Aurel Stein in Innermost Asia, first edition

Heading:
Author: Stein, Aurel
Title: Innermost Asia, Detailed Report of Explorations in Central Asia, Kan-Su and Eastern Iran. Carried Out and Described Under the Orders of H.M. Indian Government
Place Published: Oxford
Publisher:Clarendon Press
Date Published: 1928
Description:

3 volumes plus portfolio of maps. Profusely illustrated, the text volumes containing 505 photographic illustrations, 138 plates (nos. 1-137, including 99a), some printed in color, 59 plans; the portfolio contains 51 loose printed color maps, numbered 1-47 and A-D, plus an index map. 33.5x25.5 cm (13¼x10"), original brown cloth with embossed gilt medallion on front cover, spines lettered in gilt. First Edition.

Perhaps the most ambitious of Stein's works on the archaeology and anthropology of Central Asia, with a plethora of plates from photographs, of artifacts, manuscripts, wall paintings, sculpture and more, plus the fifty plus maps charting in great detail the area investigated. Inspired by Sven Hedin, Stein took part in several expeditions in Central Asia, gathering numerous artifacts and antiquities. Financed by the Indian Government, Stein established the existence of a lost civilization along the Silk Route in Chinese central Asia, being the first archaeologist to "discover evidence of the Graeco-Buddhist culture of north-west India across Chinese Turkestan and into China itself" (DNB). The British Library's Stein collection of Chinese, Tibetan and Tangut manuscripts, Prakrit wooden tablets, and documents in Khotanese, Uighur, Sogdian and Eastern Turkic is the result of his travels. Ex-library, bookplates of Diplomatic Affairs Foundation, endpaper pockets, inked spine numbers crossed out, withdrawn rubberstamps from Johns Hopkins University.
Condition Report: Some soiling and minor wear to covers, one seam of map portfolio starting to split, neat cloth repairs to endpaper hinges of volumes, light offset to endpapers; very good overall.