arising from the fakes that were intriguing philologists such as the Anglo-
German Orientalist Augustus Rudolf Hoernle (1841–1918), the Secretary to
the Asiatic Society of Bengal (Wood 2004: 192–3). At the time of the discov-
eries in Khotan Stein was in Austria, where he discussed this problem with a
philologist who specialized in Sanskrit, the Professor at the University of
Vienna, Georg Bu ̈hler (1837–98). In 1887 Stein was oVered the joint post of
Principal of the Oriental College of Lahore and Registrar of Punjab University
in India (WhitWeld 2004). In 1900 he wasWnally able to reach Khotan, on the
Wrst of four expeditions into Xinjiang, in 1900–1. Stein mapped the ancient
sites along the western end of the southern Silk Road, excavated at Dandan-
Uiliq in the Taklamakan desert, northeast of Khotan, at the abandoned site of
Niya and a ruined temple in Endere. Having found many inscriptions and
documents, he interviewed Islam Akhun, discovering the production of his
fakes (Baumer 2000; Hopkirk 1980; WhitWeld 2004; Wood 2004: ch. 13).
In addition to Khotan, the exploration of the Cave of the Thousand
Buddhas in Dunhuang would also be of crucial signiWcance for European
archaeologists in China. The site is one of the greatest and most extensive of
the rock complexes in Gansu Province. Dating from the early eighth to the
eleventh centuries, its whereabouts had been concealed for almost a millen-
nium. The Library Cave at the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang was found by a
resident monk in 1900. It was a Buddhist library containing tens of thousands
of manuscripts, paintings and printed documents on paper, hemp and silk
dating from 400–1000ce. Despite its religious purpose, the library also
contained many secular documents reused for scriptures. These provided
information about ordinary life on the Silk Road that would otherwise be
unknown to modern scholars. The ornamentation both in the documents and
also in the many fragments of silk hangings and other cave decorations
provided rich data for art and textile history, complementing those known
from surviving paintings and sculptures in other Dunhuang cave temples.
They demonstrated that Chinese art styles had extended to Central Asia and
even to Europe. TheWrst to describe the site was the Russophile Pole, soldier
and explorer Nikolai Mikhailovich Przhevalski (1839–88), whoseWrst exped-
ition (1870–3) had partly beenWnanced by the Russian War Department, and
his second (1876–8) had a political aim (Wood 2004: 167). He was also
supported by the Imperial Geographical Society (on Przhevalski also see
Meyer & Brysac 1999: ch. 9). Another key scholar for the study of the
Dunhuang caves was Stein. He reached Dunhuang in his second expedition
of 1906–7, 14 unearthing thousands of manuscripts written in Chinese, San-
skrit, Sogdian, Tibetan, Runic Turki, and Uighur. There were also prized14 In his second expedition (1906–8), in addition to the Cave of the Thousand Buddhas near
Dunhuang, Stein also excavated at Khadalik and Niya, spentWve days in Loulan gathering many
194 Archaeology of Informal Imperialism