国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

POTTERY FROM CULTURES III AND IV, SOUTH KURGAN.   145

Whether these forms may be considered as prototypes of the more highly developed gray pottery can not be determined at the present stage of the investigation. In any event, the gray pottery of the lower layers must be connected with the gray ware described above, fragments of which were first found, in surprising quantities, at about +4o feet in the upper digging.

The classification of the red pottery is more difficult. We have thus far not encountered it in the lower strata of the South Kurgan, except that on April 20, 1904, in shaft A, good red pottery with a slip covering was found at —14 feet 5 inches, together with gray pottery and ware of light-colored clay. Since it was wholly lacking in shaft C of the upper digging, however, it is desirable to leave open the question of its really belonging in the lower strata. On the other hand, very interesting specimens of painted pottery were also found in the lower strata.

(C) PAINTED VESSELS.

Here belongs a find from —14 feet 5 inches in shaft A, made on April 20, 1904. This consisted of numerous fragments of several (certainly two) painted vessels of fine brown clay, not very hard burnt, but quite characteristic. One part belongs to a thick-walled dish with high, sharply bent back lip (fig. 199). This form was found in similar technique in terrace C, between +19 feet 5 inches and + 21 feet 2 inches, and also in terrace A, between +27 and + 31 feet. The ornamentation, in broad vertical strokes, is placed upon the border as in plate 34, fig. 2. Other fragments of this find belong to the shoulder of a large pitcher-shaped vessel with a narrow mouth. The decoration has a peculiar naturalistic motif, a tree or branch pattern alternating with groups of vertical lines—a kind of metope decoration (see plate 34, fig. I). Other specimens of this painted pottery (plate 34, figs. 3-5) came from shaft C, between —16 feet and —17 feet 5 inches.

(d) INCISED ORNAMENTATION.

Gray ware with incised ornaments has already been mentioned as found in deep layers. Here I would call attention to a tendency to spiral ornamentation. There are indications of this on both sides of a fragment in fine brown clay from shaft A, between +2 feet 2 inches and +11 feet (plate 16, figs. 3-5) from mixed layers. Thus the painted as well as the incised ornamentation of the lower strata resembles, both in technique and form, the pottery of the middle strata. This close similarity increases the significance of the large walls, which were exposed in terrace B at + 20 feet. They point to an important establishment of which the floor-level is to be sought, as it probably lies still deeper than the level which we there reached.

POTTERY OF THE UPPER STRATA, CULTURE IV.

In the light of the investigation and its results, the upper strata of the South Kurgan extend downwards to a horizontal plane lying between + 37 feet 7 inches and +4o feet, and parallel to this development runs that of the plateau forming the northern extension of the kurgan. The pottery here is distinguished both