File:Ruins of desert Cathay - personal narrative of explorations in Central Asia and westernmost China (1912) (14780058441).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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CH. XL FRESCOES OF CHERUBIM 459 fourth subsequently unearthed, showed the same neat andclerical handwriting which is found on the leather docu-ments excavated by me at the Niya site ; and as thesebelong to the latter half of the third century a.d., theconclusion seems justified that the deposition of thesevotive offerings must have taken place here about thesame period. The writing on the silk had remained re-markably fresh and black even without a protecting cover,such as folding provided, in the case of the leather docu-ments or wooden envelopes in that of the Kharoshthitablets. Hence it appeared very unlikely that the gift ofthe inscribed streamer could have preceded the abandon-ment of the shrine by any great length of time. And fromthis, again, the assumption would follow with good reasonthat Miran, like the sites of Niya, Endere, and north ofLop-nor, must have been deserted about or soon after theclose of the third century a.d. For its subsequent re-occupation during Tibetan pre

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