The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-11-02
IN THE TURKESIAN DESERT
TWO-THO AND-YEAR-OLD TOWN
 BURIED IN SAND.
Like tn Waves of the Sea-Buried Gardens Hundred Miles Out In the Wnste-Dr. Stein,s ExnIorationa
waste-Dr. stein's ExpIor

Like tn a Waves of the Sea-Buried
 Gardens a Hundred Miles Out in the vnste-Dr. stein's Explorations.
 Dr. M. A. Stein is returning to India this week after making a preliminary arrangement of the remarkable finds
 brought to light during his recent ex-
 petition in Chinese Turkestan. pr.
 Stein says
 "A full investigation of the sculpture, fresco painting, objects of industrial
 art and seals, etc., which were dug out
 of the temples and dwelling houses of
 sand buried sites will help us to resus-
 citate the civilization of a region which
 has played an important part in his
 tory as the link between ancient China,
 India and the classical west. Now for
 the first time have been brought to
 light some aspects of the everyday life,
 the home industries and arts of the in
 habitants of the villages and settle
 ments of Chinese Turkestan which
 were abandoned in the early centuries
 after the beginning of the Christian
 era, and have since been buried under
 moving sand dunes. As showing the
 extent to which the desert has advanc-
 ed I may say that some of the settle
 ments l excavated are situated fully a
 hundred miles beyond the edge of the
 present cultivated area. The great life
 less desert is naturally regarded with
 much superstition by the people who live in the scanty settlements along the
 desert edge, and the difficulty of car
 rying sufficient supplies and water has
 luckily kept the native treasure-seekers from visiting and exploiting the more
 distant and also more ancient ruined sites which have now been systemati- cally explored for the first time under the auspices of the Indian government.
 No doubt can be entertained that the inhabitants of these places were in possession of culture mainly deriv- ed from India, and that they were Buddhists, My excavations go to prove that their culture was highly advanced, and that the art of influence of Greece and Rome were felt even at that great distance from. the centers of classical culture. Khotan is, I should say, about half way between Pekin and western Europe. Possibly the most striking ex- cavations I made were at site in the heart of the desert north of Niya, where one settlement dwellings and shrines an area of about six miles by four. Until digging all that visible were weird looking dows of bleached timber pieces projecting in various places like the framewor kof a wrecked ship from between the sand dunes. Even with all the interesting work at hand the utter desolation of the place made itself felt most keenly during a prolonged stay and the uncanny surroundings affected my people.
 "Of special interest were the refuse heaps which we unearthed near some ruined houses, once apparently tenant ed by village of1icial-kinds of waste paper baskets, containing hundreds # documents, beautifully written OH wooden tablets, and carefully tied and sealed. Owing to the preservative na- .ure of the sand many of these were in splendid condition-the ink as black | md the seals and strings as perfect as f they were only few weeks old. As hese documents are in a known Indian script, their decipherment can be ex- | ,ected to reveal in a fascinating man Ter of the details of the ancient vil- age life. But it will be task requlr- 1 ng years of close study, as in India tself the materials available of this ,arly script have so far been very canty. At sites less ancient we also [ ound paper documents in Sanskrit, ,hinese, and also Thfbetan manuscripts. n none of the excavations did I find
 oI, oto f the sand-buried houses were brought 0 light carefully planned little gardens, with avenues of trees, fenced lanes, or hards, and so forth. It was truly as- onishing on clearing away the sand to nd under the shrivelled hedges heaps f dried leaves, just as they had fallen I ages gone by. The gardens were 1uch the same in character, as those till to be found in Turkestan to-day. he trees were mostly poplars and each, mulberry, and apricot trees
 here is no evidence that these places -ere abandoned owing to any sudden catastrophe, but their gradual desertion 'as evidently due to the impossibility f continued irrigation, caused by the dvance of the sand.
 While articles of real value were, lerefore, removed by their possessors,
 e found in the dwelling places many ousehold implements of small value, i lch as pitchforks, mouse-traps, boots, hairs, shoemakers' lasts, etc. In the lined temples we found a sort of un- ltentional exhibition of the fabrics of ,ese remote ages-for in front of some . the idols were heaps of torn shreds ' eaborately worked silks and other 1 lbrics, which had been deposited as olive offerings. Tn one temple 1t was lrious to note an instance of where a. l lgrim, anxious apparently to propi- ate as many deities as possible, had ( 'rn into portions Tibetan manuscript { hich he had divided among the vari- C IS idols. These fragments are now ice more united under glass panes z any colossal statues in stucco were q nearthed from the monasteries and l mples One of the latter contained in s cloisters over hundred statues, all , ger life size. While as many as pos 2 ble of these were cleared for the pur- 2 ,se of taking photographs, only few uld be rescued, as when the protect 2 sand was removed the great stuc- 4 ,es threatened to collapse owing to l p eir inner wooden work having routed | way. However, interesting portions of |, em were successfully brought away ' n S showing how the customs of to-day M
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