Innermost Asia : vol.1 / Page 509 (Color Image)

0509	Innermost Asia : vol.1

Tun-huang Limes (Chavannes, Doc., Nos. 415, 485). In 023 the commandant of a 'signal post'
(sui) is referred to as a native of the canton of Fu-ch'ang 富昌 of Yü-mên. 019 furnishes an
inventory of various textiles and articles of clothing ; 029 and 030 are fragmentary private letters.]

The well-made string shoe, T. xliii. h. 04 ; the wooden peg, 013, with a roughly drawn
grotesque face, and the iron hoe-blade, 012, have their exact counterparts among objects from Limes
posts west of Tun-huang, occupied during Han times. In view of the chronological indication
afforded by these and by the coin previously mentioned, the find of a torn piece of paper, 06,
uninscribed, has its special interest. The distance from the tower T. xliii. g in the west to T. xliii. i,
the next tower eastwards, proved little more than a mile. It has occurred to me that the interposition
of T. xliii. h so close to each of these posts might perhaps best be explained by the supposition
that its remains mark the site not of an ordinary watch-tower but of a point d'appui or sectional
head-quarters, such as T. vi. b and T. xv. a on the Tun-huang Limes.⁷ The comparatively large
number of documents found here would well agree with such an assumption.

Neither here nor near T. xliii. g was it possible to trace the actual Limes wall. But eastwards
the belt of tamarisk-cones receded, and close to the point where the line of the wall reappears on
gravel soil amid a scanty growth of scrub, we came upon the much-decayed remains of a brick-built
tower, T. xliii. i, occupying a small natural knoll to the south of the wall. It was interesting to see
this knoll now completely overtopped by a tamarisk-cone close by, fully 30 feet high, which must
have grown up since the watch-post was here built.⁸ From a refuse heap on the slope of the hillock
nine Chinese records on wood were recovered, including a rectangular cover-tablet [with the name
of the addressee] and a seal-case. Among the miscellaneous objects found here may be mentioned
the piece of a wooden saddle-tree, T. xliii. i. 02 ; the fragment of an iron implement, 07 (Pl. XLVII),
wedge-shaped, of uncertain use, and a small quantity of oats, of which 08 is a specimen.

From here onwards the wall was found in very fair preservation, running eastwards, with an
average height of 5 to 6 feet, but rising in places even a couple of feet higher (Fig. 220). At a point
about one mile distant from the post last described and a little to the south of the wall, a mound was
found covered with the debris of a small brick-built structure, T. xliii. j. A room, of which only
the east wall remained clearly traceable, had its floor covered with refuse. The excavation of this
yielded no less than twenty-four Chinese records on wood, including not only fragments of 'slips',
but also a complete trilateral piece of the size and shape which, as is shown by corresponding finds
on the Tun-huang Limes, was used for literary productions.⁹ [The trilateral piece, T. xliii. j. 014,
has proved to contain the beginning of the 14th paragraph of the Chi chiu chang 急就章, a
famous lexicographical text, the popularity of which during the later Han period is attested also
by a number of fragments recovered at different points of the Tun-huang Limes on my second
expedition.¹⁰ T. xliii. j. 013 contains a writing exercise in which a date corresponding to the year
40 b.c. is copied. A private letter from an exile is found in 05–6. Numerous pieces, 07–12, 015–21,
&c., seem to belong to an astrological calendar.]

Among the few miscellaneous finds are the wooden heel-piece of a shoe last, 02 (Pl. XLVI)
and a piece of well-made basket-work, 04 (Pl. XLVI). But more interesting is a small carefully
carved wooden peg, 01 (Pl. XLVII), supporting at its upper end a carved head with the details of
the face neatly cut in or painted in black. The little object is remarkable on account of the resem-
blance it shows, as pointed out by Mr. Andrews, in the treatment of the coiffure to certain Han

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

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

Citation Information

OCR Text

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