Aurel Stein

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Sir

Aurel Stein

Kabul, Afghanistan
CitizenshipHungarian (birth) / British (naturalised) from 1904
Alma materUniversity of Tübingen
Scientific career
FieldsArchaeology

Sir Marc Aurel Stein,

FRAS, FBA[1]
(
archaeologist, primarily known for his explorations and archaeological discoveries in Central Asia. He was also a professor at Indian
universities.

Stein was also an ethnographer, geographer, linguist and surveyor. His collection of books and manuscripts bought from Dunhuang caves is important for the study of the history of Central Asia and the art and literature of Buddhism. He wrote several volumes on his expeditions and discoveries which include Ancient Khotan, Serindia and Innermost Asia.

Early life

Stein was born to Náthán Stein and Anna Hirschler, a Jewish couple residing in

Leipzig and Tübingen. He graduated in Sanskrit and Persian and received his PhD from Tübingen in 1883.[3]

In 1884 he went to England to study oriental languages and archaeology. In 1886, Stein met the Indologist and philologist

Oriental College, Lahore.[5] During this time, under his supervision Raghunath Temple Sanskrit Manuscript Library at Jammu was established which treasures 5000 rare manuscripts.[6]

Expeditions

Genesis

Stein was influenced by Sven Hedin's 1898 work Through Asia. In June 1898, he sought the help of Hoernle and a collaboration to find and study Central Asian antiquities. Hoernle was enthusiastic as he had already deciphered the Bower Manuscript and Weber Manuscript by then, found these to be respectively the oldest known birch bark and paper manuscripts of ancient India at the time, had received more artefacts and manuscripts but was concerned about the circumstances of their discovery and their authenticity. He recommended that Stein prepare an expedition proposal and submit it to the Governments of Punjab and India.[4] Stein sent a draft proposal to Hoernle within a month. Hoernle discussed it with Lt Governor of Punjab (British India), who expressed enthusiasm. Stein then submitted a full proposal to explore, map and study the antiquities of Central Asia as per the recommendations of Hoernle, who personally petitioned both the Government of Punjab and Government of India, lobbying for a quick approval. Within weeks, Stein's proposal was informally approved. In January 1899, Stein received the formal approval and funds for his first expedition.[4] Stein thereafter received approval and support for additional expeditions to Chinese Turkestan, other parts of Tibet and Central Asia where the Russians and Germans were already taking interest. He made his famous expeditions with the financial support of Punjab government and the British India government.[4]

The four expeditions

Photograph of Aurel Stein, with his dog and research team, in the Tarim Basin

Stein made four major expeditions to

Taklamakan Desert oasis of Dandan Oilik where he was able to uncover a number of relics. During his third expedition in 1913–1916, he excavated at Khara-Khoto.[8] Later he explored in the Pamirs, seeking the site of the now-lost Stone Tower which the 2nd century polymath Claudius Ptolemy had noted as the half-way mark of the Silk Road in his famous treatise Geography.[9]

Map of Taklamakan from Stein's Serindia 1921, vol. V.
Letter from Aurel Stein to Rudolf Hoernle from Kashgar. Dated 25 May 1901.

The

Balochistan
.

When Stein visited Khotan he was able to render in Persian a portion of the Shahnama after he came across a local reading the Shahnama in Turki.[10]

During 1901 Stein was responsible for exposing forgeries of Islam Akhun, as well as establishing the details and the authenticity of manuscripts that had been discovered before 1896 in northwest China.[4]

Stein's greatest discovery was made at the

Taoist caretaker).[11] He took 24 cases of manuscripts and 4 cases of paintings and relics. He was knighted for his efforts, but Chinese nationalists dubbed him a burglar and staged protests against him, although others have seen his actions as at least advancing scholarship.[12][13] His discovery inspired other French, Russian, Japanese, and Chinese treasure hunters and explorers who also took their toll on the collection.[14] Aurel Stein discovered 5 letters written in Sogdian known as the "Ancient Letters" in an abandoned watchtower near Dunhuang in 1907, dating to the end of the Western Jin dynasty.[15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24]

During his expedition of 1906–1908 while surveying south of the Johnson Line in the Kunlun Mountains, Stein suffered frostbite and lost several toes on his right foot.

