Ancient Khotan : vol.1 / 455 ページ（白黒高解像度画像）

0455	Ancient Khotan : vol.1
古代コータン : vol.1

scant prospect of interesting results. A change in the arrangements already made for the
morrow's start eastward would have implied fresh hardship to the men, exhausted by close on
three weeks' continuous labour, and to the camels, equally hard-worked in the transport of our
supplies of ice and water. Hence I decided to leave those structures unopened.

On their tramps between camp and the various ruins the men, always on the look-out for
'treasure', had occasion to pick up from the sand or eroded loess ground a variety of small
objects in metal, stone, or other hard substance, which under my standing orders were shown
to me, and acquired for suitable compensation when of any antiquarian value. Many of the
miscellaneous relics thus obtained (all marked with N. oo and entered at the end of the
descriptive list) have been reproduced in Plate LXXIV, some also in Plates IL and L; and
it will be convenient briefly to note here those of special interest. Among metal objects the
fragments of circular mirrors cast in bronze, apparently of Chinese make (N. 009, 12. f, g, h,
see Plate LXXIV) are conspicuous. The obverse bore in each case ornamentation in bold
relief. The only object in gold is the small ornament N. 0017 (Plate LXXIV), which may
have formed part of a pendant or earring. It is made of thin gold-plate filled with lac or wax,
and has small jewels of pebble or glass set at one end. Of bronze rings we have several
bearing devices cut into the metal and still recognizable, such as N. 0014. f (Plate LXXIV),
and N. 0014. g, 15, 16 (Plate IL). With the exception of the well-preserved signet-ring
(N. 0015), which shows a lion with a bird clinging to his breast, the devices are very crude,
consisting of a few strokes only. The square bronze seal N. 0011. b (Plate L) is decorated
with a geometrical design closely resembling those on some seals acquired from the Ak-sipil
site. The two bronze arrowheads, N. 005, 14. c (Plate LXXIV), are of superior workmanship,
and still show the arrangement by which they were secured to the shaft. Owing to oxidization few
of the small iron objects found still retained recognizable shape, one of these being the buckle
N. 008 (Plate LXXIV). Beads in pebble, glass, shell, and pottery were picked up plentifully, see
N. 0014. d, 20. a, 21. b in Plate LXXIV. Among them a number of small gilt glass beads
(N. 0020. a) were found at one spot near N. ix, and had evidently once formed a string.
Glass was used also for seals, as shown by N. 006 (Plate L). The fragment of good white
glass, N. 0019 (Plate LXXIV) was apparently the foot of a vessel. Whereas the glass objects
may be supposed to have come from the West, it is more difficult to determine the origin of
the pyramidal seal with scroll design N. 0018 (Plate L), and the Amalaka-shaped bead N. 005. b
(Plate LXXIV), both made in a hard ceramic substance, green or blue, which resembles porcelain,
but is correctly described as a kind of frit or celadon. According to information kindly supplied
by Mr. C. Read, of the British Museum, its manufacture was known from a very early period
not only in China, but also in some parts of Western Asia. Beads of exactly similar shape are
found also among Roman work.

None of the small objects thus picked up can be ascribed to a date appreciably later than
that which, as ascertained above, saw the final abandonment of the site. But it is well to bear
in mind that there is no chronological limit in the opposite direction determined by equally
clear evidence. Objects which may have got lost and hidden in the soft loess ground during
widely different periods would be found lying side by side after the strata containing them had
been successively eroded. The importance of this observation becomes evident when we remember
that ground unprotected by buildings can be proved to have undergone erosion to a depth of
15 to 25 ft. below the ground-level as it existed about the last quarter of the third century A. D.
The worked flint flake (N. 003) probably of Neolithic make, picked up on the eroded ground
immediately to the south of my first camp (C. 93) supplies tangible proof of the need of such

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