NORTH KURGAN.
In both the observed finds and the conditions in which they occurred, as well as in the general course of investigation of the North Kurgan, we can distinguish two great epochs in its formation. Since the remains of their civilizations were deposited one above the other, it follows that one must have succeeded the other. Their relative age-relation is thus assured. In the terraces of the North Kurgan we have become acquainted principally with the younger of these cultures.
Culture II.—Three, relatively four, successive periods of this culture could be determined in the upper layers between +4o and +25 feet. At this time the inhabitants of the hill lived in huts or houses built of air-dried bricks. They used peculiar bake-ovens like the upper half of a pot, and large kettles on hearths, also fireplaces with a central hole ; and they had the remarkable custom of burying their children inside of their dwellings, immediately adjoining the hearths. In these burials the body was generally placed in the so-called contracted or Hocker position. The pottery used at this time was the red and gray monochrome (group x). With this there were painted vessels, clearly a rarity (groups z and v). The inhabitants of the hill built their houses on the deposits of an older culture and in this way caused a mixture of their own culture products with those of the older civilization.
Culture I.—The unmixed older culture layers do not occur, as a rule, except below the level of +25 feet. The infallible witnesses to this older culture are coarse and fine vessels, which are almost always painted in a peculiar style (group y). Wherever vessels of this kind are found in situ they are to be considered as the remains of the dwellings of the older culture. In terrace II the pithoi were found in two layers, one above the other, at the level of + 22 feet 5 inches and + 20 feet. In terrace III, also, at least two successive layers of the older culture are distinguishable, the upper at +18 feet, the lower at +15 feet. In terraces vi and viii traces of the older dwellings are found at still higher levels, i. e., +25 and + 26 feet respectively. Traces of the remains of buildings of the older culture were observed both above and below the datum-plane—i. e., a wall in the west digging between +18 feet and + io feet, one in north diggings I and iI, between — II feet and — 12 feet ; and one in the west shaft at the level of —15 feet at the top and —18 feet at the bottom edge.
In the deeper layers as well as in the upper and middle ones, there is an association of walls and pithoi and skeleton graves. Thus north digging II also yielded a wall, a pile of ashes, and at —12 feet to —13 feet an excellently preserved skeleton in contracted or inclined Hocker position, while in the shaft of the east gallery two skeleton graves were found at — 8 feet.
IIIF Color HighRes
