DISCOVERIES AT MAHABAN AND BANJ
STEIN, Aurel.
Report of archaeological survey work in the North-West Frontier Province and Baluchistan for the period from January 2nd, 1904, to March 31st, 1905 ...
Peshawar, Government Press, 1905.
Folio, pp. [6], v, [3], 56; with 13 photographic illustrations on 6 plates and 5 plans; a very few light marks; very good in printed blue paper boards, neatly rebacked, hinges repaired; some wear to corners and edges; pencil inscription of J. A. Boyd, Glasgow, to front free endpaper, some marginal pencil marks; preserved in a clamshell box.
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Report of archaeological survey work in the North-West Frontier Province and Baluchistan for the period from January 2nd, 1904, to March 31st, 1905 ...
Scarce first edition of this significant report from Stein’s period as Inspector-General of Education and Archaeological Surveyor of the North-West Frontier Province and Baluchistan, to which combined post he had been appointed in July 1903. No copies are recorded at auction on Rare Book Hub.
During his 1904-5 survey, Stein became the first European to visit Mahaban, accompanied by Rai Lal Singh of the Survey of India, who made a survey map under Stein’s supervision. Stein concluded that the identification of Mahaban as the Aornos of Alexander the Great’s time was invalid, and discovered on Banj mountain, south of Mahaban, ruins which he identified as the site of the Buddha’s Body-offering, where, according to Chinese pilgrims. the Buddha, in his former life, was believed to have offered his body to feed a tigress. Stein also made a survey of the remains of a mountain stronghold known as Kafirkot, on the Khasor range south-east of the Kurram valley. In all, Stein recovered over 200 pieces of Gandharan sculpture during his survey.
