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

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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 ...
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Free Public Lecture: Mapping the Silk Road

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Friday 1 November, 18.30–20.00
The British Library Conference Centre
Free entry
ONLINE BOOKING | MAP

Just over forty years ago, the World Heritage Convention was conceived to protect sites of 'outstanding universal value' to humanity. Today, almost a thousand sites are World Heritage listed and millions of people travel each year to experience these unique cultural and natural assets. In recent years a team of experts at UNESCO, ICOMOS, the State Parties, and University College London (UCL) have conducted research into the Silk Road's sites and routes as part of the Silk Roads World Heritage Serial and Transnational Nomination in Central Asia project. Their thematic study explored the problems of mapping the diverse routes and sites of the Silk Road, with their wide geographic and chronological expanse and considered the development of a 'corridor' based approach to identifying areas and sites to be included in the nomination strategy.

Tim Williams, archaeologist at University College London (UCL) and leader of the UCL Ancient Merv Project, has been working on this project for several years. In this illustrated lecture, he will discuss the considerable challenges of mapping the the Silk Roads and their sites.

This lecture marks the start of IDP's 20th anniversary celebrations. Further events will be announced here and and on the IDP home page.

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