His major contribution to Playing Card History became a short article in "The American Anthropologist", Volume VIII, January 1895, Pages 61-78, in which Wilkinson suggested the Chinese origin of the playing cards.
Beside his general suggestion to the playing card origin Wilkinson made the proposal, that the Italian Tarocchi trumps developed from Chinese domino cards:
"What these tarots were originally has puzzled all writers on cards, nor has any one, so far is I am aware, ever attempted to account for their, number, 22. Yet it is exceedingly probable that in them we have the set of twenty-one natural dominoes which [Page 77] forms the base of nearly all Chinese card games that derive their marks from dice. A domino is, of course, nothing but a pair of dice placed side by side (whence the mark across its face), and the number of possible combinations of two dice is 6.7/1.2, or 21."

The "Book of Table Games" is a comprehensive guide to a wide variety of traditional and modern tabletop games, written by Professor Hoffmann and first published in 1894. The book covers a range of games, including card games, board games, and dice games, providing detailed rules and instructions for each one. The games are organized into chapters based on their type and complexity, with introductory sections that provide historical and cultural context for each game.The book begins with an overview of card games, including popular games like poker, whist, and bridge, as well as lesser-known games like piquet and �����cart�����. The chapter on board games covers classics like chess and checkers, as well as more obscure games like fox and geese and nine men's morris. The section on dice games includes games of chance like craps and hazard, as well as strategic games like backgammon.Throughout the book, Hoffmann provides tips and strategies for winning each game, as well as advice on etiquette and good sportsmanship. He also includes illustrations and diagrams to help readers understand the rules and gameplay.Overall, The Book of Table Games is a valuable resource for anyone interested in traditional games and their history, as well as for those looking to expand their repertoire of tabletop games. Its timeless appeal makes it a must-read for game enthusiasts of all ages. ....

Huck wrote: 04 Feb 2024, 20:14 Turfan card, estimated to be from c1100, alternatively from c1400

1. Expedition: November 1902 – März 1903 (Leiter: Grünwedel) ... 5 months
2. Expedition: November 1904 – August 1905 (Leiter: Le Coq) ... 10 months
3. Expedition: vereinigte sich mit 2. Expedition Dezember 1905 - April 1907 (Leiter: Grünwedel) ... 17 months
4. Expedition: Dezember 1913 – Januar 1914 (Leiter: Le Coq) .... 2 months

History

Main article: Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves .... [leads to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bezeklik_Caves .... long article ]
Further information: Kingdom of Qocho .... [leads to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qocho ... long article ]


International attention was first drawn to Turfan by Sven Hedin (1865-1952), ...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sven_Hedin
.... to European and Japanese archaeologists, as a potential and promising site in Central Asia for field explorations for archaeological finds. He could follow up the work in later years during his last expeditions between 1928 and 1935. His collections of that period are in the Stockholm Ethnographical Museum. After his first suggestion to the archeologist about the archaeological richness of the Turfan site, many Russian expeditions were mounted from September 27 to November 21, 1879 .....
---- ... if I believe this, Swen Hedin was then 14 years old ...
.... right up to 1914–1915, Finnish expeditions from 1906 to 1908, by Japan between July 1908 and June 1914, and also other explorers from Great Britain, France and America; and from 1928 Chinese archaeological campaigns continued the work of the foreign expeditions. German expeditions from 1902 and 1914 not only to Turfan but also other sites such as Kucha, Qarashahr and Tumshuq [Tumšuq] were most fruitful.[5] Toward the end of the nineteenth century, Germans were impressed by the discoveries and finds reported by Europeans traveling through the Silk Roads and the exposition made at the twelfth international Congress of Orientalists in Rome in the year 1899 prompted them to launch their own expeditions to the area. The finds of the four expeditions (packed and carted to Germany initially) were murals, other artefacts and about 40,000 pieces of texts.[6] The four German expeditions covered Turfan but also Kucha, Qarashahr and Tumshuq [Tumšuq]. The expeditions were:[5][6]


