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| 0581 |
Innermost Asia : vol.1 |
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of ancient cultivation in that direction. We found the dwellings VIII–X situated on comparatively
open ground, showing practically no erosion and covered with a good deal of living scrub, such
as the presence of subsoil moisture at no great depth could alone account for. We could still make
out quite clearly on this ground the rectangular outlines of large perfectly levelled fields, and the
small irrigation cuts that brought water to them. It did not need the discovery of two neatly cut
octagonal stone rollers, such as are still used nowadays by Chinese agriculturists in the southern
oases for rolling their fields, to convince me that cultivation had been practised here by a people
thoroughly wedded to traditional Chinese methods. I should have found it difficult to believe that
these fields and farms had been abandoned to the desert as many centuries ago as the ruins on eroded
ground near by and as the ruins of Khara-khoto, had not the conclusion been forced on me by the
discovery in all of them of potsherds of identical type, and also of a number of coins close to the
dwellings IX and X. Among these eight coins, four are Sung pieces, while two bear the legend
Wu-chu, and one shows the T'ang Nien-hao K'ai-yüan.³
Here as elsewhere among these ruins very little sand had accumulated within the broken walls Large
where tamarisk-cones did not completely cover them. The total absence of remains of household dwelling
furniture, roofing timber and the like, suggested that the ruins had been exploited for a long time K.E. XIV.
after the settlement had been wholly or partly abandoned. The same conditions were observed
at the large dwelling XIV (Fig. 254 ; Pl. 22), which, with its numerous rooms arranged round three
sides of a walled court and a large outer enclosure, looked quite imposing. Part of the latter was
buried under the slopes of a big tamarisk-cone close by, which by its very height, close on 30 feet,
sufficed to indicate that the dwelling had been abandoned at an early period. For refuse heaps
which might have furnished datable remains we searched in vain ; nor could our Mongols show us
the temple or miao of which some of them had apparently heard in connexion with this ruin.
Turning to the south-west from this ruin, we crossed a succession of high tamarisk-covered Ground
ridges separated by stretches of gravelly soil, where potsherds of the same type as those found at crossed on
Khara-khoto were plentiful. Some three miles from ruin XIV we again came upon more open return to
ground ; but the lateness of the hour prevented me from visiting five more dwellings, XV–XIX, which Khara-
Afrāz-gul had found stretching along a line to the south-west. According to his detailed description khoto.
these were badly decayed, and debris of old pottery was to be found all around them. In two
places he had crossed small canals running eastwards, and elsewhere he had found stones for rolling,
as previously described, and also stones of hand-mills. With the exception of two unidentified pieces,
all the seven coins found in this southernmost portion of the once occupied area belonged to Sung
issues. The more westerly line of march that I myself had to follow in order to return to Khara-
khoto brought us to a well-preserved canal which could be followed with ease for more than half
a mile across a bare flat of clay. It was 10 feet wide between the top of the banks, which rose to
5 feet above the level of the plain, and was 3 feet deep in the middle. It ran from WSW. to ENE.,
but turned off to the west where we left it, thus clearly suggesting that it came from the river-bed
which passed south-east of Khara-khoto.
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339
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349
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657
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667
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677
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