GAP BETWEEN THE NORTH AND SOUTH KURGANS.
We have no means of measuring the interval that existed between the time when the layers still in place at the top of the North Kurgan were formed, and the time of the founding of the South Kurgan. During the long lapse of millenniums, the northern hill has undergone a great amount of wastage on its sides, vastly reducing its circumference above its base. There can be no doubt that its height has been lowered also. Under absence of any kind of protection, the height would have diminished by many feet. But there is always the possibility that such an eminence would from time to time be protected by some kind of structure of which no traces remain, but which would retard its wastage. As the matter stands, we can only say that no evidence exists of overlap of the cultures of the two hills. My impression is that we have here a long period, perhaps of many centuries, not represented by culture-strata. I have therefore drawn the column without any gap, rather than insert one that would be only arbitrary.
To convert the stratigraphie column into a chronological expression requires a knowledge of the rate of growth of the culture-strata. At present the only means available is offered by the determination of the date of introduction of decorated glazed ware (faience) into Anau and Merv. The lowest strata of Anau city are characterized by a red, hard-baked, undecorated pottery, but at 5 feet above the base there appeared in all my shafts a greenish pottery and decorated glazed ware. This same ware we found in Ghiaur Kala (Merv) down to a depth of 20 feet and no deeper. It was there associated with Sassanian coins of the third century A. D. It is not likely that it was older than these coins. Since both Mery and Anau were under Persian rule, it seems probable that such a sudden cultural acquisition is referable to some important phase in the varying fortunes of the Persian monarchy in the early centuries of our era. The Mullahs of Anau told me that Anau was fortified by Anu-Shirvan (Chosroes I), the greatest of the Sassanian monarchs (531-579) . Chosroes made his expedition in 559 against the white Huns in Trans- Oxiana, and fortified his northeastern and northern frontiers against the incursions of the nomads. This monarch extended his empire over Mesopotamia, the home of faience; and it is known that the Persians made this ware before the Arab conquest of Iran. This would point to the possibility, if not probability, of a contemporaneous introduction of glazed ware into Mery and Anau. If we take the middle of the sixth century A. D. as the date of introduction at Anau, the growth of the overlying 33 feet in thirteen centuries will give a rate of 2.54 feet per century.
Again, a Cufic inscription on the façade of the mosque at Anau tells that it was built in 1444. The floor of the mosque lies 9 feet below the general level of the top of culture-strata which have risen above the plaza and approaches. A growth of 9 feet in four centuries gives a rate of 2.25 per century. The 24 feet between the beginning of glazed ware and the floor of the mosque divided by nine centuries gives a rate of 2.66 feet. We have thus three rates-2.54, 2.25, 2.66. If we assume that the floor of the mosque was laid one foot above the street level,
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