ISSN 2152-7237 (print)
ISSN 2153-2060 (online)
The
Silk Road
Volume 13
2015
Contents
In Memoriam: Khaled al-Asaad, 1932-2015 ............................................................................................ [v]
Safe Journey! A Very Short History of Shoes from Korean Tombs
by Youngsook Pak ...............................................................................................................
1
The Emergence of Light: A Re-interpretation of the Painting of Mani’s Birth
in a Japanese Collection
by Wang Yuanyuan 王媛媛 ............................................................................................... 17
When Herakles Followed the Buddha: Power, Protection and Patronage in Gandharan Art
by Jonathan Homrighausen .............................................................................................. 26
Ancient Iranian Decorative Textiles: New Evidence from Archaeological Investigations
and Private Collections
by Matteo Compareti ......................................................................................................... 36
Nomads and Oasis Cities: Central Asia from the 9th to the 13th Century
by Xinru Liu ........................................................................................................................ 45
Maes Titianus, Ptolemy, and the “Stone Tower” on the Great Silk Road
by Igor’ Vasil’evich P’iankov ............................................................................................ 60
The Location of Ptolemy’s Stone Tower: the Case for Sulaiman-Too in Osh
by Riaz Dean ....................................................................................................................... 75
The Test Excavation of the Nanhai No. 1 Shipwreck in 2011: a Detail Leading to the Whole
by Xu Yongjie 许永杰 .......................................................................................................... 84
The Archaeological Assessment of Pajadagh Fortress (Qal’a-e Tashvir), Tashvir Village,
Tarom County, Zanjan Province
by Ali Nourallahi ............................................................................................................... 88
Khermen Denzh Town in Mongolia
by Nikolai N. Kradin, Aleksandr L. Ivliev, Ayudai Ochir, Lkhagvasuren Erdenebold,
Sergei Vasiutin, Svetlana Satantseva, and Evgenii V. Kovychev ........................... 95
The Chinese Inscription on the Lacquerware Unearthed from Tomb 20,
Gol Mod I Site, Mongolia
by Chimiddorj Yeruul-Erdene and Ikue Otani ............................................................. 104
The Ancient Tamga-Signs of Southeast Kazakhstan and Their Owners: The Route from East to
West in the 2nd Century BCE – 2nd Century CE
by Alexei E. Rogozhinskii and Sergey A. Yatsenko ................................................................ 109
(continued)
“The Bridge between Eastern and Western Cultures”
Museum Collections: Assyrian-style Seals of the Silk Road and Their Relationship to Ties
between Iran and Mesopotamia
by Amir Saed Mucheshi .................................................................................... 126
“I was born a dervish and a Flying Dutchman.” Sven Hedin and Ferdinand von Richthofen:
Introduction and Presentation of Unpublished Letters
by Felix de Montety ............................................................................................ 135
Museum Collections II: Berlin’s “Turfan Collection” Moves to the Center
by Lilla Russell-Smith ......................................................................................... 153
The Mezquita: A Photo Essay
by Daniel C. Waugh ............................................................................................ 158
Reviews
The Dawn of Tibet [Bellezza], by Sam van Schaik ...................................................................................................... 169
[The following all by Daniel C. Waugh:]
From Yuan to Modern China and Mongolia [Rossabi] ................................................................................................. 171
Pamirian Crossroads: Kirghiz and Wakhi of High Asia [Kreutzmann] , with a photo supplement
“Glimpses of the Pamirian Crossroads” ....................................................................................... 173
Akademicheskaia arkheologiia na beregakh Nevy ............................................................................................................ 178
The Silk Road: Interwoven History. Vol. I. Long-distance Trade, Culture, and Society [ed. Walter and Adler] ....... 179
Life along the Silk Road, 2nd ed. [Whitield] ................................................................................................................. 180
Book notices (written/compiled by Daniel C.Waugh) .......................................................................................... 182
Shelach-Lavi. The Archaeology of Early China.
