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

the highlands streams are ever and anon accelerated by mountain uplift and their
valleys changed so fast that with them some topography, once inhabited, exists no
more; while the plains, where habitable because of river water, must with that
water receive its sediments, so that with them the horizons of antiquity lie buried.

Such are the problems to be faced in exploration for the oases of antiquity
and interpretation of what remains of their culture depositions. And although
so little of what once has been can still be found, there seem great chances in what
is left, especially when one year's exploration has revealed thus much of the remote
past.

If the caves of Central Asia were occupied by early man as in Europe, still
more ancient records may be looked for in them.

THE ANCIENT ALAI VALLEY ROUTE FROM BACTRA TO KASHGAR.

After communication was established between oases, trade routes and their
intersections must have had an influence so important that it becomes necessary
to find out all we can about them. As a contribution, I may be able to give new
light on one of the ancient ways between Bactria and China. This will be purely
objective evidence from observations on a journey over that route from Hissar
to Kashgar.

OBJECTIVE CRITERIA OF ANCIENT LONG-USED ROUTES.

The question arises, how is it to be decided which of several routes was the
important one? Must it remain a purely theoretical discussion, based on maps,
traditions and writings, or are there objective criteria by which the traveler may
recognize an ancient, long-used route of trade? There is reason to believe that
all important trails of antiquity were, where crossing mountains, well-engineered
with bridges and embankments, long rock-cuttings in cliffs and declivities, and
carefully drained fillings where intersected by gulches. We should expect that
steep ascents were, if possible, avoided by zigzagging grades and otherwise eased
by long flights of steps hewn in the rock, while certain passes and defiles as well
as stopping-places were fortified. Moreover, any trail long used must have worn
deep into loess steppes where they were crossed, and even into bare rock. Of
all this there should remain a recognizable trace. It is hard for Nature to obliterate
long trenches worn in her loess plateaus, and harder still to wear away hoof-worn
paths in rock and long cuts hewn midway up high cliffs. Where crossing aggrading
plains and deserts of sand, there would be no marks except for caravansaries or
fortresses, clay structures that fast crumble to low mounds and are soon buried
in drifting dunes or obliterated by the growth of plains. Fortunately the nature
of Central Asia has been such that few important routes could have been wholly
on aggrading ground or drifting dunes.

THE CONTROLLING FACTORS OF TRADE ROUTES.

Trade routes are determined by three controlling factors, (1) needs of trade,
(2) natural conditions, and (3) attitude of intervening peoples; and not only
were they determined by these three factors but they also depended on them