National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

490   SKELETONS EXCAVATED IN NORTH KURGAN.

northwest. The right knee lay under the left, but doubled to a slightly sharper angle. The left arm was bent so as to bring the hand in front of the face, while the right lay along parallel with the vertebræ, the fingers underneath the pelvis. From between the lower jaw and the collar-bone, I took 67 small white beads (N.K. 144, plate 4o, fig. 8), like those found with skeleton No. i 1. Along the back and beyond the head, at a right angle to the main axis, were traces of air-dried bricks as in skeleton No. 5, and, as in that case, the whole lay upon a layer of charcoal and ashes.

Skeleton No. I3.—Again, at the same altitude in terrace II I came upon traces of a child 's skeleton in the midst of the caved earth of an animal 's burrow. The cranium and many other parts of the skeleton were entirely lacking. Among the jumbled bones, however, lay 2 small white beads of stone and 3 spirally wound cylinders of lead, possibly beads (N.K. 143, plate 4o, fig. 3). Beneath the body was a layer of fine white ashes, below which the earth was burnt hard and red.

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Fig. 543.—No. 16, East Gallery.   Fig. 544.—No. 17, East Gallery.   Fig. 545.—No. 18, North Digging 1.

Skeleton No. z4.—The next remains in terrace II lay also at -f- 22.5 feet. They were those of a child and lay contracted on the right side with the left knee drawn up slightly higher than the right. The left upper arm lay parallel with the main axis (southeast and northwest) with elbow bent so as to bring that hand on a level with the pelvis. The right arm lay extended under the body and parallel to it. As in nearly every other case, the cranium was crushed by the weight of the earth. (See fig. 542.)

In connection with this burial were taken out three bits of spirally wound tubes of copper and two plain lead tubes and one flint edge. Air-dried bricks were traceable along the main axis before and behind the body, and the whole was on a layer of ashes and charcoal with fire-reddened earth beneath.

Skeleton No. z6.—Skeleton 16 next came to light, far below any human remains we had yet found. It was in the east gallery off from General Komorof 's trench, at a level of 8 feet below datum on the plain. It was that of a young child and