Lin. Building a Sacred Mountain: The Buddhist Architecture of
China’s Mount Wutai.
Vadetskaia et al. Svod pamiatnikov Afanas’evskoi kul’tury.
Selegin and Shelepova. Tiurkskie ritual’nye kompleksy Altaia.
Elikhina. “Obitel’ miloserdiia”. Iskusstvo tibetskogo buddizma:
katalog vystavki.
Zhuravlev et al. Iuvelirnye izdeliia iz kurgana Kul’-Oba v sobranii Istoricheskogo Muzeia.
Complexity of Interaction along the Eurasian Steppe Zone in the
First Millennium CE. Ed. Bemmann; Schmauder.
Minasian. Metalloobrabotka v drevnosti i srednevekov’e.
Nomads as Agents of Cultural Change. The Mongols and Their
Eurasian Predecessors. Ed. Amitai; Biran.
Jacobs. Reorienting the East. Jewish Travelers to the Medieval
Muslim World.
Journal of Asian History. 49 (2015), 1/2. Special Edition Ed.
Kauz: Chinese and Asian Geographical and Cartographical Views
on Central Asia and Its Adjacent Regions.
Kradin. Nomads of Inner Asia in Transition.
Kradin and Ivliev. Istoriia Kidan’skoi imperii Liao (907-1125).
Bulletin of the Asia Institute. N.S./Vol. 24 (2010) [2014].
Antonov. Srednevekovye bashkiry.
Bulletin of the Asia Institute. N.S./Vol. 25 (2011) [2015].
Rossiiskie ekspeditsii v Tsentral’nuiu Aziiu. Organizatsiia,
polevye issleovaniia, kollektsii 1870–1920-e gg.
Journal of Inner Asian Art and Archaeology 6/2011 [2015].
Color Plates I – VIII ....................................................................................................................................... after p. 192
Cover: The people of ancient Palmyra: funerary sculptures from the Palmyra tombs, as displayed in the
following museums: the Palmyra Museum, the National Museum (Damascus), the Louvre (Paris), the
British Museum (London), the Ashmolean Museum (Oxford), the Altes Museum (Berlin), the Glyptoteket (Copenhagen), the Archaeological Museum (Istanbul), and the Archaeological Museum (Gaziantep).
Photographs all by Daniel C. Waugh.
ii
ReadeRs aRe stRongly encouRaged to view the online veRsion of the jouRnal,
since so many of the illustRations aRe in coloR and can be best appReciated that way.
The Silk Road is an annual publication of the Silkroad Foundation supplied free of charge in a limited print run to academic
libraries. We cannot accept individual subscriptions. Each issue can be viewed and downloaded free of charge at: <http://www.
silkroadfoundation.org/toc/newsletter.html>. The print version contains black and white illustrations, the few color plates
a new feature beginning with Volume 11 (2013); the online version uses color throughout. Otherwise the content is identical.
The complete online version of The Silk Road, Vol. 13 is at: <http://www.silkroadfoundation.org/newsletter/vol13/srjournal_v13.pdf>.
Starting with Vol. 10, individual articles may also be downloaded as pdf iles.
The journal actively invites submissions of articles. Please feel free to contact the editor with any questions or contributions.
Information regarding contributions and how to format them may be found on the website at <http://www.silkroadfoundation.org/newsletter/vol8/SilkRoadinstructionsforauthors.pdf>. It is very important to follow these guidelines, especially
in the matter of citations, when submitting articles for consideration.
Editor: Daniel C. Waugh
dwaugh@u.washington.edu
All physical mailings concerning the journal (this includes books for review) should be sent to the editor at his postal address:
Daniel Waugh, Department of History, Box 353560, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195 USA. It is advisable to send
him an e-mail as well, informing him of any postings to that address.
Copyright © 2015 The Silkroad Foundation
Copyright © 2015 by authors of individual articles and holders of copyright, as speciied, to individual images.