When he was resting from his extended journeys into Central Asia, he spent most of his time living in a tent in the alpine meadow called Mohand Marg which lies at the mouth atop the Sind Valley. Years earlier, working from this idyllic spot he translated Rajatarangini from Sanskrit into English, which had then been published in 1900.[25][26] A memorial stone was erected in Mohand Marg on 14 September 2017 where Stein used to pitch his tent.[27]

The fourth expedition to Central Asia, however, ended in failure. Stein did not publish any account, but others have written of the frustrations and rivalries between British and American interests in China, between Harvard's

Fogg Museum and the British Museum, and finally, between Paul J. Sachs and Langdon Warner, the two Harvard sponsors of the expedition.[28]

Personal life

Photograph of Aurel Stein's grave marker in the Sherpur Cantonment, Kabul

Stein was a lifelong bachelor, but was always accompanied by a dog named "Dash" (of which there were seven).

British citizen in 1904.[31] He died in Kabul on 26 October 1943 and is buried there in the Sherpur Cantonment.[32]

Great Game

Stein, as well as his rivals

spheres of influence" for archaeological exploration as they did for political influence.[33]

Fragment of carpet discovered by Aurel Stein in a refuse pit at Loulan, Xinjiang, and attributed to 3rd–4th century

The art objects he collected are divided between the

National Museum, New Delhi
.

Honours

Stein received a number of honours during his career. In 1909, he was awarded the

Royal Asiatic Society of Bombay. He was awarded a number of other gold medals: the Gold Medal of the Société de Géographie in 1923; the Grande Médaille d'or of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland in 1932; and the Gold Medal of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 1935. In 1934, he was awarded the Huxley Memorial Medal of Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland.[35]

In the

Knight Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire (KCIE) for his service as Superintendent of the Archaeological Department, North-West Frontier Circle.[37]

He was made an honorary Doctor of Letters (DLitt) by the University of Oxford in 1909. He was made an honorary Doctor of Science (DSc) by the University of Cambridge in 1910.[35] He was made an honorary Doctor of Laws (LLD) by the University of St Andrews in 1939.[35][38]

In 1919, Stein became a foreign member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.[39] In 1921, he was elected Fellow of the British Academy (FBA).[5] He was elected an International Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1930 and an International Member of the American Philosophical Society in 1939.[40]

Publications

A more detailed list of Stein's publications is available in Handbook to the Stein Collections in the UK,[8] pp. 49–61.

