Stein immediately recognized the worth of items such as this sieve, discarded by the fromer inhabitants of Niya. He writes: ' … much of what they left behind, though it could never tempt the treasure-seekers of succeeding ages, has acquired for us exceptional value … the broken pieces of domestic and agricultural implements … — these all help to bring vividly before our eyes details of ancient civilisation that without the preserving force of the desert would have been lost forever.'
(Sand-Buried Ruins, xv111).
Withies bound with string, yellow felt, vegetable fibre
The British Museum,
MAS.528 (N.XII.0018)