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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

of construction exactly, as time could not be spared to make a regular cutting through the massive
rampart.

Materials The materials and method employed in the construction of the fort wall are clearly of anti-
used in quarian interest. The method, even in the absence of any other proof, would suffice to make it
wall con-
struction. highly probable that the erection of the fort took place at a period when the influence of Chinese
engineering practice prevailed in the Lop region. From the materials used it may be concluded
with certainty that there stood in the close vicinity of the site an extensive jungle belt, containing
wild poplars big and small, such as is to be seen to-day by the side of every river-bed in the Tārim
basin that contains running water and does not immediately adjoin a terminal basin holding
salt or brackish water.¹³ The neighbourhood of the ancient dried-up river-bed that we passed
south of the fort fully accords with this belief, and so also does the use made in the construction of
the wall of clay lumps such as could most easily be obtained from ground kept moist by periodical
inundation. The abundance of Toghrak timber in the immediate vicinity of this fort may explain
the fact that its walls were far more solidly constructed than those of the circumvallation of the
ruined station L.A. explored in 1906, and have consequently survived in far better condition.
However that may be, it is noteworthy that the corners of the walled enclosures of both L.K. and
L.A. are orientated towards the cardinal points.

Construc- Another indication of antiquarian interest was furnished by the gateway, which was found
tion of
ancient to pass through the north-eastern face of the circumvallation at a point about a hundred feet from
gateway.
the eastern corner. The top of the gateway, together with that of the adjoining portions of the wall,
had been destroyed by erosion ; but from what had survived of the timber framework, the plan
and arrangement of the gate could be restored with ease (see Pl. 10). The sides of the gate were
revetted by means of nine posts on each side, set in two massive foundation beams still in situ and
each measuring 22 feet. A cross-beam, also still in position, joined these two towards the entrance
and showed that the width of the passage had been slightly over 10 feet. Of the side posts, seven
still stood upright on the north side, and the dowels at the top of one or two that retained their
original lengths showed that the gate passage had a height of 10 feet. The gate was closed towards
the outer end of the passage by a massive wooden door of two leaves, each 5 feet wide. One of
these was lying on the ground, practically intact, with its boards, 3 inches thick, secured by stout
cross-joints. The cross-beam previously mentioned showed the sockets that once held the door
jambs. The adjoining posts had holes into which fitted the cross-bar securing the folds when closed.
In dimensions and arrangement the gateway showed close resemblance to that which led through
the rampart of the defensive quadrangle at the Kara-dan Site, as excavated in 1901.¹⁴ My
renewed exploration of this ruin in 1908 has proved that it belonged approximately to the period
when the Niya and Lou-lan sites were abandoned.¹⁵

Debris Within the walled enclosure, first inspection had shown me an area, III, near the middle of the
remains
from large north-eastern wall, of about 130 feet by 100, covered with the heavy timber debris of completely
structure.
eroded structures. To the south of it there were the remains of two small groups of timber and
wattle-built quarters, stretching from north-east to south-west (1 in Pl. 10), and partially filled with
drift-sand. Of the larger structures at III, nothing remained but massive beams and posts belonging
to the wall foundations and framework, thrown down in utter confusion, as Fig. 133 shows. All
this timber, including pieces over 30 feet in length, was shrivelled and fissured by centuries of
exposure. As the soil below had been carried off by erosion to a considerable depth below the
original ground level, it was impossible either to trace the outlines of the structural arrangement