Art work from the German Turfan expeditions
First Expedition: November 1902 – March 1903 led by Prof. Grünwedel along with the Orientalist scholar, Georg Huth,[7] and Bartus, as fellow participants;
Second Expedition: November 1904 – August 1905 led by Le Coq along with Bartus;
Third Expedition: united with the second Expedition, from December 1905 to April 1907 led by Grünwedel and Le Coq, H. Pohrt and Bartus as fellow participants;
Fourth Expedition: June 1913 – February 1914 led by Le Coq along with Bartus as a participant.
First Expedition
The financing for the expedition involved 36,000 Marks which was provided by the Königliche Museum für Völkerkunde in Berlin, by James Simon (benefactor of museums), Krupp house, the Prussian Government and an “Ethnologisches Hilfskomitee.”[5] The first Expedition from December, 1902 to April 1903, led by Prof. A. Grünwedel along with Dr. G. Huth and Theodor Bartus, followed the route from Yining to Ürümqi to Turfan Oasis when paintings, statues and manuscripts were found and carted in 46 crates,[6] and the zoological objects in plus 13 crates. The detailed account of the expedition was published in Grünwedel's book titled "Bericht über archäologische Arbeiten in Idikutschari und Umgebung im Winter 1902-1903", Abhandlungen der Königlich Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, I. Kl., XXIV. Bd., München 1906.[5]

Ben Hoshour's just published Origins of the Minor Arcana: A Guidebook to the Ancestral Influences that Shaped the Tarot's Minor Arcana (IngramSpark, 2020)

A CHINESE PLAYING CARD IN THE STAATLICHES MUSEUM FÜR VÖLKERKUNDE, BERLIN
Found in 1905 by Dr. A. von Le Coq with fragments of manuscripts of the Uigur period in the glen of Sangim near Turfan, Chinese Turkestan. This card, which corresponds to the Red Flower of the present Chinese pack, presumably is not later than the eleventh century A.D., and probably is the oldest known playing card.
The seal over the man's head denotes money, three fan, and the characters at the top and bottom give the maker's name. (From Stewart Culin, in 'The Game of Ma Jong.')

“Masters” and “Natives”: Digging the Others’ Past
by Svetlana Gorshenina, Philippe Bornet, Michel E. Fuchs, Claude Rapin
Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG, 08.10.2019 - 394 Seiten
The book focuses on the relational dynamic between “masters” and “natives” in the construction of scholarly narratives about the past, in the fields of archeology, history or the study of religions. Reconsidering the role of subaltern actors that recent postcolonial studies have tended to ignore, the present book emphasizes the complex relations between representatives of the imperial power and local actors, and analyzes how masters and natives (and their respective cultures) have shaped each other in the course of the interaction. Through various vectors of intercultural transfer and knowledge exchange, through the circulation of ideas, techniques and human beings, new visions of the past of extra-European regions emerged, as did collective memories resulting from various kinds of appropriations. In this framework, the most important question is how these dynamic processes determined collective memories of the past in plural (post-)colonial – in particular, Asian – worlds, participating to the construction of national/imperial/local identities and to the reinvention of traditions.

A CHINESE PLAYING CARD IN THE STAATLICHES MUSEUM FÜR VÖLKERKUNDE, BERLIN
Found in 1905 by Dr. A. von Le Coq with fragments of manuscripts of the Uigur period in the glen of Sangim near Turfan, Chinese Turkestan. This card, which corresponds to the Red Flower of the present Chinese pack, presumably is not later than the eleventh century A.D., and probably is the oldest known playing card.
The seal over the man's head denotes money, three fan, and the characters at the top and bottom give the maker's name. (From Stewart Culin, in 'The Game of Ma Jong.')

... already quoted by Ross:
at page 161 together with the picture: "Found in 1905 by Dr. A. von Le Coq with fragments of manuscripts of the Uigur period in the glen of Sangim near Turfan, Chinese Turkestan. This card, which corresponds with the red flower of the present Chinese pack (Plate 1), presumably is not later than the 11th century AD, and probably is the oldest known playing card.
The seal over the man's head contains a denomination of money, three fan, and the characters at the top and bottom give the maker's name."
The form and general appearance of these cards suggests a high antiquity. A presumably old card (Plate 2)[Footnote 10] in the Museum of Ethnology, Berlin, found by Dr. A. von Le Coq among the Uigur ruins in the oasis of Turfan in Chinese Turkestan, which must have belonged to a similar money-derived pack, varies but little from cards now current.

