The first-ever excavation of Dandan Oilik

Stein, Marc Aurel. Ancient Khotan. Detailed Report of Archaeological Explorations in Chinese Turkestan Carried out and Described Under the Orders of H.M. Indian Government.

€ 7.500,00

First edition of this defining archaeological text on the ancient site of Dandan Oilik (or Uiliq), a settlement built around an oasis along the Silk Road at the edge of the Taklamakan Desert, where it flourished around the sixth century but was abandoned by the eighth. The author, Sir Marc Aurel Stein (1862-1943), was an Hungarian-British archaeologist who also dabbled as an ethnographer, surveyor, geographer, and linguist. Stein completed his most important work in Central Asia, and his excavation of Dandan Oilik was both the first to be made on the site and his most important contribution to the field of archaeology.

Illustrated with over one hundred plates across two volumes, most photographic and many half-tone, recorded herein is a huge variety of finds from the Dandan Oilik excavations, including many quite rare survivals made possible by the desert environment. These include coloured wall frescoes and painted shrine panels, swatches of ancient silk and cotton, very delicate woven textiles, and manuscripts on tablets, paper, and silk. Though excavated several times following Stein and most recently surveyed in 2006, the site has not been fully excavated and remains closed to the public, making this textual record of its earliest excavation of particular importance.

Wanting one plate. Some toning and chipping throughout, with a few closed tears and folding map repaired; library markings removed from title-page. Stein's "Preliminary Report", published six years before his great two-volume study, bears the contemporary stamps of the Civil Secretariat Library, Central Provinces, Nagpur.