IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Ruins of Desert Cathay : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
378 EXCAVATIONS AT LOP-NOR SITE CH. XXXII
Familiar and novel aspects mingled curiously, too, in
the work to which I now settled down. The clearing of
the ruined structures of the sand accumulated within
them, the searching of the débris strewing the eroded
slopes below, and so forth, would not have seemed strange
to my ` old guard ' from N iya. I knew, in fact, beforehand
that the remains at both sites dated from exactly the same
period. But to me it was a novel sensation to have to
conduct these wonted operations at a site which had already
been searched by an earlier European explorer. Hedin's
fascinating book had, by its chapter on ` The ruins of
ancient Lop-nor,' and its excellent illustrations, sufficed to
acquaint me with the general features of the ruins, which a
lucky chance had led him to discover in 1900, and with
the remains he had been able to bring to light there on his
second visit in 1901. His ` finds ' had been important,
indeed, and the antiquarian evidence which they furnished
was in many respects quite assured. Yet Hedin, out of a
total stay of six days, had been able to give only three to
actual excavation at the eastern group of ruins, and a
fourth at the western. He had the services of only five
men besides himself, and not one among them had previous
experience of such work, while the number of ruins to be
searched was relatively large. Thus from the first it was
clear that a thorough exploration of the site by an archaeo-
logist was needed in the interest of science. But who
could feel sure in advance of how much a site thus
researched ' would still yield in new facts, observations,
and ` finds ' ?
Chance would have it that the very first ruin on which
I set my men gave cause for encouraging hopes. It was
the remnant of a house once manifestly much larger,
occupying the top of a small and steeply eroded terrace
due south of the Stupa and only some fifty yards off
(Fig. 115). Four rooms, including one over thirty feet
long, could still be clearly made out by the broken walls,
built of timber and wattle exactly as at the Niya site.
Plentiful débris of timber strewing the slopes of the terrace,
especially to the east and the south, marked the positions
where other parts of the building had once stood, and where
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