The Silkroad Foundation (14510 Big Basin Way # 269, Saratoga, CA 95070) is a registered non-proit educational organization.
The Silk Road is printed by E & T Printing, Inc. <www.etcolorprint.com>, 1941 Concourse Drive, San Jose, CA 95131.
iii
Museum Collections, II
beRlin’s “tuRfan collection” moves to the centeR
Lilla Russell-Smith
Museum für Asiatische Kunst, Berlin
T
he permanent galleries showing South, Southeast
and Central Asian art in the Asian Art Museum
in Berlin (Museum für Asiatische Kunst) closed on
10th January 2016 [Fig. 1]. Large parts of the material
will not be available to view until 2019, when a new
exhibition will open in the Humboldt Forum, in the
reconstructed Hohenzollern Palace (also known as the
Berlin Palace) in the middle of the city next to the Museum Island, which is to serve as an innovative center
for the arts.1 The Asian galleries of the Asian Art Museum and the Ethnological Museum (both National
Museums of Berlin /Staatliche Museen zu Berlin) will
be located on the third loor of the Humboldt Forum.2
Neil MacGregor, who has just retired as the Director
of the British Museum, is going to spend about ten
days every month in Berlin for the next few years as
the leader of the “Gründungintendanz” of the Humboldt Forum. The other two members of this group
of intendants are Hermann Parzinger, archaeologist
and President of the Prussian Cultural Foundation
(Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz, which includes
the National Museums of Berlin) and art historian
Horst Bredekamp (Professor at the Humboldt University, also a partner in the Humboldt Forum).
Central Asia is presently at the heart of the exhibition
in Dahlem, with the “Cave of the Ringbearing Doves”
(Kizil Cave 123, ca. 7th century) [Fig. 2, next page; Color Plate V] forming the very center. This unique reconstruction of an entire cave temple is the main reason
why this gallery in Dahlem has to close almost four
years before the opening of the Humboldt Forum. The
cave has to be taken apart very carefully, fragment by
fragment, prior to further conservation and reassembly in the Humboldt Forum. Luckily the same team of
excellent conservators who performed the reconstruction and restored the paintings in 1998–2000 are going
to do this work again.3 The dome of this cave is supported by a steel frame, and this cannot be taken apart
again. This large part will have to be transported and
be moved into position in the new gallery before the
façade of the building can be closed.
Photo copyright © 2016 Ute Franz-Scarciglia
The decision to reconstruct the “Berlin Palace” as
the Humboldt Forum was
passed by the Bundestag in
2002.4 When I came to the
Asian Art Museum as Curator of Central Asian Art
in December 2007, planning
was already in full swing.
In 2008 we visited all relevant collections in the
Asian Art Museum and in
the Ethnological Museum
as a large team of curators,
conservators and specialists, and discussion on how
Fig. 1. View of the Central Asia
Gallery in Dahlem in January
2016
The Silk Road 13 (2015): 153 – 157 + Color Plates V–VI
153
Copyright © 2015 Lilla Russell-Smith
Copyright © 2015 The Silkroad Foundation
Photos copyright © 2016 Ute Franz-Scarciglia
Fig. 3. View from the Central Asia Gallery towards Buddhas
from Gandhara.
with dark walls and spots highlighting the wall paintings and objects until 1998. That display (originally
planned under Director Herbert Härtel before 1971)
had an element of the unexpected, which made a deep
impression on me in 1987, when I visited as an undergraduate student of European art history. This might
have been the irst step on my personal journey to
Central Asian art (which strengthened of course after
transferring to SOAS and getting to know the Stein
Collection in the British Museum after 1989.)
