Ancient Khotan : vol.1 / 530 ページ（白黒高解像度画像）

0530	Ancient Khotan : vol.1
古代コータン : vol.1

route by
Keriya
river.

opening up a route to the Tārīm along the Keriya river ¹¹. Dr. Hedin's journey in 1896 has
since proved that the Amban's belief in the possibility of traversing the sands between the
present end of the river course and Tārīm without serious difficulty was well founded. On the
line followed by the Swedish explorer, which must correspond approximately to the old extension
of the river-bed, patches of vegetation and relatively near subsoil water are to be found con-
stantly down to the southernmost branch of the Tārīm ¹². There is good reason to believe
that the opening of this route, by the digging of wells and the establishment of small posts,
would prove no very formidable task even for the present administration.

Importance
of route to
Kuchā.

A glance at the map shows that the route along the extant course of the Keriya river
and its old extension towards the Tārīm forms the most direct line of communication between
the whole Khotan region and the ancient territory of Kuchā, and the other oases further to
the north-east ¹³. That close relations existed politically between Kuchā and the Khotan
kingdom, its immediate neighbour to the south, is attested by the fact that the submission of
Khotan to Chinese supremacy in 648 A. D. is described in the T'ang Annals as the direct result
of the conquest of Kuchā ¹⁴. It is equally certain that the cultural affinities between the two
states, the frontiers of which adjoined in the desert, must have been great ¹⁵. The importance
of using the nearest route for communication must have been felt more than ever after the
administrative head quarters of the Protectorate of An-hsī, controlling 'the Four Garrisons', and
thus also Khotan, had first been established at Kuchā in 648 or 649 A.D.¹⁶

Kara-dong,
a station on
Keriya
river route.

On the grounds here indicated I think we can safely assume that there lay in early times
along the banks of the Keriya Daryā a route regularly followed by traffic, just as that along
the Khotan Daryā is at present. Kara-dong lies about halfway between the Tārīm and the
main oasis of Khotan, and a small station established here would have conveniently served the
double object of affording a safe resting-place to caravans, and of watching the route for customs
or police purposes. A small settlement, with a Bāzār, &c., might well have existed by the side
of such a post, just as found by the side of many a 'Langar' on modern caravan routes of
Eastern Turkestān, and this is all that the traceable remains indicate. The natives may, indeed,
call the remains a kōne-shahr, using the term which is applied throughout the country to old
remains of any kind, even the smallest. But to talk of an 'ancient city' here would imply
more imagination than a critical student need care to take credit for.

Period of
abandon-
ment.

There is no direct evidence to indicate the exact age of the ruined quadrangle or the date
when it was abandoned. But from the fact that among the coins picked up there were no
T'ang pieces, it appears probable that the site was deserted earlier than, e.g., Dandān-Uiliq,
where coins of the K'ai-yüan period (713–741 A.D.) and of later T'ang issues were common.
On the other hand, the pieces, without legend or bearing the characters wu-chu, which Kara-
dong yielded all show marks of long circulation, like those found at Endere. The finding of

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