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0264 On Ancient Central-Asian Tracks : vol.1
中央アジア踏査記 : vol.1
On Ancient Central-Asian Tracks : vol.1 / 264 ページ(カラー画像)

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doi: 10.20676/00000214
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Kuruk-darya and still marked by trunks of wild poplars
and tamarisks dead for centuries. Then we came upon the
ruins of a small walled *castrum* which, as close examination
showed, had served as an advanced *point d'appui* for Chinese
missions and troops where they first reached habitable Lou-
lan territory from the side of Tun-huang. Its walls, built
with alternate layers of carefully secured reed fascines and
stamped clay, and remarkably well preserved after two
thousand years' exposure, showed such close agreement in
all constructive details with the westernmost extension of
the ancient Han border wall in the desert of Tun-huang
that there could be no doubt about its dating, just as this
does, from the first military advance of the Chinese into the
Tarim basin. It represented the western bridge-head, as it
were, of the route by which that advance was made possible.
The walls of the *castrum*, constructed with the same
technical skill as on the ancient Tun-huang *Limes*, had with-
stood well the attacks of that most formidable enemy in
this region, wind erosion. Its destructive force, at work for
two thousand years, had not succeeded in seriously breach-
ing these massive walls. But inside the circumvallation the
force of the wind had wrought terrible havoc, scooping out
hollows down to twenty feet and more below the ground
level. However, in a refuse-heap sheltered by the north wall,
dated Chinese records survived, belonging like most of
those found at the Lou-lan station to the period preceding
the final abandonment of the route, soon after the end of
the third century A.D.
Beyond this large fortified station other remains were
traced. Of special interest was a small ruined fort discovered
some three miles to the north-east on the top of a precipit-