File:Ruins of desert Cathay - personal narrative of explorations in Central Asia and westernmost China (1912) (14760165826).jpg

Identifier: ruinsofdesertcat01stei (find matches)
Title: Ruins of desert Cathay : personal narrative of explorations in Central Asia and westernmost China
Year: 1912 (1910s)
Authors: Stein, Aurel, Sir, 1862-1943 Archaeological Survey of India
Subjects:
Publisher: London : Macmillan
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

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of the ruins had yielded. I wondered when the time would come for having the strings cut which still fastened them as securely as when they were first sealed down. It was strange to find myself the de facto possessor of Sojaka's deeds probably referring to lands and other real property. True enough, they had all lain buried for centuries under the silent dunes or those sombre sand-cones covered with tangled tamarisk scrub dead or dying. Yet so fond had I become of this great dead waste, fascinating and peaceful, that I should have felt sorely tempted to assert legal claims to any part of it, had there been but an Amban ready to read 'my' deeds and recognize their validity ! The circumstances in which these documents had come to be buried were, as I recognized from the first, deserving of the closest consideration ; for it was evident that they might throw light on the important question as to how this settlement was deserted. The care which had been taken to hide the deposit and at the same time to mark its

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94. KHAROSHTHI DOCUMENT ON RECTANGULAR DOUBLE TABLET, FROM HIDDEN ARCHIVE IN N. XXIV.
Scale, one-half.
a. Double-tablet fastened and sealed, b. Obverse of under-tablet. c. Reverse of covering tablet.

CH. XXIV DEPOSIT OF DEEDS 285

position — for that, no doubt, was the purpose of the clay lump, as Rustam had guessed when he started his burrowing — plainly showed that the owner, Cojhbo Sojaka, in all probability, or his heir, had been obliged to leave the place in an emergency, but with a hope of returning. The absence of any provision for a covering or receptacle to protect these valued records while buried clearly suggested hurried departure, an indication with which the scattered condition of the other files of tablets left above the floor close by well agreed. In any case it seemed difficult to account otherwise for such a cache and the method of marking its place. If the hole below the foundation beam had been used regularly as a sort of safe, some receptacle would have been provided,and it would scarcely

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