Sir Aurel Stein Archaeological Explorer
$50
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Description
First Edition Biography of Archaeologist and Ancient Library Discoverer Sir Aurel Stein
Sir Aurel Stein Archaeological Explorer by Jeannette Mirsky. University of Chicago Press : Chicago, 1977. First edition.
First edition of the celebrated biography of Sir Aurel Stein by Jeanette Mirsky, tracing the life of the noted explorer and anthropologist from his youth in Hungary to his death in London with a thorough catalog of his exploits across Central Asia. Famous for his contributions to the British Library’s Stein Collections of Chinese, Tibetan and Tangut manuscripts, Prakrit wooden tablets, and documents in a variety of languages, his most noted “discovery” was the Dunhaung Manuscripts found in the “Library Cave” of the Magao Caves, also called the Thousand Buddha Grottoes. The thousands of centuries old manuscripts, representing a cache of Buddhist, Daoist, Manichean, and Christian writings, were rediscovered by a local monk in 1901 who began selling selections to western explorers like Stein in 1907. Although Stein could not read Chinese, he managed to secure more than 7,000 documents and many more fragments for 130 pounds.
8vo, 585pp, yellow cloth boards, title, author, and publisher gilt to spine. Corners bumped, rubbing to top and bottom spine. Pages clean apart from slight toning. Very good condition. Pictorial dust jacket, rubbing with some losses to edges and along back spine joint. Very good condition.
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