48 LARGER STONE IMPLEMENTS OF THE KURGANS AT AKTAU.
muller with which they ground their flour. But whether it was a grain, wild or cultivated, that they used, or whether they were acquainted with some tuberous root, there is nothing to show. What, then, brought in the mortar form in the younger kurgan, where it exists side by side with the flat, matate-like stones? Did they find the cup easier for pounding cereals, or did they, perhaps, with the new culture, learn the use of a new vegetable from which they extracted juice? Did the more elaborate pestles of the younger kurgan mean different uses, or a budding artistic sense? Nothing but more extended excavation and better opportunities for studying the great climatic changes could ever tell us.
525 526 527
528
Figs. 525-528.—Stone Implements from the South Kurgan.
SUMMARY OF WORK DONE IN TERRACE II, NORTH KURGAN.
On March 28 I was given charge of terrace ix, which had then been in process of excavation three days and been sunk to a level of +26.5 feet above datum. The digging extended north from the end of terrace I and measured 20 feet on the sides and 9 feet and 7 feet respectively on the south and north ends (see fig. 3i).
At +26.5 feet we came to a layer of fire-hardened earth extending out from the edges of a circular hole_which was filled to the mouth with ashes. This hole
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