É. Apor (ed.): Jubilee Volume of the Oriental Collection, 1951–1976. Papers Presented on the Occasion of the 25th Anniversary of the Oriental Collection of the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

J. HARMATTA: Sir Aurel Stein and the Date of the Sogdian "Ancient Letters"

82 section of the Limes was apparently abandoned. Notwithstanding, abundant finds of Chinese documents prove beyond any doubt that the greater part of the Limes was also garrisoned during the Later Han Dynasty. And even though dated documents are almost entirely missing after the middle of the Ilnd century A.D., there can be hardly any doubt that the Tun-huang Limes preserved its significance also during the second half of the Ilnd century A.D. and after the loss of the Western Countries in 153 A.D. its importance as a frontier line and border land became even greater. The scantiness of dated Chinese documents from the second half of the Ilnd century A.D. can probably be ascribed mostly to the circumstance that it is always the uppermost layer exposed to erosion, climate and human destruction which disappears or suffers essential damage. We must, however, emphasize that there exists no trace of stationing of troops at the Tun-huang Limes during the Illrd and IVth centuries A.D. This fact cannot be explained by the same causes as the almost total absence of Chinese documents dated from the end of the Later Han Dynasty because Sir Aurel Stein did find numerous Chinese documents dated from the Illrd century and the beginning of the IVth century A.D. at the Lou-Ian site which was equally exposed to wind and erosion. The total absence of finds later than those from the Later Han Age can only by caused by the abandoning of the whole Tun-huang Limes which obviously lost both its military and administrative importance during the Illrd century A.D. From the view-point of the date of the Sogdian 'Ancient Letters' it is, therefore, a fact of decisive importance that documents and other finds of the Han Age were exclusively found at the sites and finding places of the Tun-huang Limes. This fact renders the conclusion inevitable that the Sogdian 'Ancient Letters' , too, could be written only within the same time limits. Accordingly, they cannot be dated from a time later than the end of the Ilnd century A.D. It was a regrettable mistake on Henning' s part when he believed that the find of eleven Chinese paper documents from T'ang times "in the same area" deprives the archaeological arguments (which were misunderstood and misinterpreted by him) of any validity.! 32] He did not recognize that these Chinese paper documents from the T'ang Age were found not at a site or finding place belonging to the Tun-huang Limes of the Han Age but in the remains of a modest Buddhist shrine, built according to the testimony of the Chinese coins found there in the T'ang Age. The stratigraphie position of the shrine is absolutely clear because it was built above a refuse heap of the Han Age. [ 33] Accordingly, the find of the Chinese paper documents of the T'ang Age in the neighbourhood of watch-tower T.XIV does not alter the fact at all that at the sites and finding places of the Tun-huang Limes only documents and other finds of the Han Age were unearthed. As a final conclusion, on the basis of the archaeological finds of the Tun-huang Limes, we must put the date of the Sogdian 'Ancient Letters' necessarily between the time limits of the Han Age. Now we can proceed to the other task, viz. to elucidate the fate of the 'Ancient Letters' within the history of the site, the watch-tower T.XII.a and the finding place T.XII.a.II respectively. At first, we must realize the character of the