Identifier: ruinsofdesertcat01stei 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 View Book Page: Book Viewer About This Book: Catalog Entry View All Images: All Images From Book Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book. Text Appearing Before Image: 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 Text Appearing After Image: 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 Note About Images Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original work.