CIt. XL REMAINS OF STUCCO SCULPTURES 453
as well as from the north-west and south-west faces of the lower one. But along the foot of the north-east face and partially along the south-east there emerged remains of decorative relievos just above the masses of débris.
As soon as these were cleared away, it was seen that the lower story or base had been adorned with niches about two feet broad and eight inches deep between projecting wall surfaces about as broad, all heavily coated with plaster (Fig. 139). Projections and niches alike survived only to a height of about four feet. But this was enough to show that the former had been decorated throughout with relievo representations of columns of strikingly Persepolitan look, bearing large capitals with turned-down volutes and at their foot a succession of round, knob-like bases separated by bold mouldings. The style distinctly recalled the elaborately carved wooden pillars brought to light in ruins of the Niya
site. The niches had once contained life-sized statues
in stucco ; but of these only one, in the centre of the north-east side, had survived to the hips, while of others I could trace in situ only scanty remains of the feet besides many detached fragments.
Already when on my first visit I probed the débris of broken clay and plaster, which lay heaped up against the north-east side of the structure, there had come to light the detached head of a life-sized statue in stucco. In spite of the damage it had suffered when it fell and while buried under débris, the good modelling and proportions showed the influence of Graeco-Buddhist sculpture quite as plainly as the relievos excavated by me in 1901 in the court of the Rawak Stupa near Khotan. Now, as the heavy masses of débris were being carefully removed all along what subsequently proved to have been the northeast side of a passage once enclosing the whole central fane, we soon carne upon a colossal head in stucco, representing a Buddha or Bodhisattva, on a level still fully three feet above the original floor. It had fallen with its face downwards on a layer of sand which had accumulated within the ruined passage, and thus retained traces of the original colouring on its well - modelled
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