In the Humboldt Forum we shall also strive to evoke
the idea of travelling on the Silk Road. The partial reconstruction of Kizil Cave 8 (known as the “Cave of
the Sword Bearers”) will form the focus of the permanent display of the objects from the northern Silk Road
in a room situated directly under the dome of the Berlin Palace, thereby allowing a greater height than in
the surrounding galleries [Fig. 4].6 Due to its central
location, this room will also form the link between the
Asian Art Museum’s East Asian and South and South-
Fig. 2. Cave of the Ringbearing Doves (Kizil Cave 123) as
reconstructed in Dahlem.
to present the collections differently in the Humboldt
Forum followed.5 The Asian Art Museum was both
praised and criticized for the beautiful galleries in
Dahlem, which opened in 2000 (then still as the Museum of Indian Art, designed under the leadership
of then Director, Marianne Yaldiz) after a two-year
closure. Emphasis has been on the beauty of the objects, and without the catalogue or
an audio guide the average visitor
might ind it dificult to understand
the background to the complexities
of languages and religions of the
vast areas of the world represented
in these rooms. On a personal note
however, I shall miss the possibility to look into neighboring displays
from the Central Asian gallery, for
example on the origins of the Buddha igure in Gandhara [Fig. 3]. In
the galleries in Dahlem, emphasis
has been on the opening of space —
causing anticipation — in contrast
to corridors and separated rooms
Fig. 4. Rendering of the future Central Asia Gallery in the
Humboldt Forum.
Photo copyright © 2015 Ralph Appelbaum Associates, Inc,
154
Photo copyright © 2016 Ute Franz-Scarciglia
Photo copyright © 2015 Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Museum für Asiatische Kunst / Iris Papadopoulos
Fig. 6. Sculptures from Central Asian sites as exhibited in Dahlem
Fig. 5. Stupa, found in Kocho (Gaochang), stone, 5th century CE,
III 6838
east Asian galleries. Visitors can imagine that they are
on an imaginary journey from India to China or the
other way round: there will be two entrances to the
exhibitions. Coming from the South Asian galleries
visitors will be able to learn much about the origins
of Buddhism and Buddhist iconography. Key themes
such as the stupa will be familiar to them by the time
they arrive in this room, where the famous stone stupa
found in Kocho will be a key object [Fig. 5]. Coming
from the other direction visitors will be perhaps surprised to ind Chinese manuscripts and recognize the
inluence of Tang Dynasty Chinese art in remote areas, such as Kumtura in the Kucha region. The visitors
will also have just seen Buddhist sculptures from East
Asia in the adjoining gallery. Uygur art -- wall paintings from the Turfan area and paintings on silk and
paper as well as embroideries -- will be shown in the
two corners closest to the East Asian galleries, with
a special section devoted to the unique Manichaean
collection. In the corners closer to the South Asian galleries wall paintings from Kizil, demonstrating Indian
inluence, will be shown, thus continuing the idea of a
journey on the Silk Road.
On the two large side walls important unbaked clay
sculptures from Shorchuk on one side, and a group of
about 50 heads from Kucha and Turfan on the other
side will be shown — most of these are currently not
on display [Fig. 6]. These faces will also represent the
main topic of the gallery: “Begegnungen” = “Encounters” — a itting subject for perhaps the most central
room in this new establishment, the Humboldt Forum,
which aims to demonstrate the vibrant coexistence of
many religions, languages and cultures from the distant past to the present day. The Silk Road with its network of unique oasis cultures combining the local and
the global can be a good model for this. A frequently
changing selection of manuscripts, illustrating the variety of languages and scripts will be in the center of
the room. As the Turfan Collection is a closed, archaeological collection, this exhibition will concentrate on
the early medieval times (ca. 5th–12th centuries with
just a few later objects). The Islamic period of Xinjiang
will be shown in a gallery in a similar position on the
same loor on the other side of the building, occupied
by the exhibitions of the Ethnological Museum.
It is interesting to note here that the German expeditions were also collecting ethnographical material.
