Sven Hedin

Colonization and becoming an effective government on the world's politic system are two titles of the Modern Age description. With these aims, some countries, like Russia and England, pursued their actions in Central Asia and South Asia. Especially the effect of England over India and the position of Russia in West Turkistan are particular subjects at the history of these districts. The area, surrounding the Taklamakan Desert and named as Innermost Asia, is one of these districts, the colonization competition focused on. Expedition groups which were formed sometimes specialists from military or scholars, travelled through the Central Asia. These expeditions took months or years according to situations and their results weren't only for the military aims. During expeditions, important data was recorded, about topographical and meteorological knowledge of the region, anthropological features of peoples living on these districts and the sites, significant archaeologically. The reports of them were prepared at the end of the expeditions and they contributed to lots of sciences. Sir Marc Aurel Stein made a lot of expeditions to the Central Asia and Asia Minor with the support of United Kingdom and he was qualified as archaeologist, scholar, explorer and writer. Even though his expeditions and their results served to UK for colonization and being an effective government during Stein day, his books, photographs, letters and archaeological finds, like a library on their own, keep their value for the academicians who will work on the region, will be able to be named as Stein's geography. These resources presented information with the photographs about the cities placed on the expedition route, the sites and antiques, dig out during expeditions and we can trace on these photos either historical side or their conditions at Stein's day. Sir Marc Aurel Stein is a scholar and researcher and loved his position very much so he always developed himself at this way. Albeit he applied the colonization aim of the Britain to get the support of it to their researches, spending the last days of his life, eighty one years, for the expedition in Afghanistan exemplify that he was a scholar. Key Words: Sir Marc Aurel Stein, Expedition, Asia, Central Asia, Innermost Asia, Asia Minor, Colonization.
Yakınçağ Tarihinin tanımını yaparken, sömürge arayışı ve dünya siyasetine yön veren etkin devlet olma yarışı karşımıza çıkan başlıklardan sadece iki tanesidir. Bu doğrultuda başta Rusya, İngiltere, Fransa olmak üzere benzer devletler, Orta Asya ve Güney Asya'da faaliyetlerini sürdürmüşlerdir. Özellikle İngiltere'nin Hindistan üzerindeki etkisi ve Rusya'nın Batı Türkistan'daki konumu, bu bölgelerin tarihinin yazılışında kendilerine ait bölümleri oluşturacak şekilde gerçekleşmiştir. İç Asya olarak isimlendirebileceğimiz Taklamakan Çölü'nü çevreleyen bölge, bu yarışın sürdürüldüğü bölgelerden biridir. Bazen asker kökenli uzmanların, bazen bilim adamlarının önderliğinde oluşturulmuş sefer grupları, İç Asya'ya keşif seferleri düzenlemişlerdir. Koşullara bağlı olarak aylarla veya birkaç yılla sınırlandırılan bu seyahatlerin sonuçları sadece askeri olmamış, bölgenin topografyası, meteorolojik verileri, bölge halklarının antropolojik özellikleri, arkeolojik öneme sahip konumlar gibi veriler düzenli olarak kaydedilerek, sefer sonrasında birçok bilim alanına hizmet eden raporlar hazırlanmıştır. Sir Marc Aurel Stein, İngiltere desteğiyle İç Asya'ya ve Ön Asya'ya çok sayıda keşif seferi düzenlemiş arkeolog, bilim adamı, kâşif ve yazar olarak değerlendirilen bir kişidir. Seferleri ve elde ettiği sonuçlar, kendi döneminde, İngiltere'nin sömürge ve etkin devlet olma yarışına hizmet etmiş olsa da ortaya çıkardığı, başlı başına bir kütüphane niteliğini taşıyan kitapları, fotoğrafları, mektupları ve arkeolojik buluntu envanterleri, sosyal bilimler alanında Stein Coğrafyası olarak adlandırabileceğimiz bölgede çalışacak olan akademisyenler için çok kıymetli kaynak eser olma özelliğini korumaktadır. Bu eserler, sefer güzergâhlarında yer alan şehirler, ören yerleri ve elde edilen buluntuların hem geçmişi hem de Stein dönemine ait durumu hakkında fotoğraflarla örneklendirilen bilgiler sunmaktadır. Sir Marc Aurel Stein, bilim ve araştırma aşığı olan ve kendini bu doğrultuda sürekli geliştirmiş bir insandır. Araştırmalarına destek sağlamak amacıyla İngiliz yöneticilerin sömürge gayretini kullanmış olsa da 81 yıllık ömrünün son günlerini dahi keşif gezisi amacıyla geçirmesi, onun bilim insanı olduğuna örnek teşkil etmektedir. Anahtar Sözcükler: Sir Marc Aurel Stein, Keşif Seferi, Asya, Orta Asya, İçAsya, Ön Asya, Sömürge.

