were very coarse and rough, and were usually 3 inches thick, although a few were thinner. Later the brick-makers appear to have settled upon a standard size-2.5 inches thick by about II inches square.
CLASS III. KURGANS OF THE HIGHLY DEVELOPED TYPE.
The structure, contents, shape, and size of the kurgans of the third class indicate that as time went on old arts were improved and new ones were developed. The people learned to make their hills higher and larger, and began to orient them with care. Some built kurgans with the sides running directly north and south, while others, carrying the idea of orientation farther, put the axes north and south, and even went so far as to make diamond-shaped parallelograms instead of squares. It was apparently no accident, this gradual turning of the mounds more and more to the north and south, for of the nine kurgans of the third class at least four have projecting towers at the most southern point, as appears in the diagrams of plate 6o. Possibly these have a religious significance, but of this we have no proof. Not only did the outer form of the kurgans become more highly developed, but the manner of building the interior advanced equally. Baked bricks were used in addition to sun-dried bricks, and in one case, Kuyuli Tepe, i. e., the Well Hill (plate 57, Nos. 9 to 12), a round well of baked brick is built into the wall of the mound. In other lines, also, there was progress. Pottery was decorated with incised designs more frequently than ever ; a new method of ornamentation was developed; and glazed ware was introduced. The glazing, very simple at first, became so far developed that six or eight colors were employed and elaborate designs were produced.
Hand in hand with the art of glazing, or at least not far behind it, came the sister art of glass-making, so that now the people had at their disposal many methods of manufacturing ornamental utensils. Still another followed when the craftsmen learned to put stone upon the turning lathe and produce vessels like those still in use in Persia. Among other things lamps were made of stone. One such was found at East Kishman Tepe, while in other places fragments of brown, slightly glazed pottery lamps were found, like those at Ghiaur Kala, the capital of the oasis. On the whole, the state of culture evidenced by the kurgans of the highly developed class must have been very much higher than that which prevailed when the primitive kurgans were constructed. Yet the transition from the earlier to the later stages is so gradual and so completely exemplified, step by step, that it seems highly probable that the whole series is the work of one people.
STRUCTURE OF THE KURGANS.
In all the kurgans of the primitive type and in most of those of the transition type, the slopes are so gentle and the gullies have been so far widened and graded that the inner structure is not disclosed. In a few of the transition kurgans, and in most of those of the still later type, the steepness of the sides has caused the cutting of sharp gullies that disclose the internal composition. Nowhere does one discover any layers of ashes or of burnt earth, or any bones and charcoal,
IIIF Color HighRes
