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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

CHAPTER XVI.-INTRODUCTION.

The rich material sent to me by Mr. Raphael Pumpelly for examination consisted of a very large quantity of small fragments of bones, the putting together of which was attended with great difficulties. Fortunately the collecting and the preserving of the bones had been conducted with extreme care. It was thus possible both to form a picture of the fauna which lived during the forming of the different culture-strata at Anau in Turkestan, and to complete the reconstruction of some skulls and extremities. The whole collection of bones can be best classified, according to derivation, into those which come : (I) from the North Kurgan; (2) from the South Kurgan; and (3) from the citadel of Anau.

The material from the North Kurgan is by far the most abundant. It is classified according to the system established at first by Messrs. Pumpelly and Hubert Schmidt, viz : Culture I, from 20 feet below the level of the plain to i 5 feet below the same; Culture II, from 15 feet below the plain to 25 feet above the same (-15 to +25 feet) ; Culture III, from +25 to +40 feet, i. e., to the summit of the kurgan. This classification has, in the light of my investigations, shown itself to be justified, although these gentlemen have since abandoned it for archeological reasons, in favor of the more simple subdivision into two cultures, viz : (I) .Eneolithic, — 20 to + 2 5 feet ; (II) Copper Culture, +25 to +40 feet. Notwithstanding this change, I believe that the original classification should be maintained to the extent of dividing culture I as follows : (I a) — 20 to — io feet; (I b) — io to +25 feet.

With this general explanation I shall present a review of the varieties of animals represented among the bones found in the kurgan.

First of all, it is evident that these bones are wholly the remains from meals, this being shown not only by the manner in which they were broken, but also by the numerous traces of teeth and sharp instruments still to be seen on their surface. The bones of which I shall treat in the following pages are the best pieces only. All the indeterminable pieces and those of uncertain determination are wholly omitted. It would be difficult to give a trustworthy and convincing outline of the approximate number of individuals, since the pieces are often too poorly preserved to permit us to see whether or not they belong to one and the same individual. We can, therefore, only estimate them as follows:

Culture I a contains about 15o good pieces of bones, including Equus sp., 20 per cent; Bos sp., 27 per cent; Ovis sp., 22 per cent; Antilope sp., 20 per cent; Canis I sp., II per cent.

Of culture Ib there are about 1,85o good bones. Here the representation of species is as follows: Equus, 28 per cent; Bos, 25 per cent; Ovis, 25 per cent; Sus, 12 per cent; Antilope, 7 per cent; Cervus, i per cent; Vulpes, 2 per cent.

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