国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

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0624 Ruins of Desert Cathay : vol.1
中国砂漠地帯の遺跡 : vol.1
Ruins of Desert Cathay : vol.1 / 624 ページ(カラー画像)

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doi: 10.20676/00000213
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406   DISCOVERY OF ART REMAINS CH. XXXv

respectively, were still in situ on the top of the terrace. In front of the south-east beam there lay stretched out on the eroded slope a portion of the timber framework of the wall which it had once borne, just as the wind must have thrown it down after centuries of exposure. The roof beam was still intact, showing the dowels into which posts and lintels had fitted. At the eastern corner two posts were still in their position joined together by horizontal pieces.

That a considerable portion of the wall space of the little shrine—as other finds conclusively proved it to be—must have been left open for lighting became highly probable from the very numerous panels, mostly broken, of open relievo work which we discovered in the sand (Fig. 122, 8). Apart from pieces of geometrical trellis-work, there were panels showing flowers of varying design and size, or the heads and bodies of different grotesque animals. In some of these, e.g. a strange beast with the mouth of a crocodile, long neck, and twisted horns, clever modelling and imaginative power are conspicuous in spite of poor preservation. It is evident that all these open-work panels had formed part of screens intended to ward off heat and glare in the summer.

From the interior of the shrine came undoubtedly the many elaborately turned balusters, over one and a half feet high, which fitted four each into a kind of top railing intended to represent a succession of small double brackets (Fig. 122, 2). Other relics of interior adornment were small models of Stupas up to three feet in height carved in wood, complete with base, dome, and a string of mushroom-shaped umbrellas ; large blocks of wood with carved rosettes, designed probably for a tympanum decoration, etc. But of the images which the shrine was likely to have contained, only the scantiest relics had survived, such as the fore-arm and hand of a relievo figure carved in wood ; and small pieces of fine ` plaster of Paris,' showing remains of relievo decoration, as if from the jewelled arm of a life-size image. The stucco fragments all turned up on the north-east slope where the layer of sand was far too light to afford effective protection. The conditions were equally unfavourable on the two remaining sides of