National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

EXCAVATIONS AND PINDS AT THE SOUTH KURGAN.   I15

Two corners of a rectangular room or building were relatively well preserved. The outer cross wall is wider and stronger and better preserved than the longitudinal walls at right angles with it. Its upper edge lies at the level of +20 feet, and it was followed downwards to +18 feet. Indeed, it was possible from the survey of R. W. Pumpelly to determine, in part, the position of the walls and the size of the air-dried bricks used (9 by 4 by 18 inches) . On the inner sides these thick walls still showed extensive remains of a white plastering of lime or mortar.

The extension of the longitudinal walls into the interior of the hill could not be followed. Less well preserved were some smaller walls adjoining this larger building; their upper edges stood at +20.5 feet and +19.5 feet. Judging from these walls, we have here extensive constructions, which must be merely part of a settlement covering the level of + 20 feet throughout the hill. The question arises, therefore : What is the relation of this settlement to the finds discovered above in terrace B, and how do the layers rise one above the other? These buildings must already have been buried when the clay chest was built at +23 feet. Pithoi b and c must have been in use simultaneously with this chest. Pithos d stood at a lower level than b and c, but only its bottom is preserved ; therefore it is older than b and c, and possibly contemporaneous with the walls. Pithos a stood 2 feet higher than b and c, this difference being exactly the height of the latter, of which the upper part of the lip had disappeared. Pithos a, must, therefore, have been younger than b and c; possibly these lost their lips when a was put into place. The air-dried brick lies at about the same level on which pithos a stands and was probably contemporaneous with it.

The threshold at +27.5 feet marks a higher layer. Since the preserved lip of pithos a stood at + 26 feet, it must already have been in the earth when the threshold was laid. We would thus have to distinguish the following periods from the top down :

Period IV, threshold.

Period III, pithos a and the brick.

Period II, clay chest and pithoi b and c. Period I, large walls and pithos d.

The question still remains : How are the skeleton graves to be distributed? This depends on the levels of the different layers. For comparison we may arrange the finds in the following parallel columns :

I.

Ft. In.

Threshold + 27 6

Air-dried brick    + 25   2

Pithos a    + 25

Clay chest, height 68 cm.    { +25 5

+23

Pithos c (b) height 62 em   + 23   7

Pithos b (c) height 65 cm   + 23

Pithos d   + 21

II.

Pt. In.

Skeletons a (No.19) and   (No. 21) .. + 27

Skeletons y(No. 22),_ (No. 25),>9(No.24) + 25

Skeleton S (No. 2o)    + 23 7

Skeleton ; (No. 23)    + 23 5

Skeleton r (No. 26)   +23   2

Skeleton c (No. 27)    + 23

Only in the uppermost layer, period IV, is the height of the floor determined by the threshold. In all the other cases it is uncertain. A maximum height can be assumed from the lips of the pithoi and the dimensions of the clay chest.