See also

Footnotes

  1. .
  2. ^ Colquhoun, A. R., & Colquhoun, E. M. C. (1914). The whirlpool of Europe, Austria-Hungary and the Habsburgs. New York: Dodd, Mead.
  3. ^ Mirsky (1977), p. 5–6.
  4. ^ ]
  5. ^ a b "STEIN, Sir Aurel (26/11/1862-26/10/1943)". British Academy Fellows. British Academy. Archived from the original on 1 July 2015. Retrieved 26 November 2014.
  6. ^ "Raghunath Temple Sanskrit Manuscript Library at Jammu". Autarmota. Retrieved 19 August 2022.
  7. ^ The New Encyclopædia Britannica. 15th Edition. (1977). Vol. IX, p. 547.
  8. ^
    ISSN 1747-3640. Archived from the original
    (PDF) on 7 October 2012. Retrieved 4 July 2009.
  9. .
  10. .
  11. ^ Deuel, Leo. 1970. Testaments of Time, p. 459. Baltimore, Pelican Books. Orig. publ. Knopf, NY, 1965; "Collecting Aurel Stein", The Caxtonian Vol. XIX, No. 2, November 2011.
  12. ^ Jacobs, Justin (2010) "Confronting Indiana Jones: Chinese Nationalism, Historical Imperialism, and the Criminalization of Aurel Stein and the Raiders of Dunhuang, 1899–1944", pp. 65–90 in China on the Margins. Sherman Cochran and Paul G. Pickowicz (eds.). Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
  13. .
  14. ^ Larmer, Brook (June 2010) "Caves of Faith", pp. 136–138, National Geographic Magazine.
  15. ^ Sims-Williams, N. (15 December 1985). "ANCIENT LETTERS". Encyclopædia Iranica. Vol. II. pp. 7–9.
  16. ^ Keramidas, Kimon. "SOGDIAN ANCIENT LETTER II". NYU. Telling the Sogdian Story: A Freer/Sackler Digital Exhibition Project.
  17. ^ "The Sogdian Ancient Letters 1, 2, 3, and 5". Silk Road Seattle - University of Washington. translated by Prof. Nicholas Sims-Williams.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  18. ^ Norman, Jeremy. "Aurel Stein Discovers the Sogdian "Ancient Letters" 313 CE to 314 CE". History of Information.
  19. ^ Sogdian Ancient Letter No. 3. Reproduced from Susan Whitfield (ed.), The Silk Road: Trade, Travel, War and Faith (2004) p. 248.
  20. ^ Sims-Williams, Nicholas. "Ancient Letters". THE SOGDIANS Influencers on the Silk Roads. Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. Archived from the original on 19 October 2023.
  21. ^ Keramidas, Kimon. "Sogdian Ancient Letter III: Letter to Nanaidhat". NYU. Telling the Sogdian Story: A Freer|Sackler Digital Exhibition Project. Archived from the original on 19 October 2023.
  22. ^ "Sogdian letters". ringmar.net. History of International Relations. 5 March 2021. Archived from the original on 20 October 2023.
  23. .
  24. .
  25. ^ "JKMHC trekkers trek Mohanmarg". dailykashmirimages.com. Archived from the original on 25 May 2014. Retrieved 25 May 2014.
  26. ^ "The illustrated Rajatarangini". siraurelstein.org. Archived from the original on 23 March 2014. Retrieved 25 May 2014.
  27. ^ "Unexplored alpine meadow". Greater Kashmir. 25 July 2019. Retrieved 19 January 2021.
  28. ^ Brysac, Shareen Blair (November–December 1997). "Last of the "Foreign Devils"". Archaeology. 50 (6).
  29. ^ IDP Newsletter Issue No. 18. Idp.bl.uk. Retrieved on 2014-06-06.
  30. ^ Dash The Dog Archived 24 September 2023 at the Wayback Machine. Idp.bl.uk. Retrieved on 2014-06-06.
  31. required.)
  32. ^ North, Andrew. (9 June 2012) Afghanistan's 'graveyard of foreigners'. Bbc.co.uk. Retrieved on 2014-06-06.
  33. ^ Meyer & Brysac (1999), pp. 367–368.
  34. ^ "Gold Medal Recipients" (PDF). Medals and Awards. Royal Geographical Society. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 September 2011. Retrieved 26 November 2014.
  35. ^ a b c Strong, Sarah; Wang, Helen. "Sir Aurel Stein's Medals at the Royal Geographical Society" (PDF). British Museum. Retrieved 26 November 2014.
  36. ^ "No. 28388". The London Gazette (Supplement to the London Gazette Extraordinary). 23 June 1910. p. 4478.
  37. ^ "No. 28617". The London Gazette (Supplement). 23 June 1910. p. 4300.
  38. Who's Who & Who Was Who. A & C Black. Retrieved 16 August 2019. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  39. ^ "M.A. Stein (1862–1943)". Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 25 January 2016.
  40. ^ "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved 9 May 2023.
  41. ^ a b c d M. A. Stein – Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books at dsr.nii.ac.jp
  42. ^ http://www.pears2.lib.ohio-state.edu/FULLTEXT/TR-ENG/aurel.htm[permanent dead link]

References and further reading

External links