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

MINOR ANTIQUITIES FROM CULTURES III AND IV, COPPER.   155

culture III or to the younger IV. The infrequently occurring pottery at this depth in the outer digging consists of mixed younger and older sorts.

Lastly, there are some miscellaneous objects, of which the use and significance can not be definitely determined from the form. A fragment of a double tube made from sheet copper (S.K. 165b, fig. 282), from the upper digging, between +25 feet 5 inches and +29 feet, is possibly an ornament. The fragments of a doubly bent band of copper seem to have been the binding of some round object (S.K. 306, fig. 283). They are from terrace C between +18 feet 5 inches and +19 feet 5 inches. An object with elliptical cross-section (S.K. 201, fig. 284; plate 38, fig. 7) , resembles a handle or hilt. It comes from terrace B, between + 21 feet 5 inches and +23 feet 7 inches. A trough-shaped object (S.K. 98, fig. 285), made from sheet copper or low bronze, was found in the upper digging between +33 feet 2 inches and +37 feet 7 inches.

No objects of copper or bronze have hitherto been found in the lower strata

of the South Kurgan. It can not, however, be concluded from this that none are to be found there. The study of the ceramic finds shows that in degree and quality the culture of the lower layers stands on an equal footing with that of the middle strata.

COPPER FROM UPPER STRATA, CULTURE IV.

The localities to be considered in connection with the finds of the younger culture are the layers of the upper digging between +40

and + 52 feet, terrace A, and the outer digging down to the level of +4 feet 2 inches. The number of copper finds brought to light there

is very small.   It is
possible that a piece of wire (S.K. 1 1, fig. 286), belongs to a pin. It was found 3 feet below

the surface of the upper digging. The purpose of a little rod (S.K. 145; fig. 287; plate 39, fig. 8) is indeterminable. The rod comes from the outer digging, between +6 feet 5 inches and + Io feet. The most important find, however, is a three-edged arrow-point of copper; that is, it has a triangular cross-section (S.K. 8; fig. 288; plate 39, fig. 7). The three edges are raised slightly above the deeper-lying lateral faces and they are extended downward into blunt projecting points. It has no socket for the shaft—merely a hole bored into the heart of the copper. It was found April 8, 1904, 5.25 feet below the highest edge of terrace A, which practically corresponds to the absolute level +35 feet. But since the layers in terrace A fall with the present surface of the hill toward the northern plateau extension, they are to be considered in relation to the horizontal strata of the

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