful variety of fabrics which delighted my eyes. Among them were pieces of beautifully coloured figured silks, fragments of rich tapestry work and embroidery as well as of pile carpets, by the side of coarse fabrics in wool and felt. It soon became evident that remnants of garments of all sorts had been used here for wrapping up bodies. I could not have wished for a more representative exhibition of that ancient silk trade which had been a chief factor in opening up this earliest route for China's direct intercourse with Central Asia and the distant West.
It was easy to realize from various indications that the contents of these pits must have been collected from older graves which wind erosion or some similar cause had exposed or was threatening with complete destruction. Consequently the relics here saved, in obedience to a pious custom still practised among Chinese, can safely be assigned to that period of the Han dynasty's rule which followed the first expansion of Chinese trade and power into Central Asia about the close of the second century B.C.
IIIFカラー高解像度
