National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

hand, grasping a small bow, rests against the richly decorated garments. The piece

is well preserved, and, with the reservation that it is insufficient to afford cer-

tainty of interpretation, the reproduction is in general self-explanatory, excepting

the two puzzling buff shapes intruding from opposite sides, which I have not been

able to account for. The presence of the bow may indicate that the figure is that of

a goddess or a Ęäkinî. It remains, then, only to describe the very rich colouring.

The tunic is bordered with rich red-brown on which are circular paterae outlined

with small white dots on a blue line. In the centre of each patera is a buff circle

surrounded by white dots, and a buff circle lies just within the outer dotted circle.

Between the paterae are petal-shaped spandrels, blue, outlined with white. This

border pattern is carried up the centre of the tunic, dividing it into two panels of

olive green crossed by wavy buff lines, forming lozenge shapes. In the centre of

each lozenge is a small buff circle. Between borders and panels is a narrow inner

border of dark red with white dots. The `skirt' has a rich red-brown ground with

large rosettes of typical Sasanian type, consisting of an outer row of white `pearls'

on black, surrounding a four-petalled flower of alternate green and red-brown

petals, edged with white and outlined with black on a dull yellow ground. Between

the rosettes are blue spots bordered with white dots and with red centres, alternat-

ing with dark brown spots, red centred and bordered with buff dots. In the centre

of the half-rosette on the left appears the tip of an animal's lower jaw, showing its

teeth. The small fragments on the right were separated from the rest and are

badly discoloured. They may have been found in the shrine by Stein's men, and

were subsequently identified by me as belonging to the larger piece.'

I See Stein: Innermost Asia, p. 618, vol. H.

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