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

Clay terrace marking watch-post.

Watch- tower

T. xxix.

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boo   THE TUN-HUANG OASIS AND ITS NORTHERN LIMES [Chap. XV

silk, T. xxviii. 0021, one of a fine muslin-like texture, showed that, in spite of such obvious marks of penury affecting the rank and file, the refinements of life were not altogether absent at such stations.

On proceeding from T. xxviu towards the next tower on the south-west I noticed, at a little over half a mile's distance, a clay ridge about fifty yards long and twelve feet in height, bearing near its centre a knoll about ten feet high, which at first suggested the remnant of a ruined tower. It proved to be only a natural clay ` witness ' with• no trace of structural remains. Yet on the top of the ridge potsherds of the dark-grey wheel-made kind previously described, together with fragments of animal bones, lay in such abundance that occupation during the period when the Limes was guarded appears very probable. The natural clay terrace, even without a tower, would supply a convenient position for a subsidiary look-out post, as I subsequently found in the case of a number of stations near the Khara-nör. The tamarisk-cones extending along the line marked by the towers became from here onwards more scattered and fell to only four or five feet in height. At last they disappeared altogether beyond the ruined station T. xxix, reached after another three-quarters of a mile.

Here, too, the tower, as seen in Fig. 154, had been built on a small clay ridge, no such advantage of ground being ever neglected by those who constructed the ` Wall '. It was built with layers of stamped clay, each from three to four inches thick, on a base about twenty-one feet square, and rose in fair preservation to a height of over twenty feet. Tamarisk brushwood inserted between the successive layers attested the antiquity of the original structure, but the remains of a parapet, built of rough bricks and still about five feet in height, seemed to prove that it must have been repaired at some later time. Closer examination of the top was impracticable, as there was no trace of stairs apart from some holes on the south face which may once have served as footholds.

The impression of an ancient Limes tower that had been put to later use was distinctly strengthened by the presence of a relatively well-preserved enclosure, about 107 feet square, of which the tower itself formed the north-west corner, as seen in the plan (Plate 34). The walls of this enclosure, constructed of rough bricks and lumps of hard clay and strengthened by layers of tamarisk brushwood at intervals of about fifteen inches, bore a manifestly later look (see Fig. 154), and at the south-east corner still rose to a height of nearly eight feet. Within this corner were traced foundations of brick walls belonging to a couple of rooms that had been built against the east wall. The bricks here measured thirteen by seven and a half inches with a thickness of five inches ; they were laid in alternate courses five and seven and a half inches high respectively. The thick accumulations of refuse found above these remains yielded nothing but plentiful reed straw, burnt brushwood, and droppings of horses and camels. Similar deposits, affording no chronological clue, also made up a large refuse-heap that was found about ten yards outside the south-west corner. But here we came, quite close to the surface, upon a large pottery jar, intact up to the neck and about a foot high, T. xxix. 0013 (Plate Iv). Its surface seemed to have been coloured by oil. The piece of coarse goat's hair fabric, T. xxix. 009, was also found here.

Definite evidence of later occupation, such as the structural indications just noticed had suggested to me from the first, has been furnished by the small pieces of fine keramic ware, with highly glazed surface, which were picked up in plenty both within and around the enclosure. The careful examination which Mr. R. L. Hobson, of the British Museum, was kind enough to make of the specimens brought away (see T. xxix. a—m. in Descriptive List, Chap. xX. sec. vii), has established the fact that, besides glazed stoneware pieces which he would attribute partly to Tang and partly to Sung times, there are among them also fragments of porcelainous ware

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