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

finally a wooden spindle whorl, or maybe more correctly the
whorl of a fire-drill, Pl. 32: 3. The comb, which has been partly
reconstructed in Fig. 49, has had the shorter teeth secured in a
lost transverse piece (of tendon?) and the long outer teeth have
been tied to the sides with strings running in the marked notches
on the upper part. If this reconstruction is correct it shows a
certain likeness with the Lop-nor comb Pl. 9: 1.

*Grave 7* was situated by the side of Grave 6. The construction was in conformity
with the other one but the roof was made of reed bundles wound round with two
cords. The pit contained one skeleton and a clay pot of the same kind as several
purchased in Charchan and stated to originate from Kohna-shahr. The people were
not quite certain if the cup Pl. 35: 6 or 35: 7 was found in this grave.

Both of these graves seem to have been more or less plundered on some former
occasion. In the earth around the dug out graves I found a small carved peg with
a row of holes (K. 13345: 6) having quite withered wood.

The other graves were destroyed by treasure-seekers long ago, and so was an-
other group of five or six graves a little farther to the west.

On the surrounding ground we did not notice any fragments of pottery, other-
wise so common in Kohna-shahr proper. This burial place was apparently situated
outside the old town.

As the funeral deposits are very poor the dating of these graves is somewhat
hazardous. It is quite clear that they are of a pre-Mussulman age, and that they
belong to people that inhabited Charchan before Marco Polo passed here. It is not
quite out of the question that Graves 6 and 7 belong to the Lou-lan period, as the
construction of these graves reminds us of some of the Lop-nor graves, but the
sepulchral furniture is too insignificant to allow of any proper distinction.


B. 'TATI' FINDS.

*Pottery.*

From the historical data regarding Charchan, as seen from the brief extract
given above, we do not reach further back than the time of the Han dynasty, when
the oasis was known as Chü-mo. There is nothing to contradict the supposition that
Charchan was inhabited long before that, possibly already in prehistoric times. The
finds furnishing the proofs, however, have been wanting. With the acquisition of
the beautiful earthenware vase shown in Pl. 1 we have apparently acquired an ob-
ject antedating the Han dynasty, cf. p. 18 f. Its general features places it among the
chalcolithic pottery, possibly of the second millenium B. C. A few plain potsherds
may also be prehistoric. (K. 13342: 28, 30—31, 52—53).

208