Especially Albert von Le Coq was interested in observing and documenting life in Xinjiang, brought
back objects including embroideries and pottery, and
155
recorded folk songs on wax cylinder. Most important however, are the historical photos that they took
not only of the sites, but also of the people. Although
these photos have been available on the IDP website
for some time, they have been largely unknown until
now. Caren Dreyer, who has worked in the archives
of the museum for ifteen years, has just published a
new book about the Turfan Expeditions, illustrating it
with a large number of hitherto unpublished photos.7
The book is in German, but we are currently exploring
ways to translate it into English.
Using media stations, the visitors will be able to explore aspects of research and conservation work, as
well as the history of the Turfan expeditions, the history of the collection in Berlin, including the large-scale
damage suffered during the Second World War, the
geography of the area and the large historical photo
collection. Our oficial collaboration with China will
form an important part of this documentation. Zhao
Li, Deputy Director of the Kucha Research Academy
spent eighteen months researching in our museum,
and this year we shall be hosting Cao Hongyong,
Deputy Director of the Turfan Research Academy,
and Chen Aifeng, a researcher of the Turfan Research
Academy. Chen Aifeng will spend three months
doing research in our collections, supported by the
“Connecting Art Histories in the Museum” program,
our collaboration with the Kunsthistorisches Institut,
Florence. The research of Satomi Hiyama, a doctoral
fellow in the same program and now postdoctoral
fellow in Florence, will be shown on one wall of this
room: Grünwedel’s drawings will be shown at full
scale with the original fragments set into the right
areas — thus reconstructing a wall of the “Painters’
Cave” (Kizil Cave 207, Fig. 7; Color Plate VI).8 This is
The Turfan Expeditions and the conservation and
research aspects will be presented in a new facility
in the Humboldt Forum, in an open storage room
situated next to the South Asia galleries. The centerpiece will be the reconstructed Kizil Cave 123, which
will have to be completed by 2018 for an opening in
2019. Around the cave, which will be housed in a steel
structure, in large display cases far more objects will
be shown than hitherto possible, including sculptures,
wooden artefacts and archaeological objects. Changing “Windows” focusing on speciic topics, such as
the technology of sculpture making, or the regional
arts of Khotan, are also being planned. On the walls
further wall paintings from Kizil will be presented.
Fig. 7. Detail of a preaching scene from the Painter’s Cave (Kizil
Cave 207, ca. 6th century CE), III 9148 b.
Photo copyright © 2015 Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Museum für Asiatische Kunst / Jürgen Liepe
156
just one example of how current research
will directly inluence the display. Another
example is our project on “Medieval wooden architecture from Kocho” supported by
the Gerda Henkel Foundation, which is just
coming to an end. A publication and a small
display in the special exhibition rooms of
the East Asian galleries in Dahlem is being
planned for July-December 2016. In December 2016 the East Asian galleries will also
close, and then we shall devote all our energies to reopen on time in the center of Berlin
in 2019. Good bye Dahlem! [Fig. 8].
Photo copyright © 2016 Ute Franz-Scarciglia
About the author
Fig. 8. Final section of the Central Asia Gallery in Dahlem with
view towards the Southeast Asian gallery in January 2016.
Dr. Lilla Russell-Smith is Curator of the Central Asian Collections, Museum für Asiatische Kunst, Staatliche Museen
zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz. Her publications include Uygur Patronage in Dunhuang: Regional Art Centres on the
Northern Silk Road in the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries (Brill,
2005). E-Mail: <l.russell-smith@smb.spk-berlin.de>.
ussischer-kulturbesitz.de/en/humboldt-forum/history.
html>.
5. Subsequently experimental projects were made possible
within the framework of the Humboldt Lab (2011–2015), a
completely new initiative to encourage experimentation including exploring ways how to exhibit sacred artifacts and
how to show ritual in the galleries. Central Asia was present
in one very interesting project organized by Martina Stoye,
Curator of South and Southeast Asian Art. Waseem Ahmed,
a contemporary miniature artist from Lahore, became artist-in-residence and chose to paint contemporary interpretations of three wall paintings: one from Kocho and two
from Kizil. See an article by Martina Stoye <http://www.
humboldt-forum.de/en/humboldt-lab-dahlem/project-archive/probebuehne-5/waseem-ahmed-dahlem-karkhana/
project-description/#c4420> and documentation including
a ilm <http://www.humboldt-forum.de/en/humboldtlab-dahlem/project-archive/probebuehne-5/waseemahmed-dahlem-karkhana/pictures/#c4626>.
