2 Dr. Hoemle —Antiquities from Central Asia. [Extra No. 1, 
bearing on the question of the genuineness of the objects comprised in 
the British Collection. 1 
* By means of his own explorations of ancient sites in the Khotan 
region, and by his local enquiries, Dr. Stein has obtained definite proof 
that all “ blockprints ” and all the manuscripts in “ unknown characters ” 
procured from Khotan since 1895 are modern fabrications of Islam 
Akhun and a few others working with him. The fact of these block- 
prints and manuscripts being modern forgeries was first established by 
independent evidence, and subsequently received confirmation by the 
full confession which the forger himself, in April last, made to Dr. Stein. 
Islam Akhun, on the same occasion, furnished detailed information as to 
the methods and means employed in preparing his forgeries.* 
Of these manuscripts in “ unknown characters ” it has now become 
unnecessary to publish detailed descriptions. Those whom it may 
interest may see specimen pages of two such codices, published in Plate 8 
of M. D. Klementz’s report on the Russian Expedition to Turfan. 2 
Several codices of that class are in the British collection. Other 
specimens of fabricated manuscripts may be seen in Plates XI-XX 
which accompany my paper on “ Three Further Collections of Ancient 
Manuscripts from Central Asia” in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of 
Bengal, Yol. LXVI (1897). 
* Islam A khfin’s account of the places where the finds are said 
to have been made is an invention. These places (see Introduction, 
pp. xvi-xxii) either do not exist, or exhibit physical conditions in which 
the survival of ancient manuscripts appears highly improbable.^ As to 
Aq Sapil, I believe that the interpretation of the present appearance of 
the place in the letter quoted on pp. xiv-xvi cannot be sustained. On 
the other hand, Dandan Uiliq is the genuine site of an ancient sand- 
buried settlement. It is very probable that many of the genuine manu¬ 
scripts comprised in the Collection were originally obtained from there. 
For * Dr. Stein, in the course of the explorations of which a brief 
preliminary account has been given by him in the Journal of the Royal 
Asiatic Society, for April, 1901, 3 excavated there a considerable number 
of manuscripts of a very similar description, all written either in Brahmi 
or Chinese characters.* 
As regards the coins and seals, shown in Plates I—III of the First 
Part of this Report, as well as the objects shown in Plate XIX, there is 
1 Statements based on Dr. Stein’s communications and embodied in these Intro¬ 
ductory Remarks are enclosed between asterisks. 
2 In Nachrichten uber die von der kaiserlichen Akadamie der Wissenschaften zu 
St. Petersburg im Jdhre 1898 ausgerustete Expedition nach Turfan, Heft I. 
f> Iu Art. XII, Archaeological Work about Khotan. 
