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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

494   SKELETONS EXCAVATED IN SOUTH KURGAN.

Skeleton No. 28.—In terrace C, at a level of 20.5 feet, we found the lowest burial of any. The bones were those of an adult, as the closed cranial sutures, worn teeth, and ossified epiphyses to the long bones clearly showed. (See fig. 548.)

The skull was caved in and lying at one end of a neat bundle composed of the other parts of the skeleton. All the long bones had been gathered together as one would bundle sticks. That they had been previously dislocated was proved in that the lower ends in the case of the right leg and the right arm were found nearest the skull. But that the flesh had not been removed seems shown by the fact that the patelle were both in their correct relative positions. It was also clear that the dislocation had been done with some nicety or else that the limbs had been twisted apart, for the ends of the bones showed no scars or evidences of chopping as must surely have been the case had the body been merely hacked into "lengths" at the articulations. The skull had been placed on its base at the eastern end of the bundle.

Looking over these burials brought to light in the South Kurgan at Anau, no such absolute results can be reached as from those of the northern one. Of the io, only 3 are found in connection with the layers of ashes and burnt earth comparatively common in the other. Only two skeletons are accompanied by burial gifts, and no rule at all can be deduced from the orientation of the bodies, as we found them heading to nearly every point of the compass. However, on one point of prime importance the burials seem fairly constant, for we only found one case where the body was definitely arranged in a non-contracted position, and that, it is worth noting, was one of the two adults found in the kurgan. One burial was indeterminable in position, thus leaving 8 out of the io contracted.

If, now, there is any basis of comparison between the civilizations of the two kurgans to justify my treating them together, the burials removed from both give us, in tabular form, the following results:

Contracted on right side   

Contracted on left side   

Indeterminable position   

Not contracted position   

Total    28

Found on hearths    13

Found without hearths    z 5

Total    28

Found with burial gifts    io

Found without burial gifts    i8

Total    28

Adult remains    4

Child remains    24

Total    28

13 5 5 5

One can deduce from these figures that the people with whose culture we have to do buried their infants and young children in or near the dwellings, often over hearths of burnt earth and ashes; that in general the body was placed upon its side with the knees drawn up in a contracted position, and that burial gifts were often placed with the bodies, such as beads of stone or copper, flint knives, and clay spin-whorls. The mere presence of these objects in connection with the burials does not prove belief in a future life, for parental affection and sentiment might go far toward explaining them. But since in all history and in all prehistorical research there are no evidences of a people existing without a religion or cult, we can fairly assume that the burial gifts found in the Anau kurgans throw some light on the beliefs of the inhabitants.