On Ancient Central-Asian Tracks: Brief Narrative of Three Expeditions in Innermost Asia & Northwestern China

by Aurel Stein

Book Overview

Antiguas rutas de Asia central es un resumen de las tres expediciones que el arque logo anglo-h ngaro Aurel Stein realiz en Asia central entre 1900 y 1916. Este relato organiza e interpreta la... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0226771741
• ISBN13: 9780226771748
• Release Date: December 1974
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Length: 290 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Great introduction to Stein's expeditions

Subtitled "The archaeological discovery of the "silk route" linking the Roman Empire with Cathay", it is edited and introduced by Jeannette Mirsky. Stein, born in Budapest in 1862, was one of the first and greatest Foreign Devils on the Silk Road (to appropriate the title of Peter Hopkirk's later history of the era). Archaeologist, linguist, surveyor, geographer, student of religion, Stein made several extremely important finds, including the cache of documents in Cave 17 at Tun Huang, the world's oldest known printed document, the ruins at Niya, the Jade Gate and several others, not least, the language of the mysterious Tokharians which are still such a hot topic of controversy even a century later. Usually archaeologists take forever to publish their work, but here Stein was a great exception in quickly publishing a great number of books. This tome, originally published in 1933, was one of the later ones (Stein died in 1943). In it he details the highlights of all of his expeditions and his theories and conclusions. This makes the book a find for the reader who has enjoyed the Hopkirk book, but is perhaps put off by Stein's lengthier works. The reader is excited by the desert adventures and thrills to the drama of the archaeological finds, even if sometimes a bit horrified by the propensity to cut out paintings and haul them back to the British Museum or India, for which Stein has been strongly criticized. Eventually Stein's expeditions were stopped by Chinese authorities who had been tipped to this by an American archaeologist. But Stein was no pure treasure hunter and his tremendous scientific contributions are a great legacy for all interested in this field. A map covers all the regions of Stein's endeavors including the Hindu Kush, Pamirs, both routes through the Taklamakan Desert, ancient Lou-lan, the Lop Nor Sea, the furthest west portion of the Great Wall, Tun Huang, north of Tien Shan, Turfan, Kucha, Kashgar, the upper Oxus and Samarkand. 8 pages of monochrome plates show Tun Huang paintings, the expeditions in the desert, Niya's ruins, paintings at Miran and a clay figure from the Astana tombs.