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

the same material. Among this brushwood we found the skull of a sheep. In the
bottom of the coffin four stout legs were inserted, giving it a curious appearance,
but in this way the coffin was made to stand firm. The inside of it measured well
2 m. in length.

A pole nearly 2 m. long probably stood as a funeral mark or monument on the
grave.

The corpse was now lying outside its proper resting place, Pl. XI a. This must
be the work of plunderers, probably Ördek. It was the most marvellously preserved
mummy I ever saw in the Lop desert, and therefore did not seem to have been ex-
posed very long to the destructive elements of the atmosphere. It was that of an
elderly, stately gentleman with a small white beard, a thin moustache and white
hair. The face was long and narrow with a very firm, broad, square chin, big, well-
preserved teeth, and a high nose. The nostrils were shut with a pair of "stoppers"
of wool wound with red silk, Pl. 25: 9—10. These were probably placed there to
prevent effusion.¹

The parched skin of the mummy was of uniform, yellow-brown colour resembling
very dark sunburn, and preserved all over the body, Pl. XI b.

The feet were enclosed in low boots of red leather and of the same cut as those
from Cemetery 5 and Grave 36.

Only some rags remained of the dress, a long gown of thin, undyed silk in plain
weave, which had an edging of strawberry-coloured silk, 5—6 cm. wide. Since the
dressing remains this silk stuff gives the impression of being some kind of gauze.
There are some fragments of a belt made of the same material as the gown; on Pl.
XI b it is seen knotted round the waist. The strip 7. A: 4 is of cotton material, i. e.
probably of Indian origin. Tied on to it is a narrow strip of red silk, figured in batik
with small lozenges. This technique is originally Indian. (Cf. Stein 1928, Ast. VI.
1.02).

The most interesting part of the dress is the collar, sewn together from seven
pieces of four different kinds of polychrome silks with bold designs and wonder-
fully bright colours, Pl. 18: 1. I do not intend to anticipate Miss Sylwan's treat-
ment of this highly suggestive and important piece of textile work, which, for the
discussion of the relation between East and West in the textile art is of outstanding
significance. For the description I refer to the list below, written by Miss Sylwan.
From a study of the weaving technique she has discovered the remarkable circum-
stance that the patches a and d (Fig. 20) are of Western, but the pieces e and f of
Chinese manufacture (f is a loose piece not marked on Fig. 20). Stylistically the