392 AN ANTIQUE RUBBISH HEAP [CHAP xxv.
nitely to ascertain all technicalities connected with its use. The wedge-shaped tablets, which seem to have been in favour for short communications, invariably consisted of pairs of pieces fitted exactly to match each other in size, as seen in the specimen reproduced below. One end of the double tablet thus formed was cut off square ; the other runs out into a point near which a string-hole is
KHAROSHTHI DOCUMENT ON DOUBLE WOODEN TABLET (N. XV. 137). (Scale one-third.)
A Obverse of covering tablet with seal. B Reverse of under-tablet. C Obverse of under-tablet.
drilled through both pieces. The text occupies the smooth obverse of the under-tablet and is protected by the upper or covering tablet, which rests on it and serves as a kind of envelope. If the length of the communication required it, the writing was continued on the reverse of the covering tablet. The wood of the latter shows greater thickness towards the square end, and in this raised portion of the
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