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0430 Sand-Buried Ruins of Khotan : vol.1
Sand-Buried Ruins of Khotan : vol.1 / Page 430 (Grayscale High Resolution Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000234
Citation Format: Chicago | APA | Harvard | IEEE

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394   AN ANTIQUE RUBBISH HEAP   [CHAI'. xxv.

string-hole. The under-tablet could then easily be slid out from the folds of string running beneath the seal, and after being read be passed back again into its original position, just as we can do this now, after so many centuries, in the case of the double tablet reproduced on p. 392. Usually to the right of the seal on the obverse of the covering tablet there appears the name of the addressee, while entries in a different hand, traceable in some instances on the reverse of the under-tablet, may possibly represent " docket " notes by the official who received the communication.

B

Detached seal-socket
(N. xv. 133).

(Scale one-half.)

       

Covering tablet of oblong Kharoshthi   Covering tablet of Kharoshthi

document (N. xv. 167), showing   document (N. xv. 330),

double seal.   showing seal with Eros.

(Scale one-half.)   (Scale one-half.)

Scarcely less ingenious is the method of fastening which the finds of N. xv. prove to have been used for the oblong tablets. From a number of double tablets of that shape which I recovered here practically intact, it became clear that the under-tablet was in this case provided with a raised rim on either of the shorter sides. Between these rims fitted exactly a covering tablet, the obverse of which, in its raised centre, had a square or oblong socket for the reception of a clay seal. Here too a string passed transversely