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

PART I.

PREHISTORIC FINDS FROM SINKIANG

1. EARLIER DISCOVERIES.

Very little is known about the prehistoric periods of Sinkiang. Sven Hedin
gave us the first hint of the existence of what may be called a stone age in the
Lop desert. In his collection of antiquities from 1900-01 there are two worked
stones. One is a core or nucleus of agate-looking stone from one side of which flakes
have been split off, the other is a flake of yellowish flint (Bergman 1935 c, Pl.
IX: 2—3). Their small size is typical of the stone age objects of Eastern Turkistan
and Mongolia which have been found by other explorers during the last three de-
cades. Judging from the form nothing can be said as to the proper age of Hedin's
two objects, and they do not originate from any definite stratum but have been pick-
ed up from the wind-eroded surface of the ground.

Stein's collection of about 450 stone artifacts from the Lop-nor region is more
representative but even here we are left in uncertainty if we want to obtain any
more precise chronological determination. They have been described and discussed
by R. A. Smith.

Stein also discovered stone implements in a couple of places among the sands of
Taklamakan south-east of Ckok-tagh in the neighbourhood of Maral-bashi (Stein
1928, p. 85). He found two cores, an arrow-head, a point, eight flakes and some
nondescript worked stones. Smith does not discuss them in his paper on Stein's
other prehistoric finds. That they should be palaeolithic as suggested by Stein is
not explained, and seems unlikely.

Pelliot purchased two jade axes at Qum-tura near Kucha; they are now in the
Musée de Saint Germain (Pelliot, p. 9). Through the kindness of the authorities
of the Museum I have obtained photographs of these axes (which proved to be three
in number). They will be discussed in connection with the Lop-nor axes.

The new material discovered during the course of Sven Hedin's Sino-Swedish
Expedition, with the exception of the finds made by Dr. P. L. Yüan and Mr.
Huang Wen-pi, will be described here. Yüan found some painted pottery north
of the Bogdo-ola range, and at Hami (mentioned by Bishop); some painted pottery
discovered by Huang at Yar-khoto is referred to in connection with my Toqsun
finds.

After the departure of the main part of our expedition from Sinkiang, Père Teil-

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