PART I. ANCIENT ANAU AND THE OASIS-WORLD. R. PUMPELLY
CHAPTER I. EVOLUTION OF THE ENVIRONMENT OF CENTRAL-ASIAN CIVILIZATIONS 3
Undrained Central Asia: The beginning of Central Asia 3
A series of great and small landlocked basins containing residuary seas; these seas are gages recording cyclical climatic changes. General trend toward aridity. 5
Influence of Glacial period. Several phases of the Glacial period recorded in the high mountains 6
Undrained Asia contrasted with oceanic basins; river-brought detritus graded anddistributed by wind instead of water; loess 6
Characteristics of loess as an inexhaustible soil; its influence on history of China and of Europe 7
Richthofen's theory of origin of loess confirmed; all loess brought by wind 9
Expeditions of 1903 and 1904 show two sources from which wind derives the dust, viz, 1st, directly from products of deflation and of disintegration; 2d, from alluvions or dry deltas and dry flood-plains 9
The Kurgans and Ruined City of Anau, Sites of Successive Ancient Civilizations 15
They consist of slowly accumulated layers of the debris of occupation (culture-strata); their bottoms stand 20 feet below the surface of the oasis-plain 17
These give determination of relative rates of growth of alluvial sediments and culture-strata, 20-21; and of alternating growth and degradation of the alluvial sediments 21
Deformation of the kurgans by wind and water through long time. Three distinct growths of alluvial strata with two intermediate degradations, since founding of oldest kurgan 21
More knowledge of copper; no tin; more highly developed hand-made pottery and ornament, and lapis lazuli; they bring shepherd's dog, goat, and camel; sheep become hornless. Period ends in time of aridity 43
Overlies Culture III, with 8 feet of intervening debeis of wastage-"mixed layers" Iron age, sickles with rivet-holes; three-edged copper arrow-point 49
This culture founded during climatic reaction from aridity 50
Average of these rates in city of Anau 2.5 feet per century 55
Culture-strata of the kurgans much more compacted and rate cf growth taken at 2 feet per century 55
Results of author's study of rates of growth of village mounds at Egyptian temples show in the six cases studied rates ranging from 1.35 to 1.9 feet, an average of 1.66 feet per century 55
Estimated dating of the different cultures at Anau 57
The two earliest civilizations, I and II, distinguished by complete absence of axes, spearpoints, and arrow-heads 63
This indicates absolute isolation from Europe and Africa since a time earlier than the invention of these implements 63
Therefore Anau Cultures I and II wholly native to the region of inner-continental isolation 63
This isolation must date from one of the stages of the Glacial period 63
The post-glacial progressive trend towards aridity caused segregation of peoples, first into larger groups and later into smaller ones on isolated oases or in high mountain valleys, causing differentiation in evolution of social organization and culture 64
The earliest culture at Anau presupposes a long-continued previous evolution 64
Cultures I and II show inheritance from a still earlier stage common to both, knowing town life and cultivation of wheat and barley 64
People of Culture III (South Kurgan) were related to those of I and II, but they show, in stone arrow-points and objects of foreign cults, influence of cultures from without the sphere of isolation 65
Evidence of a regionally widespread autochthonous culture-evolution 65
The gradual shrinkage of habitable areas and disappearance of herds of wild animals; mankind concentrated on oases necessarily begins the evolution of agriculture 65
Growing need leads to beginning of irrigation, to broader development of agriculture and conquest of arid regions, rendering possible the centralized, imperial civilizations of Elam and Babylonia 66
The fundamental essentials of civilization that were native to the sphere of isolation were agriculture, domestication of animals, use of copper and lead, the arts of spinning and of painting on pottery 66
The intervention of the Glacial period and its reaction on inner-continental conditions were the initial, conditioning factors in the evolution of the intellectual and social life of man 66
Since cultivation of cereals began long before 8000 B. C. (before founding of North Kurgan), and since domestication of animals was accomplished successively between 8000 and 6800 B. C,. that is, after the founding of North Kurgan, it follows
I, that the agricultural stage preceded the nomadic shepherd stage in Asia 67
II, that before domestication of animals, mankind in Central Asia was sharply divided into settled agriculturists on oases, and hunters wandering within a limited range 67
Climatic deterioration caused unrest and migrations of agriculturists, but caused nomadic shepherds merely to expand over the semi-arid regions 67
This expansion of nomads covered all Inner Asia by the III millennium B. C.. 67
Duerst's identification of the second breed of sheep and the domestic pig of Anau I with the domesticated sheep and pig of late neolithic stations in Europe indicates Transcaspia as ultimate source of these domestic animals 67
They appear in Europe contemporaneously with immigrants of round-headed Asiatic (Galcha) type, and with introduction of wheat and barley 68
These early immigrants brought no other oasis industries, except perhaps spinning, nor metals, but adopted European neolithic culture 68
Professor Sergi finds all skulls of first two cultures at Anau to be dolichocephalic or mesocephalic, with total absence of the round-headed element 68
