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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ed ground made it easy for me earlynext morning to attack the ancient structure with anadequate posse of labourers and without any worries abouttheir commissariat and water-supply. Within a few hourswe laid bare what proved to be the north wall of a templecella, sixty-four feet long, adjoined by a passage which must,as in the case of the Dandan-oilik shrines, have extendedall round the four sides of the cella. All along the wallsof this passage the finds of small terra-cotta relievos wereplentiful, and the deeper they lay buried the more frequentwere the remains of the original gilding. Of the largersculptures and of the frescoed plaster surfaces of the walls,which in all probability adorned the enclosing passage,only the scantiest indications remained in the debris cover-ing the original floor to a height of about two and a halffeet. The friable clay of which they were made hadevidently crumbled away just as in the strata of Yotkan. But the careful examination of that debris revealed
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76. REMAINS OF STUCCO RELIEVOS FROM WALL DECORATION OF VARIOUSBUDDHIST RUINS NEAR KHOTAN. Scale, three-tenths. 1, 3. Figures of flying Gandharvis, trom Khadalik. 2. Head and breast of haloed Buddha, from Ak-terek.4, 7. Applique figures of Buddha seated within halo and lotus, from Khadalik and Ak-terek respectively. 5, 8.Figures of standing Buddha in protecting pose, from Khadalik and Kara-sai respectively. 6. Figure ofdivine attendant in act of worship, from Khadalik. cH.xix BURNING OF STUCCO RELIEVOS 231 that this complete decay had been greatly aided by adestructive factor of another kind. The general reddishcolour of the clay in debris and wall remnants alike, thediscovery of small fragments of completely charred wood,and a number of other indications I cannot here set forthin detail made it clear that the shrine had first suffered bya great conflagration. The heat produced by it hadsufficed to give a terra-cotta-like colour and consistency tothe smaller appliqud relievos of the wa

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