dienasgramata:

Stein set out on his second expedition, his most famous, in 1907. This trip targeted the sites of Lou Lan and Dunhuang. Stein wanted to be the first archeologist to explore these sites. Stein reached Lou Lan first, crossing the high mountains and the Lop Desert. There he found military records dated to 330 CE. These records described frontier warfare in the region, when the Chinese emperor was struggling to control the western regions.

Moving on from Lou Lan, Stein stumbled upon his greatest discovery, "The Caves of the Thousand Buddhas" at Dunhuang. Here Stein bribed Abbot Wang, the leader of the monastic group in charge of the caves, and smuggled away thousands of manuscripts written in Chinese, Sanskrit, Sogdian, Tibetan, Runic Turki and Uighur. Among these manuscripts were rich Buddhist paintings and the world's oldest printed document, The Diamond Sutra, from 863 CE.