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0372 Explorations in Turkestan : Expedition of 1904 : vol.1
Explorations in Turkestan : Expedition of 1904 : vol.1 / Page 372 (Color Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000178
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216   ARCIiEOI,OGICAI, EXCAVATIONS AT ANCI$NT MERV.

of these jars have the former arrangement (a), which occurred also on several fragments of similar jars found here. One large fragment of the top of a jar, without horizontal rows, had the diagonal arrangement extending to within an inch or so of the rim. The jar lying half on its side was of a different character. It was flat-bottomed, had no design, and though so badly broken that its height and girth could not be determined, was obviously smaller than the rest.

Among the other objects found in this digging were beads, fragments of colored glass, baked bricks, a large quantity of broken pottery, some of it glazed, one or two pieces of miniature animal sculpture in baked clay, several small earthenware lamps, of which only one was intact, odd bits of copper, and some corroded copper coins whose impressions were wholly effaced. The contents of several of the jars were sifted without finding anything more important than bits of pottery, chicken bones, and wood-ashes.

Six or eight feet from the corner, in the angle formed by the two lines of jars, was found a piece of uneven flooring (7o by 42 inches) of square baked bricks (6 inches to 1 foot square). It was on a level with the bottoms of the jars ; and this fact, taken in connection with their peculiar arrangement, suggested that the jars had stood in the corner of a room, court, or terrace, in which case an interval observed between two of the jars may have given access to a doorway. On June 4 the jars were reburied. The pit measured 6 by 7 yards, 5.5 feet deep on the east side, 3.75 feet on the west.

I may here add a note on the only other large jar that was found this year in Ghiaur Kala. It came to light June 8, in digging along the side of the smaller of Mr. Djukowsky 's trenches in the citadel; height, 29 inches; diameter of rim, 16.25 inches. It bore an incised design like that on the fragment mentioned above —parallel rows of short arcs running diagonally from the bottom to within an inch or so of the top. This jar, being intact, was sent to the Askhabad Museum.