Tag: the Museum of the Oasis Kingdoms

The Kusinne Path of the Road

Catalog Item #111: Pilgrim’s Guide, circa 2nd century. Contains a listing of waystops for pilgrims following the Kusinne Path of the Road. Each entry is separated by pages which are inscribed in a different hand (presumably that of the pilgrim) with remarks on the subject. At the end, in a third hand, there is the description of a journey to visit a ruin in the desert near Chayi, signed “Nabylah”.

From the Expedition of 1836

10th Thermidor, 1836: We have excavated the drainage system of the abbey. It proves to be a complex work of engineering. I may base my next presentation at the Academy on what it has to tell us about the technology of the Oasis Basin in the second century.

News from Hieronymus, who is still at Chayi: they have uncovered a structure in the desert to the east of the city, which they believe pre-dates the earliest Chayi settlements. They must have been ruins even then. Hieronymus describes the major feature as being very large blocks, worn by time and the desert sands. Hieronymous suspects that the area was originally quite fertile, speculating about the possibility of lush vegetation. I think it is much more likely that it was a military bastion of some sort.

From the Museum of the Oasis Kingdoms

Catalog item #34: painting on silk, depicting the legendary Queen Fadya, enthroned and surrounded by the four symbols of the Kusinne paths.

Catalog item #31: painting on silk, depicting the raising of a memorial obelisk on a royal tomb.

From a sign at the exhibit:

“The next significant outpouring of Oasis culture is that associated with the post-Fadya period, also referred to as the Oasis Mourning Culture, because of the way many of the early works of this movement are related to the reign and death of the legendary Queen Fadya.”

From the Expedition of 1836

28th Prairial, 1836: Arriving at the site, we took stock of the preparations of the previous season. The precautions taken to preserve the scriptorium and library in the offseason were successful. We have already discovered several additional copies of The Little Book of Kusinne.

Hieronymus’s offseason dig at the battlefield near Aksu proved just as fruitful. He posits, based on the sparrow-markings on the iron weapons, that it dates to the conquest of Aksu by Kuchina in the first century, before their unification into one realm.

As you know, my contention has been that the legendary Queen Fadya, who supposedly undertook this unification, was clearly mythological; perhaps stories of a local guardian spirit were used to create a propaganda for national unification. After all, the stories of the different religious factions mourning at her funeral side-by-side is clearly intended as a metaphor for the triumph of political power over the local religious cults.

From the Expedition of 1836

13th Thermidor, 1836: Excavations of the Grand Abbey of Kucha continue. Our surveying artists have nearly finished mapping out the crypts and postern gate that we discovered in our earlier digs. We have unearthed several weapons bearing sparrow-markings, though their brittle construction has left few intact. Among the cache there was one sword that bore a different marking, a lantern sigil, nearly intact. It will make for a grand display in the museum.