Notes
1. The part-closure was oficially announced at a press conference on 1 December 2015. During the closure we aim to
grant access to specialists by appointment only whenever
this is possible, especially for the study of smaller objects
and manuscripts. Large parts of the wall painting collection
will be in conservation and therefore not available for viewing. If you need an appointment please contact me at least
four to six months in advance.
2. A large exhibition of the Silk Road objects was irst
shown in the center of Berlin in 1926–1938. The extent of the
tragic loss of material in the Second World War is still being
researched today. After the partitioning of Berlin, suburban
Dahlem became the home of the West Berlin museums; a
new exhibition of the Museum of Indian Art, which had
been founded by Herbert Härtel in 1963, opened there in
1971. For the history of the collection up to the reopening
in 2000 see Marianne Yaldiz, “The History of the Turfan
Collection in the Museum of Indian Art,” Orientations, November 2000, pp. 75–82. The Museum of Indian Art and the
Museum of East Asian Art became the Asian Art Museum
in 2006. Information on the Humboldt-Forum may be found
at <http://www.smb.museum/en/museums-and-institutions/humboldt-forum/home.html>.
6. A four-year project (2008–2012) has investigated the cave
and also resulted in developing a new method of conservation with the help of print technology. (See Toralf Gabsch
and Ulf Palitza, “Forschung und Restaurierung an Wandgemälden im Rahmen des KUR-programms,“ in Gabsch
2012, pp. 56–73). The advantage of this method is the adding
of the lost color with the help of a roller resulting in hundreds of small dots: this way the specialist can see exactly
which parts are later reconstruction, whilst viewing from a
distance, the museum visitor can enjoy the original beauty
of the painting (Cf. Fig. 7 in this article). Only wall paintings copied in detail by Albert Grünwedel or documented
by photographs taken by the German expeditions can be restored with this method.
3. For the documentation of the conservation and reconstruction work 1998-2000 see Barbara Hausmann et al.,
“The Conservation and Reconstruction of the Cave with the
Ring-bearing Doves,” Orientations, November 2000, pp. 83–
88; Ulf Palitza and Barbara Hausmann, “Restaurierung und
Rekonstruktion ‘Höhle mit den Ringtragenden Tauben’,” in
Toralf Gabsch, ed., Auf Grünwedels Spuren — Restaurierung
und Forschung an Zentralasiatischen Wandmalereien (Berlin:
Koehler & Amelang, 2012), pp. 56–73.
7. Caren Dreyer, Abenteuer Seidenstraße — Die Berliner Turfan Expeditionen 1902-1914, Berlin: SMB – E A Seemann, 2015.
8. See Satomi Hiyama, “The Wall Paintings of the ‘Painters’ Cave‘ (Kizil Cave 207),“ unpublished dissertation, Freie
Universität Berlin, 2014; Jana Bulir and Satomi Hiyama,
“Zum Leben erwacht: Die Wandmalereien der Malerhöhle,“
in Gabsch 2012, pp. 142–51.
4. For the history of this project see <http://www.pre-
157
Photo © 2016 Ute Franz-Scarciglia
Cave of the Ringbearing Doves (Kizil Cave 123) as
reconstructed in Dahlem.
Plate V — [Russell-Smith, “Berlin’s ‘Turfan Collection’,” p. 154]
Plate VI — [Russell-Smith, “Berlin’s ‘Turfan Collection’,” p. 156]
Photo copyright © 2015 Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Museum für Asiatische Kunst / Jürgen Liepe
Detail of a preaching scene from the Painter’s Cave (Kizil Cave
207, ca. 6th century CE), III 9148 b.