""Prestigegüter entlang der Seidenstraße? first and foremost aims to assess exquisite objects of art – Chinese silks in various weaving patterns, Chinese lacquer objects, Chinese bronze mirrors and Persian (Sassanian) glassware – and their social function(s) within the ancient cultures of the Taklamakan Desert. It is a comprehensive analysis of the archaeological findings and features unearthed at several cemeteries dating roughly from the 2nd through 5th centuries CE that are located along the so-called “Southern Route” of the Chinese part of the Silk Road. In Chinese and in Western sources, these burial sites are (very well) known under the names of Yingpan 營盤, Loulan 樓蘭, Zhagunluke (Cherchen) 札滾魯克, and Niya 尼雅. The respective tombs yielded copious amounts of indigenous and imported artifacts as well as a large number of well-preserved mummies, most notably the famous ‘Yingpan Man’ sporting a mustachioed death mask. Thus, at the core of the book lays an extensively annotated compilation of burial assemblages that combines all available data collected from eighty eligible graves. The resulting database – it amounts to more than 300 pages excluding figures and tables – not only offers a comprehensive overview of all findings, but also delivers a detailed description of every known object from every single grave for the first time in a Western language.

It is often proposed that a considerable number of the Chinese commodities retrieved from these burials once were reciprocal gifts from Chinese rulers and thus an essential part of the so-called “tributary system.” Prestigegüter entlang der Seidenstraße? also aims to clarify the nature of the relationships between Chinese dynasties and the city-states of the Tarim Basin, which are usually neglected in favor of more powerful “barbarians” such as the Xiongnu. In order to do so, it was necessary to evaluate the respective information offered by Chinese historiographical sources (Hanshu 漢書, Hou hanshu 後漢書, Sanguozhi 三國志, Jinshu 晉書). The comparison of (more than forty) tribute missions from the Tarim Basin statelets to various Chinese courts with putative counter gifts over the course of roughly four hundred years clearly demonstrated that different mechanisms were at play. In none of the altogether four (!) instances any of the history books record imperial presents were these gift occasioned by the acceptance of tribute. By delivering tribute, the foreigners actually sought to secure amicable relations; they did not abuse tribute relations as “a cloak for trade.”

The archaeological sources, in general, mirror this impression. Even though one might consider a present from the hands of a Chinese emperor the ultimate prestige good, there are no indications that one of the buried individuals was in the possession of an immediate imperial gift. Although a considerable number of tomb occupants were equipped with artifacts produced somewhere in mainland China, the relics were hardly ever crafted in imperial workshops. That is to say with the exception of polychrome figured silks in warp-faced compound tabby weave (generally known as jin 錦 silks). These textiles are often adorned by auspicious inscriptions that occasionally propagate political agendas. But even such precious fabrics should be regarded as traded commodities rather than presents. This view is not only supported by the fact that in most cases relatively small fragments of many different weaving patterns were used, but also that some jin samples provide us with ink inscriptions in Chinese and the Kharosthi script that explicitly refer to the price of the textile.

But then, what exactly could be regarded a manifestation of an immensely complex social phenomenon such as prestige in archaeological data? At first glance, the collected evidence suggests that all imported Chinese objects must have been expensive; an observation that does not necessarily imply that all social actors considered them prestigious. The fact that some individuals produced or acquired imitations Chinese artifacts clearly indicates that they somehow admired the originals but, for various reasons, were unable to get hold of such items. Physical expressions of emulation, i.e. copies or imitations, certainly show that originals generated prestige, at least among a certain social group of admirers. More specifically, some Tarim Basin burials indeed provide us with proof that Western Asian weavers emulated Chinese jin silks. In their attempts to transform the latter’s principal decorative motifs into the typical Western Asian weaving technique known as taqueté, i.e. weft-faced compound tabby weaves, artisans even tried to copy – very crudely and unsuccessfully, I might add – Chinese script.""

In this paper, I will both challenge current assumptions held on progress in climate studies, and re-examine past assumptions on the environment of ancient civilizations. I will touch on important themes, such as science policy in the early 20th century and the relationship that Europe had with colonial Asia and with the past environment of China, Turkestan and Persia. With its uniquely rich collections and experts on Asia, London was assuming one hundred years ago the prime responsibility of mapping the natural history of a continent the ‘Britishers’ had largely colonized. The Geological Survey of China, the British Survey of India, scholarly societies in Berlin and Paris, private libraries in Yale and Stockholm were the privileged venues where new information and concepts were created, exchanged, assessed and recast. The explorers sponsored by the Royal Geographical Society of London (RGS) built a professional network that connected the deserts of Central Asia to mighty Europe and nurtured a relationship between London and peripheral centers of knowledge production. Scientific travel was one tool among many to expand the British Empire and add to its prestige, but exploration results could become irrelevant if they somehow challenged the colonial order by proposing disquieting theories on past trends.