It is, therefore, a fair hypothesis that the chain of transmission of animals and cereals and spinning included round-headed Asiatic nomadic shepherds 69
Extent of the sphere of isolation and of the barriers 70
Organized town life with agriculture and breeding of animals first appears among a long-headed people and apparently originated by these 71
Since the II Culture at Anau was started during the trend toward the arid extreme of the cycle and introduced lapis lazuli and the camel, it is probable that this migration cane from the East; and the presence in Asia Minor of bones of the turbary sheep makes it possible that migrations of the oasis peoples extended as far as the Mediterranean 71
The great migrations were probably checked by the favorable climatic period down to the III millennium B. C. 71
Hypothesis that peoples of the hunting stage received the art of breeding and of planting from the oasis stock during the VI millennium B. C.; that they expanded during the favorable climate of the V and IV millenniums, and that the renewed trend towards aridity in the IV and III millenniums saw the beginnings of the great waves of westward migrations 72
The migrations of the nomadic stocks were chiefly over Eurasian steppes and north of the Black Sea; those of the oasis stock along routes through Mesopotamia and Asia Minor 72
Relation of Anau Cultures I and II to early Babylonia and Susiana 72
Duerst identifies breed of longhorned cattle established at Anau with that brought to Babylonia before time of Sargon of Accad—in IV millennium B. C. or earlier—in the pre-Semitic Sumerian time 72
The Babylonian symbol for the domestic ox ● belongs in the pre-transitional, pictographic form of writing, which was used before the introduction of writing into Babylonia 72
Since agriculture preceded domestication and breeding, it is probable that the origins of these fundamental elements antedated the Chaldean and Babylonian civilizations 72
De Morgan's excavations at various points in Susiana found, in pre-Sargonic strata, no traces of stone arrow or spear-points, but abundance of sickle-flints and of painted pottery 73
Hence also a genetic relationship of the cultures of Anau I and II and pre-Semitic Chaldea 74
Their origin and evolution was within the sphere of isolation that began in the Glacial period 74
Evidence to show that these cultures were evolved east of Mesopotamia and on or near the Iranian tableland 75
The evolution of agriculture on the oases necessarily preceded the controlling of the Euphrates, the accomplishment of which may have been contemporaneous with the earlier stages of the North Kurgan Copper Culture of Anau III 75
Walls and rooms; pivotal door-stones; bake-ovens; fireplaces 88
Skeletons of children buried in "contracted position" and burial gifts; lapis lazuli 89
Early recognition of stratigraphic distinctions in pottery, varieties of gray and red monochrome above (group x) and coarse and fine painted (group y) below 89
Determination of a change from an older to a younger different culture at 25 feet above the plain, the older one characterized by pottery group y, the younger by groups x, z, v 95
North Digging: Culture-strata down to 24.5 feet below level of plain: skeleton in "contracted position" at — 11 feet; painted pottery of group y extends to bottom strata, but in depth associated with a distinct painted variety (group m) 101
Wheel-made pottery of upper culture (group 1) and iron knife 106
Superior hand-made pottery (group 2) in mixed strata below upper culture 108
Below 37 feet 7 inches above level of plain only wheel-made pottery of red, gray and whitish-green varieties (groups 3-5) characterizes the older culture of South Kurgan 108
Results in North Kurgan. Two successive civilizations 121
Upper Culture II, above 25 feet above the plain; houses of air-dried bricks; bottomless "bake-oven" pots; burial of children in contracted position in houses; red and gray monochrome pottery (group x); painted pottery (groups z and v) 121
Lower Culture I, below 25 feet above the plain; house walls observed down to 18 feet below surface of plain (fireplaces down to —28 feet—R. P.) ; walls, pithoi,and skeleton graves at all levels 121
Results in South Kurgan. It also had two great culture-epochs 122
The Younger Culture represented on the top and on low extension; characterized by pottery (groups 1 and 2), by iron implements (knife and sickle), and by younger copper forms (three-edged arrow-point) 122
The Lower Culture III has its top between 38 and 41 feet above the plain. The people of this culture also buried children in a contracted position in their houses 122
Stratigraphic analysis of upper 12 feet of this culture:
The three agencies of erosion and transportation, ice, water, and wind; and the five deposition zones, glacial, alluvial, lacustrian, flying sands, and loess arising therefrom 244
The interlapping of deposition zones effected by climatic oscillations 247
The cyclical development of an ideal desert basin 247
Progress of domestication out of Ovis vignei arkal shown in changes in size, and in character of bone structure 372
Towards end of Anau I a smaller breed established identical with Ovis aries palustris Rütimeyer, the Torfschaf of European neolithic and bronze-age stations. Anatomically compared with the wild ancestor and with domestic sheep of prehistoric Europe 374
The diluvial horse differentiated into three types: Desert type (Equus caballus pumpellii), Steppe type (Equus caballus germanicus seu robustus) and Forest type (Equus caballus nehringi) 399