Or.8211/524

Description

Scope and content : Belongs in groups with Or.8211/525-534, all the same original size, on bamboo and in same hand. All, apart from this one, have the Stein site feature identification as T.XV.a.ii. - this has T.XV.a.iii. - but assumed to be a mistake as there is no other no. 42 from T.XV.a.ii. in the collection but there is another item 42 from T.xv.a.iii. Slip Or.8211/524 and Or.8211/526 contain medical prescriptions and were found in a military station north of Dunhuang in the Gobi desert along the Silk Road. They are written on bamboo which, although commonly used in Central China, was not locally available on this western border and so is rarely seen. It must have been carried in, probably from southwest China. One prescription is to treat 'a persistent cough, nausea in the chest, aching joints and long-standing constipation' and contains pepper, ginger and cinnamon. Some of the prescriptions are for horses, includinh those that are wounded or suffering from the heat.