1928,1022.106

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Astana is a large cemetery site near Turfan. Some of the tombs (shown on the site plan) were excavated by Stein and excavations continue up to the present day at this site. <BR>[Stein 1928 pp.642-4]<br> 'On January 18th I moved my camp from Murtuk back to our base at Kara-khoja, leaving Naik Shamsuddm behind to complete the work connected with the removal of frescoes. On the following morning we started exploration at the cemeteries of ancient Kao-ch'ang. I had purposely left this work for the latter part of my stay in the Turfan district, as there was reason to think that this kind of archaeological exploration, when carried out in the close vicinity of a populous oasis containing many Chinese, might very conveniently be utilized at Urumchi as a pretext for reviving obstructive tactics against my operations in general. Earlier reconnaissances had shown me that the tombs around Kosh-gumbaz already noticed, and most of those to be found in small groups on the gravel glacis about a mile to the north-east of the walled enclosure known as 'Bedaulat's town' (Fig. 321), had been recently opened and searched. But apart from these there was a large area covered with ancient cemeteries on the Sai north of the village of Astana and about two and a half miles from the north-western corner of Idikut-shahri. Here, too, many of the tombs had during the last five years or so been excavated and searched for antiques, both by Mr. Tachibana and local purveyors of antiques, among whom Muhammad 'Jisa', the victim of Ahmad Mullah's emeute, was said to have been the most active. But the very persistence of these operations and the great extent of the burial-grounds seemed to justify the hope that opportunity might still be found here for fruitful work on systematic lines.<br> As appears from the sketch-plan (PI. 31), this area stretches for nearly a mile and a half from east to west with a maximum width of about three-quarters of a mile. It lies almost entirely to the north of the canal that carries water from the Kara-khoja stream to the westernmost portion of Astana cultivation, and passes within 300-400 yards of the village quarters clustering round the conspicuous ruined pile of Taizan. The easternmost extension of this area approaches within three-quarters of a mile of the northern extremity of Kara-khoja. To the west a shallow overflow bed, coming from Sengim-aghiz and bordered by a belt of sandy ground covered with thin scrub, forms the limit beyond which only a few scattered grave-mounds are traceable. The distribution of burial-places over this large expanse is, as the plan shows, very irregular. The rectangular enclosures, each containing a series of tombs more or less aligned, lie closest together in the south-eastern portion. Farther to the north the little mounds marking the position of individual tombs, whether detached or in small groups, are widely scattered without any discernible order.<br> A first survey of this area sufficed to show me that the surface indications presented by these cemeteries closely resembled those I had observed in the spring of 1907 at the burial-grounds near the south-western edge of the Tun-huang oasis and on the gravel Sai that I crossed before reaching Nan-hu.I. Here, too, there were rectangular court-like enclosures marked by low gravel mounds, rising only a few feet above the flat ground. These enclosures invariably showed an entrance on side. This entrance, however, was not indicated by short walls symbolizing a gate as at Tun-huang and Nan-hu. The line of raised gravel was merely broken in the middle of that side, and its ends on either hand carried outwards for a short distance, varying more or less in proportion the size of the enclosures. These themselves varied greatly in dimension, from a square of 150 yards down to others scarcely more than 10 yards square. The enclosures were always rectangular, those of oblong shape prevailing. No definite proportion was traceable between the size of individual enclosures and the number of tombs within them. Nor was there a fixed bearing for the entrance, though the sides were in most cases roughly orientated.<br> Within each enclosure low mounds of modest size and rarely over 5 to 6 feet in height served to mark the position of the tomb chamber, which was cut in the hard clay soil beneath them. These tumuli were constructed of gravel with intervening layers of thorny scrub, and the larger ones were often decked with rough stones. They were generally much dilapidated, but appeared usually to have had the shape of a truncated pyramid resting on a square base. The orientation of individual tumuli seemed always to correspond to that of the enclosures, where these existed. But their grouping within these was by no means uniformly regular. Subsequent observations showed that the larger mounds, up to 30 feet square, were generally found to lie over tombs whose chambers were more elaborately arranged. From the middle of that side of the mound