Innermost Asia : vol.2 / 264 ページ（カラー画像）

0264	Innermost Asia : vol.2
極奥アジア : vol.2

The masonry was reinforced by timber, but the use of this was much more restricted than in Y. III
and Y. IV, owing to the far greater solidity of the masonry.

Finds in In view of the constructive features just noticed, it appears to me probable that this watch-tower,
refuse at too, like those previously described, goes back to Former Han times. The enlargement may have
Y. VII. been undertaken soon after the original tower was built, perhaps with a view to greater height and
thereby wider outlook and visibility. Among the debris on the southern and eastern faces refuse,
consisting mainly of reed-straw, was found up to a height of about 8 feet from the ground. In
this, and only a few inches from the surface, were found two small leather pieces from lacquered scale
armour. Their ornamentation with red designs on black ground closely resembled that of the
leather armour scales excavated from the rubbish layers of the Tibetan fort at Mīrān.¹¹ Leather
thongs like those used as fastenings on the Mīrān scales still adhered to these pieces. The resem-
blance to the Mīrān finds and the place where the scales were picked up suggest that they found
their way into the refuse in T'ang times, when the towers, though already decayed, may still
have served as convenient halting-places. On a narrow tongue of the Sai terrace and about a
hundred yards to the north of the tower there were graves scattered over an area about 50 yards
across. They had all been dug up, evidently a long time ago. Ibrāhīm, on the strength of a state-
ment by his father, said that this had been done by Korla people about forty years ago, i. e. during
Yāqūb Bēg's régime. No traces of coffins survived and but little trace of bones. The graves were
probably those of soldiers or wayfarers who had died at this dreary roadside station.

Wind- From Y. VII the ruined watch-station known as Yār-karaul could be seen, and we reached it
eroded after a march of seven miles over ground where tamarisk-cones, and farther on reeds also, again
terraces. made their appearance. The terrace-like edge of the gravel glacis, to which the route keeps near,
is broken up near Yār-karaul into a number of bold Mesas. One of them is occupied by the ruined
post and accounts for its name. They have been carved out of the clay underlying the gravel
surface of the Sai by wind-erosion, which finds here a very effective instrument in the coarse sand
washed down from the foot-hills. The Mesas stretch from north to south, clearly showing the
prevailing wind direction. About a quarter of a mile before Yār-karaul we passed a smaller terrace
of this kind, whose walls of clay cut through or hollowed out by erosion gave it the appearance of
a ruin.

Ruined The Mesa bearing the ruined post, Y. VIII (Fig. 346; Pl. 38), rises to a height of about 50 feet
post of and on its top extends over a length of about 112 yards, with a maximum width of less than 60 yards.
Yār-karaul,
Y. VIII. The remains of the small tower or guard-room occupy approximately the centre of the flat wind-
eroded summit. Of the walls, 4 feet thick, only that facing south and containing the entrance still
stands to a height of about 10 feet. The other walls, forming with it an enclosure 19 feet square
on the outside, have been demolished to within a foot or two from the ground by treasure-seekers.
These have also burrowed into the foundations, which are made of rough blocks of clay so as to
enlarge a small natural terrace into a base. The bricks used in the masonry of the walls are of the
usual size of 15″×7–8″×3″. The clearing of a rubbish-heap below the southern wall of the ruin,
composed mostly of reed-straw and remains of fuel, yielded only the fragment of a Chinese paper
document and a few small pieces of plain silk. That the top of the Mesa was gained, in ancient
times as now, by a steep and narrow couloir from the south-west, was proved by a small layer of
refuse like the above found under the sheltering cliff about half-way up. About a dozen graves,
all opened long ago, were traceable in two groups to the south and south-east of the ruin. The
hollows marking them showed a north to south direction corresponding to the slope of the plateau.

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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

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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