Footnote 10: "Dr. Le Coq, to whose courtesy I am indebted for this illustration, informs me that this card was found by him in 1905 while digging in the loess and debris from the mountain side, deposited on the N. terrace of Temple No. 10 in the glen of Sangim Aghyz between Murtuq and Qara Khoja near Turfan. "Unfortunately I am not sure that this locality, which is close to a road has not been invaded by treasure seekers. Still the objects found with it, a pen and ink case and some fragments of Uigur mss. belong without any doubt to the Uigur period." From these indications it would appear to he at least of the 11th Century."

Metadata
Titel : Chinesische Spielkarte
Identifier : A 493 / 1885728 / IB 6061
Datum : 1904-1905
Ort : Sängim: Nord-Terrasse Tempel 10
Schlagwörter / Material : Papier
Expedition / Sammlung : 2. Turfan-Expedition 1904-1905

Die digitalen Images und Metadaten werden bereitgestellt durch das Ethnologische Museum, das Museum für Asiatische Kunst und das Projekt "Nicht-textuelle Materialien als Quelle und Forschungsgegenstand: die "Turfan-Expeditionen" und die Berliner Sammlungen" in Kooperation mit der Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin | CrossAsia

ERGEBNISSE DER KGL. PREUSSISCHEN TURFAN-EXPEDITIONEN

CHOTSCHO
FACSIMILE-WIEDERGABEN DER WICHTIGEREN FUNDE DER ERSTEN KÖNIGLICH PREUSSISCHEN EXPEDITION NACH TURFAN IN OST-TURKISTAN
IM AUFTRAGE DER GENERALVERWALTUNG DER KÖNIGLICHEN MUSEEN AUS MITTELN DES BAESSLER-INSTITUTES HERAUSGEGEBEN VON
A. VON LE COQ

45 FARBIGE UND 30 SCHWARZE LICHTDRUCKTAFELN MIT BESCHREIBENDEM TEXT
DIETRICH REIMER (ERNST VOHSEN) BERLIN 1913

Dadurch nähern sie sich aber den Höhlenbauten mit einem Pfeiler in der Mitte, hinter dem ein Rundgang herumführt, z. B. Nordterrasse von Tempel Nr. 10 hinter Sengyma'uz. Sie ersetzen also hier den Stûpa. Dieselbe Bedeutung haben sie sicher auf den Plattformen anderer gröberer Terrassen wie 2, A, C, I, T, X.

Gaochang oder Kocho (chinesisch ??, uigurisch Xoqo, Qara-hoja, auch Chotscho, Khocho, Qoco bzw. Qoco) ist eine alte Oasenstadt im Tarimbecken in Zentralasien.
Sie war ein Handelszentrum und Zwischenstation für die auf der Seidenstraße reisenden Kaufleute, ein Verkehrsknotenpunkt im westlichen China.
Heute sind nur noch Ruinen übrig, die sich in der Gemeinde Sanpu des Stadtbezirks Gaochang befinden, etwa 30 km südöstlich des Zentrums der Stadt Turpan. Dieser Ort wurde von den Ortsansässigen ursprünglich Idykut-schari oder Idikutschari genannt[1]. Der deutsche Name für die Stätte ist Chotscho oder Kocho.
Google translator:
Gaochang or Kocho (Chinese ??, Uighur Xoqo, Qara-hoja, also Chotscho, Khocho, Qoco or Qoco) is an old oasis city in the Tarim Basin in Central Asia.
It was a trading center and stopover for merchants traveling on the Silk Road, a transport hub in western China.
Today, only ruins remain, located in Sanpu Township of Gaochang District, about 30 km southeast of the center of Turpan City. This place was originally called Idykut-shari or Idikutschari by the locals[1]. The German name for the site is Chotscho or Kocho.

Turpan (also known as Turfan; Chinese: ???; Uyghur: ??????) is a prefecture-level city located in the east of the autonomous region of Xinjiang, China. It has an area of 69,759 square kilometres (26,934 sq mi) and a population of 693,988 (2020).