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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

I 2 2   THE ARCHEOLOGICAL EXCAVATIONS IN ANAU.

SOUTH KURGAN.

In the South Kurgan also we can distinguish two great culture epochs. In the development of the kurgan, these are topographically separated by a horizon-

tal plane lying between +37 feet 7 inches and +41 feet.

The younger culture (IV) claims the upper layers of the hill lying above the

plane mentioned and essentially the whole of the plateau forming the northern extension. Real dwellings were not found, though traces of them were recognized in the southwest side of the upper digging above +48 feet, in the deposits of débris between two walls. On the lower plateau extension the pithos found in the outer digging points to a dwelling-place. Qualitatively, this younger culture is characterized by the pottery of groups I and 2, by the use of iron implements (knife and sickle), and by younger copper forms (three-edged arrow-point), all of these being finds from the upper digging and from terrace A.

The older culture (III) lies buried below the horizontal plane above mentioned and has the same significance in the development of the South Kurgan that culture I has in that of the North Kurgan. It was most comprehensively opened up in the middle strata of the hill. Here there were found, at different levels, considerable remains of buildings and dwellings built of sun-dried bricks, thresholds, hearths, and vessels. The people of culture III like the people of the cultures I and II in the North Kurgan, had the custom of burying children of different ages within their dwellings or precincts.

If we take into consideration the observations made in terraces B and C there can be recognized within the middle layers of the hill, six different periods (A to F), counting from below upward, as follows:

Period A.—The great clay constructions of terrace B, between +18 feet and + 20 feet, with pithos d of the same place. Pithos in terrace C at +18 feet 5 inches.

Period B.—Clay chest and pithoi b and c in terrace B, between + 23 feet and +25 feet. Ash layers and two hearths of clay in terrace C between + 23 feet 7 inches and + 26 feet, as well as the skeleton grave in the same terrace at + 20 feet 5 inches.

Period C.—Pithos a, and the brick in terrace B between + 25 feet and + 27 feet, as well as skeletons a, c, i, and e, between + 23 feet and + 24 feet.

Period D.—Pithoi b to d in the upper digging, between + 26 feet and +29 feet ; threshold in terrace B, at +27.5 feet, as well as skeletons a, 13, r, ands in terrace B, between + 25 feet and + 27 feet.

Period E.—Pithos a in the upper digging between +32 feet and +35.75 feet. Clay wall in the west side of terrace B, between +31 feet and + 32 feet.

Period F.—Clay wall in the upper digging between +37 feet and +40 feet. Period F denotes the latest time of the older culture; above its deposits the younger epoch begins.

Qualitatively, the older culture is determined by the pottery of groups 3 to 5. Essential ceramic differences are not observable within the development of the six periods. During period F the gray and red varieties must have assumed marked importance in comparison with the ware of light greenish-white or yellow clay,