Hungarian-born explorer Marc Aurel Stein (1862-1943) made eight expeditions along the ancient trade route that links China and the Mediterranean. Whitfield surveys some of the artifacts that he found, most famously at a Buddhist site near Dunhuang, and reproduces many of his photographs. She is Director of the British Library's Dunhuang Project, which is dedicated to making manuscripts, paintings, and artifacts from the Eastern Silk Road available on the Internet. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)