NESTORIAN CROSSES
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1644, but not seen since then until now! A third, No. 74, is the stone discovered in 1906 and illustrated by Ecke and Demiéville in 1935 (op. cit. Pl. 70b). A fourth stone (No. 74) is similar to these, but not seen before. Mr. Wu, from the style of the carving, judges these four stones to be relics of the Franciscan mission in Ch'üan-chou in Mongol times. A fifth stone (No. 75) with a Latin inscription largely illegible, can clearly be assigned to the Roman church. Dr. John Foster, who published a preliminary paper on these stones in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (1954) based on a set of rubbings which he received from China, has deciphered on this stone the name and date of Andrew of Perugia, Bishop of Zayton, who died in A.D. 1326.
In contrast to these, the twenty stones, Nos. 70 to 89, which include six with Syriac inscriptions, and which for the most part have the characteristic Nestorian Cross with its blossoming ends, can be ascribed to the Nestorians, who evidently had an establishment in the city. One of these Syriac inscriptions (No. 77) is dated A.D. 1349; while two with Mongol inscriptions (Nos. 85, 86) are dated A.D. 1311 and 1324. The remaining seven (Nos. 90 to 96) are slabs for covering tombs engraved with the characteristic Nestorian Cross, reminiscent of those found in Mongolia and Turkestan.