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

176   THE ARCHEOLOGICAL EXCAVATIONS IN ANAU.

ance of the potters' wheel in other culture regions—that the more the potter, through the mastery of the wheel technique, is enabled to satisfy his feeling for form, the less he feels the need of decorating the surface of vessels. Consequently the practice of painting decreases more and more.

The red ware now seems to be the rarest. Unfortunately, it must remain uncertain whether this ware is a continuation of the red monochrome ware of the

North Kurgan or whether it is to be considered a new creation of the youngest copper epoch. If we compare the three epochs, therefore, according to their ceramic accomplishments, then culture III must be marked as the brilliant epoch of the copper age of Transcaspia.

This statement finds its confirmation in the other culture equipment of the three epochs. First of all comes the objects of copper. From the absence of

certain forms in particular layers we are not justified in drawing conclusions

concerning the supply of objects of copper of the corresponding epoch. Still, we must take into consideration the fact that considerable masses of earth were moved

in both hills, and we are justified in comparing the mass of finds from both hills

according to quantity and quality. The wealth of copper from the middle strata of the South Kurgan could certainly not be accidental. Culture III excels both

of the older epochs very decidedly in abundance of copper objects. It is interesting

also to compare the metal forms represented in the three epochs. Without any doubt the ornamental objects of culture I, such as spiral tubes and nozzles,

which we have found among the burial gifts, have a primitive character; while

the equal value which seems to have been placed upon copper and lead, which were both worked into jewelry, points to a relatively high age. Pins of a similar

kind are found in all three epochs. Culture III brings a new form to these in the

pin with double scrolls at the head end. The copper ornamental disks of the third epoch can also pass as enrichment of the ornamental equipment of the copper

age. As regards tools, similar awls and chisels occur in all the epochs; but it may not be without significance that we find in the youngest copper epoch a small chisel with a broad, widened cutting-edge. We certainly can not produce much more evidence, the weapons found in the older epochs being too few in number to invite a comparison.

In general it can be further stated that in the third epoch the need of luxury finds its expression in the use of vessels of marble and alabaster, of stamps, and

of stone seals. The ornamental beads also show a more artistic and varied use

of precious stones. To those previously in use—turquoise, lapis lazuli, and carnelian—there were now added alabaster and marble. Lastly, we can observe

this progress in the direction of taste in some of the implements of daily use—in the ornamented whorls, for example. The whorls are all the more important on account of their rarity; and we are really justified in laying stress upon the difference between the respective groups of whorls of the two hills. Not only can one observe a finer modeling of form in the whorls of the South Kurgan, but the decoration also shows distinct progress in the systematic grouping of the patterns which in the older epochs were used as separate motifs.