On Ancient Central Asian Tracks [Paperback]

Aurel Stein (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 252 pages
• Publisher: South Asia Books (May 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 8173031088
• ISBN-13: 978-8173031083
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,010,138 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great introduction to Stein's expeditions, August 23, 2001

By 

P. Cornelius "pcornelius" (Mountain View, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: On Ancient Central Asian Tracks (Paperback)

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.

5.0 out of 5 stars Stein's Explorations in Central Asia in Early 20th Century, January 6, 2012

By 

S. Pactor "reader" (San Diego, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: On Ancient Central Asian Tracks (Paperback)

I'm kind of obsessed with the area people call "THE CHINESE FAR WEST" AKA the Xinjiang Province. The primary geographic features are a) an enormous desert b) Tibetan mountains to the South c) Himalayas to the West. The primary non-physical characteristics of this region is the contrast between it's central role in world history in the past, vs. it's current isolation today. When you are assessing an out of the way region, that contrast between past glory/present squalor is an important indicator of potential interest.

The Xinjiang province has been Chinese controlled since the early Middle Ages, with spells of Iranian/Muslim, Turkish/Uigar and prior Indo European linguistic groups controlling the area back to the pre-historic period. (700 B.C- 200 B.C.) Chinese Far West was also a solid convert to Buddhism between about 100 AD and 700 AD. The early conversion and ultra-dry/abandoned landscape made for a perfect to place to maintain early writing in Sanskrit and a variety of Iranian and Indo European languages.

The primary history useful for understanding this region is Chinese history. Xinjiang represents what you would call a "colonized area." Because of the time frame involved- roughly the era between the Roman and Arab Muslim Empires, the flavor of the narrative is decidedly classical, with sweeping armies and complicated logistics. These is a sense in which the Chinese appearance in the region represents "the beginning of the end" in the same way that the appearance of Spanish conquistadors in Central America led inexorably to the extinction of Native tribes in Canada.

From a world-historical perspective, the region probably reached it's apogee under the Pax Mongoliana created by Genghis Khan and his successors. This region was also subject to the Hunnic invasion that caught Europe at a later date- and it's interesting to note that the 4th Century AD- a time when many Iranian influences (Zoratstrianism, for example) may have been introduced into places like Southern France and Bosnia- there were likely light skinned, blue eyed white people who spoke a variety of languages and familiar with Zoroastrian and Buddhist beliefs, serving as part of the Hunnic army- people who likely settled in these regions.

Stern describes expeditions he took in Eastern Central Asia in the first decadeish of the 20th century. He road both a four volume and one volume version of his travels, which is probably the first Archaeological/Anthropological treatment of this region in English. This is a region that until the last decade was split between the USSR and China, and which is now split between a couple of highly repressive dictatorships (Kyrghyzstan and Tajikistan) so we're not talking about a lot of archaeological/anthropology/ historical research getting been between the time of this book being written and today.

The Pre-Chinese history of this region continues to be a political hot-potato due to ethnic tensions between the "locals" in Xinjiang province- essentially Turkish language speaking Muslims of the Uighur ethnic group, and the ruling Han Chinese.

So here is what I'm proposing: Driving from Urumqi in Xinjiang province (where they have a NEW SHERATON!) to Lhasa Tibet- where they have a St. Regis. Flying out of Tibet to Thailand for a little R&R- then home. A 1600 mile jaunt to the roof of the world. Actually- it sounds terrifying.