Shaping the Stein collection’s Dunhuang corpus (2): the items from Cave 17’s ‘miscellaneous’ bundles

In a previous blog post , we looked at the instrumental role played by Wang Yuanlu during the selection of the items from the Cave 17. Wang, who directly chose from the small repository what to hand over to Stein for inspection, was very keen to divert his attention from the so-called ‘regular’ bundles, which were composed for the most part of Buddhist sutras in Chinese and Tibetan. During their first ever transaction, which took place between 21 May and 6 June 1907, Wang Yuanlu therefore began by handing over the ‘miscellaneous’ bundles, which he seemed to hold in low estimation. To Stein’s delight, these contained mixed and diverse materials, such as manuscripts in non-Chinese languages, illustrated scrolls, paintings, drawings, ex-votos, textiles, etc. Stein picked out any of the items that jumped at him as being particularly interesting and made sure to put them aside for ‘further examination’, the phrase that he used to refer to their removal in his transaction with Wang. This

IDP News Issue No 46

Professor Zhao Feng, Director of the National Silk Museum, showing visitors around the exhibition, 'Silks from the Silk Road: Origin, Transmission and Exchange' at the West Lake Museum. They are viewing the clothes of the Yingpan burial.
Issue no. 46 of IDP News is now available to read online. It covers the several events on Silk Road textiles organised by the China National Silk Museum, including an exhibition, an international symposium and the founding of a new research association. The opening article is one of the papers given at the symposium, on the discovery of textiles to be used for the paper-making industry near Jericho.
Download IDP News Issue 46 as a PDF (2.1MB)

Comments

  1. In the first article in IDP News 46, I was concerned to see that the two Israeli contributors are asserting that Jericho and the Qarantal Caves are in Israel. In fact, they are in Palestine (occupied West Bank). I don't think that the IDP should be providing an outlet for unjustified and highly sensitive territorial claims of this kind.

    The article also does not reveal the present location of the textiles discovered there. As the photos are "courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority", this presumably means that they have been illegally removed to Israel.

    Perhaps some clarification should appear in the next issue.

    Best wishes, Dr G.J. Roper (University of Cambridge)

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