which faced the front of the enclosure as marked by the entrance, there always extended originally a low handle-like mound of gravel, sometimes bordered with rough stones, running at right angles towards that side. This mound marked the position of the deep-cut narrow trench which formed the approach to the sepulchral chamber. As almost all the trenches had been dug up and the tombs searched and plundered at one time or another, little remained of these 'handles' beyond that portion lying close to the tumulus where the trench ended in a short tunnel-like passage giving access to the tomb chamber or its anteroom. With the surface remains of the Astana cemetery area, I may here also mention a large tower-like ruin, badly decayed and much burrowed into by 'treasure-seekers'. It rises not far from the above-mentioned canal and near the middle of the area where tombs are few and scattered. It is built partly of stamped clay and partly of rough lumps of clay, and contains some small half-underground rooms which, of course, had been cleared out long ago.<br> Before I proceed to describe the results of the work which kept us busy for a fortnight at this great cemetery of Astana, it will be convenient to record briefly what I ascertained at the outset, from local information and ocular evidence, as to the ravages that its tombs had undergone during comparatively recent periods. It was easy to realize from the condition in which the passages of approach to the tombs were found that most, if not all, of the latter had at one time or another been opened and searched, whether for valuables or in later years for antiques. Instead of the lines of embanked gravel and stones that covered these narrow trenches after they had been originally filled in on completion of the burials in the tomb chambers, the surface showed furrow-like depressions, sometimes just perceptible to the eye, sometimes well marked. They contained that fine drift-sand which the strong north-westerly winds prevailing through spring and summer sweep in masses across the Turfan basin and which quickly accumulates in any excavation or similarly sheltered place. Where the walls of the passages cut into the hard ground were still partly exposed, the excavation had evidently been of very recent date. Local opinion in Astana and Kara-khoja was uniformly to the effect that all the tombs, or at least their vast majority, had been plundered by Tungans during the times of the last great Muhammadan rising and Yaqub Beg's regime, mainly in search of valuables deposited with the dead. But, as our investigations soon showed, the wood of the solid old coffins must also have been prized as a very useful by-product. It apparently compensated for the labour involved in these operations, even where these yielded no profit in the way of precious metals, &c.; for trees are very scarce in the oases, cattle-dung also, and fuel accordingly at a high price.<br> The desire of the villagers to ascribe the wholesale opening of these tombs to the truculent Tungans was probably prompted by the knowledge that, until the recent revolution with its subversive consequences, the local Mandarins would have effectively checked any open disturbance of the dead, if only from regard for the feelings of the numerous Chinese traders and cultivators settled in the Turfan oases. Yet there was reason to believe that the gentle native 'Chantos' of the neighbouring villages had not been altogether averse to taking their share in the spoliation of these tombs, whether openly during the troublesome times of the Muhammadan rebellion or clandestinely later on, when, to their great relief, peace and order had been re-established under Chinese rule. Conclusive testimony on this point was supplied by 'Mashik', the local tomb expert, whom the obliging Darogha of Astana had brought me to serve as guide, along with our first contingent of diggers. I was only too glad to employ this intelligent fellow as their foreman; for through long practice in this macabre line of business he not only possessed an uncanny familiarity with all that appertained to these abodes of the dead, their personal outfit, &c., but also a remarkably accurate knowledge as to which tombs had been searched recently for antiques and which had remained untouched but for the unsophisticated exploitation attributed to the Tungans. Considering the very large number of tombs and the importance of economizing time, this knowledge was of obvious value to us and fully worth the rewards which secured that it should be honestly applied.<br> Mashik stated that he had been initiated into this business by his father, who had died at a great age some twenty years before. Others remembered hearing the old man talk of his tomb experiences during Tungan times and later on in the days when the digging had to be done more or less secretly at night. Mashik himself claimed that he had opened more than a hundred tombs during the last four or five years, when the C

Short description : Astana: a large cemetery site near Turfan.