Shaping the Stein collection’s Dunhuang corpus (2): the items from Cave 17’s ‘miscellaneous’ bundles

In a previous blog post , we looked at the instrumental role played by Wang Yuanlu during the selection of the items from the Cave 17. Wang, who directly chose from the small repository what to hand over to Stein for inspection, was very keen to divert his attention from the so-called ‘regular’ bundles, which were composed for the most part of Buddhist sutras in Chinese and Tibetan. During their first ever transaction, which took place between 21 May and 6 June 1907, Wang Yuanlu therefore began by handing over the ‘miscellaneous’ bundles, which he seemed to hold in low estimation. To Stein’s delight, these contained mixed and diverse materials, such as manuscripts in non-Chinese languages, illustrated scrolls, paintings, drawings, ex-votos, textiles, etc. Stein picked out any of the items that jumped at him as being particularly interesting and made sure to put them aside for ‘further examination’, the phrase that he used to refer to their removal in his transaction with Wang. This

IDP Job Vacancy: GIS Research Curator

An exciting opportunity has arisen in IDP at the British Library for a Geographical Information Systems (GIS) Research Curator. Working as part of a small team, you will be responsible for the development of an online map interface, creation of suitable content for base maps, and implementation of spatial search functions for inscriptions, manuscripts and other archaeological objects. This is a key post in a European Research Commission Synergy Project Beyond Boundaries: Religion, Region, Language and the State, a collaboration between the British Library, British Museum and School of Oriental and African Studies.

The post requires a post-graduate degree, or its equivalent, in a directly relevant field, and the successful candidate will be able to demonstrate knowledge of GIS, digital imaging, web-based map interfaces and spatial data management. Strong IT skills and excellent written and spoken English are essential, as well as excellent organisational, analytical and networking skills and an excellent attention to detail. Also desirable is experience with web programming, for example with demonstrable prior familiarity with Javascript, HTML5, PHP, Ruby, JSON or a subset of these, and/or scripting experience in languages such as Python or R.

Closing date for applications is 12 December. For further information see the full job profile.

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