#aurel stein

[anamon-book]

中央アジア踏査記 スタイン、沢崎順之助・訳 西域探検紀行全集 第8巻 監修＝深田久弥・江上波夫、協力＝長沢和俊 白水社

[chadlesbianjasontodd]

fragment of a wool rug or garment, patterned in stripes and wang 王 (king) characters crossed by contrasting colors. taken from the ruins of niya 尼雅 (recorded in han records as jingjue 精絕), a former oasis state near khotan in modern xinjiang. excavated in 1900 or 1901 by british archeologist aurel stein. three kingdoms era or western/eastern jin dynasty, 3rd century-4th century.

white s-plied two-ply warp, single-ply z-twist weft in yellow, blue, green, red, and rose. the green and red stripes are done in plain weave with single weft; the 王 crosses and the staggered boxes (lower left photo) are done in double weft. the crosses use discontinuous tapestry weave. the british museum notes that this textile may have been produced in india.

[lindahall]

The Diamond Sutra – Scientist of the Day

On May 11, 868 C.E, a Chinese scribe named Wang Jie published an edition of a Buddhist text known as the Diamond Sutra.

read more...

[mostly-history]

The Niya Stupa (Xinjiang, China, January 1901), with archaeologist Aurel Stein’s fox terrier Dash in the foreground.

[chadlesbianjasontodd]

fragment of a carved wooden beam from the loulan city-state (in modern day xinjiang). han dynasty, 206 bce - 220 ce. the carved scrolls resemble south and west asian styles.

loulan 樓蘭, or krorän, was an oasis city-state on the northeastern edge of the lop desert. han interactions with loulan are recorded in the book of han as beginning in 206 bce, and control over the city was contested between the han empire and the xiongnu from at least 126 bce into the second century ce, whereafter it remained under chinese control (to varying actual degree) until the city was abandoned in 330.

aurel stein, leader of the 1906-08 archeological expedition where this fragment was found, may be best known for his sizeable 1907 theft of manuscripts from the dunhuang caves, for which he was knighted by the british crown.

[mostly-history]

From Loulan, the oldest part of the Silk Road continues west, along the southern edge of the Taklamakan Desert.  Niya, the westernmost town of the ancient Shanshan kingdom, lies 600km west of Loulan.  Like that city, Niya was nce a cosmopolitan market town, where ideas, languages and religions were exchanged along with trade goods.  On an expedition to Niya, Aurel Stein discovered tatters of antique rugs, pottery jars decorated with people, animals and mythological beings, and even some furniture, including an elaborately carved armchair with lion's claw legs, that displayed Greek influences. Niya suffered a similar fate to Loulan.  The end for the oasis city arrived when the spring-fed rivers that supplied water to the region dried up or shifted course.  As the water disappeared, so did the town, which was abandoned and eventually reclaimed by the expanding Taklamakan Desert.

The Atlas of Lost Cities: Legendary Cities Rediscovered

[mostly-history]

Loulan was founded on the north-eastern edge of the Taklamakan Desert in the 2nd century BCE.  The discovery in 1908 of a female mummy, thought to be 3,800 years old, suggests that the site may have been inhabited for many more years. At its height, Loulan was the eastern gateway to the Taklamakan Desert crossing.  In 139 BCE the Chinese Emperor [Wu of Han] sent an envoy out on the Silk Road to seek an alliance with the people of what is now Uzbekistan.  Sixteen years later the envoy returned with news of the riches of the west, the new faith of Buddhism and a breed of horses that would benefit the emperor's army.  Passing through Loulan, the envoy recorded that the city had 1,570 households and 14,100 residents.  The surrounding land was sandy and salty and the people lived primarily by herding donkeys, horses and camels.  Over the next years ten caravans a year travelled through Loulan from the emperor's court to the cities of Central Asia. In the 4th century the Tarim River, which supplied water to the Loulan region, changed course.  As water became scarce, Loulan was abandoned and by the 6th century it had disappeared into the shifting desert sands.  It lay hidden until two 19th-century adventurers – Sven Hedin, a Swedish explorer and geographer, and Aurel Stein, a Hungarian-British adventurer – mounted separate expeditions to the region.

The Atlas of Lost Cities: Legendary Cities Rediscovered

[danieleneandermancini]

LA CITTA' GEMELLA DI DURA-EUROPOS, L'ANTICA GIDDAN/EDDANA, TRASCURATA DAL COLONIALISMO ARCHEOLOGICO

LA CITTA' GEMELLA DI DURA-EUROPOS, L'ANTICA GIDDAN/EDDANA, TRASCURATA DAL COLONIALISMO ARCHEOLOGICO Il sito di Dura-Europos, nell’odierna Siria, è famoso per il suo eccezionale stato di conservazione:  questa antica città ha prodotto molte grandi scoperte e funge da finestra sul mondo per i periodi ellenistico, partico e romano. Eppure, nonostante l’importanza di Dura-Europos negli studi del Vicino Oriente, c’è un’altra città, solo a pochi chilometri a valle del fiume Eufrate, che offre un’opportunità di studio a lungo trascurata. Un nuovo articolo sul...

Il sito di Dura-Europos, nell’odierna Siria, è famoso per il suo eccezionale stato di conservazione:  questa antica città ha prodotto molte grandi scoperte e funge da finestra sul mondo per i periodi ellenistico, partico e romano. Eppure, nonostante l’importanza di Dura-Europos negli studi del Vicino Oriente, c’è un’altra città, solo a pochi chilometri a valle del fiume Eufrate, che offre…

View On WordPress