CH.XX'VII REMAINS OF WALLED ENCLOSURE 315
once enclosed, an oblong about 540 feet from north to south and about 340 feet across, could approximately be determined. The stamped clay rampart, about thirty to thirty-five feet thick at the base, seemed to have borne a superstructure formed by courses of large bricks set in thick layers of clay. But there appeared little regularity in the construction, or else repairs had been frequent, and few of the extant wall portions retained enough of their height to permit of exact measurement. Pottery débris, mostly black or dark brown, thickly strewed the ground within where not covered by broad dunes. Wind erosion had evidently first breached the outer walls and then scoured the remains of whatever buildings the interior once contained (Fig. 104). The east wall had suffered particularly in this process, while the wall to the south had practically disappeared. The whole made up a weird picture of desolation, impressive even in the desert surroundings to which I had grown accustomed. For excavation there was no scope left here. But the far-advanced decay of walls once so massive, and the much-worn appearance of the débris inside, strongly suggested that these ruins, too, went back to the period of the earlier ` Tu-huo-lo ' settlement.
Other excursions acquainted me with whatever old remains my Endere guides knew of amidst the closely set tamarisk cones to the south. One among them was the ruin of a small fortified post built in a solid square with walls of stamped clay, about eight feet thick (Fig. io6). They had suffered relatively little damage and still rose to eighteen feet in places. A projecting square bastion protected the gate on the south. The interior court, about forty-eight feet square, was completely bare, except for accumulations of straw and dung left undisturbed by erosion under the lee-side of the east wall. Some of the posts of Toghrak wood once flanking the inner gate still stood upright, and on clearing the débris filling the latter we came upon big pieces of timber which my men recognized as carved from mulberry and Eleagnus trees.
So cultivation at the time of the fort's construction was proved. But I searched in vain for distinct antiquarian evidence as to the period of its occupation. The fair
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